Academic College Council Update | Academic Newsletter | Seneca Polytechnic

by JoAnn Purcell, Chair of Academic College Council

in the December 2017 issue

As the new chair of Academic College Council, I know we have a lot of work to do this year, primarily in the area of academic policy and procedures. It has been an interesting process to-date to identify what is a policy, what is a procedure, and what does not apply anymore. The Council is comprised of faculty, staff, administrators, and students from across the college, and it is interesting to hear, while sitting in council meetings, what might be done in one area is done in a very different way elsewhere in the college. While this is a natural process of evolution, it does not work well for students, especially for those who access pathways between programs or other colleges or universities.

Some of the key areas for the year ahead are academic honesty, appeals, and transfer credit. Each of these areas is complex in different ways. For example, the area of academic honesty needs to consider current scholarship, international standards, and best practices garnered from other colleges and universities. Academic appeals have different processes across the college, each specific to the subject area or faculty in which it resides, and it is now a matter of gathering that data and making the appeal process standard college-wide. Transfer credit is an ever-evolving area, centrally administered by the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT) since 2011. The job of the council is to ensure our policies and procedures align with theirs. Sub-committees have been struck to address these specific areas in depth and report back to the council. This very large, but important undertaking of reviewing and revising Seneca’s policies and procedures is in the quest of clarity, quality, and standardization.

While this semester has been non-standard with the academic faculty strike, I know we can get back on track with Academic College Council. I look forward to resuming where we left off.

View the December 2017 issue of the Academic Newsletter.