News from the Board of Governors Meeting November 13, 2019
Clean audit
Christine Regimbal, a partner at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, attended the first part of the Board meeting to present the results of her firm’s audit.
RCGT was mandated by Quebec’s Ministry of Education to review the financial statements of Dawson College and the energy costs.
“It was a very clean audit,” Christine said. “No adjustments were proposed. The statements presented to the auditors were the same statements that we present to you. This is a very rare occurrence and it is a testimony to the quality of the financial information provided by the College.”
Earlier Glenys Ronnie, Director of Finance, pointed out some highlights in the financial statements. The year began with a $9.5 million operating surplus and at year-end, there was a $10.5 million operating surplus, she said.
“A change in salary scales for many teachers led to an increase of almost $2 million for salary increases,” Glenys said. “$0.8 million was spent on some additional teacher resources for daytime, Continuing Education and special projects, such as release time for the Plan d’action numérique.”
In 2018-19, the College had the same number of managers as in 2017-18, but two were upgraded to coordinator positions. There are more professionals on staff this year: one in the First-Year Students’ Office, an additional nurse and two Human Resources administration officers. The digitization project continued as did the Sustainability Office leading to more support staff.
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Photography Program Revision
The Photography program is being revised to open up to new ideas about photography, new technology and adding a teamwork element to the once solo career.
Laurel Breidon, the coordinator, came to the board to present the new program.
The program will offer an Alternance travail–études (ATE), a work practicum opportunity over two summers. “This is the first time in the réseau that an ATE is part of a creative program,” she said. “We are hoping that students will bring a lot to class from their work experience.”
There will be more video, including video journalism, and instilling in students how to learn to learn. Students will be exposed to more styles of photography and more time will be given to exploring.
“There will be a new emphasis on video and new training offered in video editing and lighting,” Laurel said. “Everything new will be old in five years or less so there will be a focus on self-directed learning.”
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Annual Reports from Dawson College, REB and CRISPESH
Dawson College Annual Report approved
In accordance with the Colleges Act, every college must submit an annual report to the Minister of its activities for the previous year. Colleges must report on their activities through a template provided by the ministry. This template is meant to standardize the way colleges are proceeding with their annual report.
For Dawson, much of it consists of a status report on how the College is implementing its Strategic Plan for 2016-21.
Research Ethics Board report received
The Dawson College Policy on the Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans requires that the Chair of the Research Ethics Board (REB) submit a report of its annual operations to the Board of Governors.
The REB reviewed 24 applications in the 2018-19 academic year. Seventy-five percent of the applications were new studies. Pedagogical research and learning sciences comprise the majority of research the REB reviews. Other broad fields of research that Dawson’s REB reviews include social psychology, disability related research, oral history, and indigenous research. The lead-time for ethics approval is generally four business days to two months.
Course-based research activities will now require ethics review. The REB will be collaborating with the relevant academic sectors to consult and draft policies and procedures. The REB plans to implement ethics review for course-based research activities as soon as reasonably possible.
CRISPESH report approved
CRISPESH manages the College Centre for Technology Transfer (CCTT) in innovative social practices, through a partnership between Dawson College and Cégep du Vieux Montréal. The mandate of CRISPESH is to contribute to the inclusion of people with disabilities.
On the eve of the 10th anniversary of CRISPESH, Director Roch Ducharme came to present the annual report. With changes in staffing, major priorities included stabilizing the research team and investing in business development.
“The environment is changing and inclusion is now a buzz word,” Roch said. One concern that he stated is that with the shortage of labour, it may be expected that more people with disabilities would be integrated into the labour force. However, that has not been the case.
CRISPESH had a clean audit. It also has a new website thanks to students, mostly hired as research assistants.
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New Copper Roof for E Wing
Any expense over $300,000 must go to the Board for approval. Wai Bong Shum, Director of Plant and Facilities, presented the submissions received from four companies for the construction of a new copper roof for the E Wing.
The project is very costly because the building has heritage status. The roof can be expected to last for 50 years.
The Board approved the awarding of the contract to the lowest conforming submission from Couvertures Montréal-Nord. The project, to be delivered for $1,433,950, will be completed over the summer of 2020.
