REPORT TO THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS SUBJECT SHAPING UBCS NEXT CENTURY - - PDF document

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REPORT TO THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS SUBJECT SHAPING UBC’S NEXT CENTURY IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS UPDATE FACULTY OF ARTS MEETING DATE FEBRUARY 14, 2020 APPROVED FOR SUBMISSION Forwarded on the Recommendation of the President Santa J. Ono, President and Vice-Chancellor FOR INFORMATION Report Date January 20, 2020 Presented By Andrew Szeri, Provost and Vice-President Academic, UBC Vancouver Gage Averill, Dean and Professor, Faculty of Arts Brian Lee, Assistant Dean, Finance, Faculty of Arts EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Faculty of Arts, part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences before the separation from Science in 1964, is one of UBC’s founding Faculties and has long been its largest and most diverse Faculty. We are dedicated to making the Faculty of Arts the top Arts faculty in Canada and a top-20 Arts Faculty in the world over the next 10 years. We recognize our responsibility to our students and the people of British Columbia to provide high- quality, high-impact, and accessible education as well as leading-edge research, knowledge mobilization, public scholarship, and opportunities for lifelong learning. As the leading Arts faculty in Western Canada, our global reach, intercultural expertise, and international connections bring innumerable economic, cultural, and social advantages to the province, including the training of subsequent generations to engage globally and contribute to a diverse and sustainable

• environment. An Arts degree remains the best passport to career flexibility and is a powerful tool in the

life-readiness of our students. This overview introduces the Faculty’s breadth and diversity, its structure, and its recent growth (2010- 2020), including the investments made from that growth. We highlight a few recent initiatives of the Faculty and share our current SWOT analysis. This presentation is drawn from and responds to our strategic plan (2019-2024) Shaping Arts’ Next Century, available at strategicplan.cms.arts.ubc.ca

FACULTY OF ARTS

Board of Governors, February 14, 2020

G AG E AVERI L L , DEAN BRI AN L EE, ASSI ST ANT DEAN, F I NANCE

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THE FACULTY OF ARTS:

UPDATE FOR THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS

• Introduction to the Faculty of Arts: Units, Rankings, Facilities, Leadership
• The 10-year arc of growth: student enrolment growth; budgetary growth; faculty

and staff growth; carry-forwards, and the use of the reserves

• Highlights
• School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
• UBC Migration Cluster
• Public Humanities Hub
• The New Arts Narrative for Arts undergraduate education
• Indigenous engagement
• SWOT Analysis

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UNITS THE FACULTY OF ARTS

• Institute of Critical

Indigenous Studies

• Institute of Race,

Gender & Social Justice

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PROPORTIONAL SIZE OF UNITS AND PROGRAMS IN THE FACULTY OF ARTS*

*By total enrollments in courses

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THE FACULTY OF ARTS:

BY THE NUMBERS

Students, Faculty, Staff and Philanthropy

• 16,222 undergraduates (5,324 international for 32.8%); 1,858 graduates
• 528 Arts Co-op Placements, largest for an Arts Faculty in Canada
• Nearly 600 tenure stream faculty (over 1,000 faculty overall); 603 staff
• $19.3M in philanthropy in 2018-19 ($120 M in the last campaign), most improved

Research

• $30M est. in research funding
• 29 Canada Research Chairs; 75 Royal Society of Canada Fellows; 8 Guggenheim Fellows;

15 Members of the Order of Canada

• 70% success rate in the last SSHRC Insight Grant round

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THE FACULTY OF ARTS:

RANKINGS

• Most departments rank in the top 2 in Canada and many rank in the global top 20.
• School of Information #1 globally (QS World University Rankings), #1 in Canada).
• Department of Geography #4 (QS, #1 in Canada)
• Department of Psychology (10 in one ranking, 16 in QS, typically #1 in Canada)
• Economics (and Business) 24 (THES, #1 in Canada)
• Others in the top 50: English 23, History 24, Linguistics 26, Anthropology 29, Religious

Studies 31, Sociology 32, Politics and International Studies 43

• Unranked but consensually in the top 5-12 globally: Asian Studies
• Unranked, but unarguably first in Canada: Creative Writing
• General divisional rankings: Arts & Humanities 25; Social Sciences and Management 29

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FACILITIES FULLY OR PARTIALLY OCCUPIED BY ARTS

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EXECUTIVE TEAM

* Start May 1, 2020

A decade of growth

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ARTS UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ENROLMENTS

2010-2020

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FACULTY OF ARTS, OPERATING FUND (FY 2019/20) TOTAL: $190M

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CUMULATIVE NET-NEW FACULTY POSITIONS, 2010-2020 (FTE)

Stream 2010-20 2020-21 Total Research 88.5 9 97.5* Lecturer 61.5 3 64.5 ELS 40 2 42 Total 190 14 204

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INVESTMENTS IN STAFFING

HR and Finance Service Centres, goals

• Prepare in advance to transition to the IRP/Workday environment
• Remove the burden of downloaded tasks to departments
• Increase professionalism, expertise, efficiency, provide better service to units
• Growth of +9 in HR, +17 Finance, the result of a commissioned KPMG study

Academic Advising

• Move from a transactional to a developmental model for advising
• Smooth transition to departmental advising through consulting services
• Move to a ‘best-practices’ ratio of students-to-advisers, +14.5 positions
• The result of 2 years of planning, facilitated by KPMG

Research, Work-integrated Learning, tenure and hiring

• Multiple positions to help with grantwriting, award nominations, Co-op, etc.

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GROWTH OF RESERVES Year End Surpluses, 2015-2020 ($ M)

Origin of the accumulation of surplus: 1) the years 2014-2017 in which we lacked Clarity on future budgetary circumstances and held back on faculty growth, 2) my leave year, and 3) in the growth of local/departmental surpluses.

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USE OF ARTS’ RESERVE

• As of FY 2019/20, Faculty’s projected cumulative reserve is $43.4 M
• Recent facilities investments
• $6 M Kenny 6th Floor renovations
• $10 M Iona Building mortgage buy-out
• $2.5 M Buchanan Tower renovation (19 M Central Investment)
• The current reserve is principally earmarked for:
• $2.2 M School of Biomedical Engineering (lab space)
• $6 M Arts’ space within the Brock Commons Building
• $3 M Arts’ contribution to the Arts Student Centre Building
• $20 M Armoury Commons North Building
• $7 M Other facilities (Music Rehearsal Hall, distributed upgrades)

Selected highlights

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HIGHLIGHT #1: UBC SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS

An interdisciplinary hub for innovation and learning, equipping future policy makers with a deep understanding of policy-making processes and the interconnectedness of global networks to address complex public policy challenges and drive meaningful change both locally and globally. Principle activities:

• Core program: 20-month, professional Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs (MPPGA)
• Appointment of Allison Macfarlane, former Chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Agency, director
• Recent CRC Tier 2 in Global Policy with a partner connected to L&FS in global politics of food

security; searching for a CRC Tier 2 in Global Public Health with SPPH

• Opening up an Indigenous concentration, appointment of Prof. Sheryl Lightfoot to SPPGA
• Innovative training: Policy Studio, International Global Policy Projects
• Institute for Future Legislators, plans for “Democracy House”
• Cross-campus connections and practitioners-in-residence

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HIGHLIGHT #2: UBC MIGRATION

UBC Migration research seeks to understand the causes, consequences, and experiences of global human mobility. Principle activities:

• Network of 50 UBC faculty, over 40 graduate students and 11 community partners
• Funding as an “emerging cluster” and now and “established cluster”, will become a Centre in Arts
• Currently searching for a President’s Excellence Chair in Global Migration
• Public Research Talks Series
• Grants for interdisciplinary collaborations and travel to present at conferences
• Working with AMSSA (The Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC) to establish

a Research Advisory Council to facilitate community-university collaboration

• Migration Research Methods Summer School, Graduate Student Conference, Professional Dev.

Workshops with plans to establish a Migration Studies graduate certificate.

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HIGHLIGHT #3: PUBLIC HUMANITIES HUB A 3-year pilot project with support from the VPRI to foster and support collaborative research and to highlight and develop public-facing research among Humanities scholars in Arts, Law, and Education (with UBC-O). Principle activities:

• Visiting speaker events and media training workshops
• Course release fellowships, research cluster funding, book subventions
• Increased UBC support for Digital Humanities (DH) research
• Established 3 Community Partnerships: VAG, VIFF, and Roedde House Museum
• University partnerships: U Washington Simpson Center, U Exeter Digital Humanities Lab,

and UVIC Humanities Computing and Media Centre

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HIGHLIGHT #4: NEW ARTS NARRATIVE (“POWERED BY ARTS”)

Feedback loop

Career counseling and Developmental Advising

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HIGHLIGHT #5: FIRST NATIONS AND INDIGENOUS ENGAGEMENT To achieve pre-eminence in First Nations and Indigenous research, curriculum, faculty and student recruitment, engagement and public programming. We’re striving to achieve goals of UNDRIP, the Report of the TRC, and the University’s Indigenous Strategic Plan. Principle activities:

• Dechinta University and innovative land-based education courses
• Musqueam 101, MOA’s Indigeous Youth Program, Humanities 101, LOA
• Musqueam Language Program, and the First Nations and Endangered Languages program
• Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies
• indigenous hires in 21 departments , emerging focus in SPPGA on indigenous policy
• Best track record for indigenous student enrolment growth in the University
• Certificate in Arts pathway for indigenous students, Langara partnership launched by Arts

SWOT Analysis

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SWOT: STRENGTHS

• Robust domestic and international recruitment
• Indigenous faculty and student recruitment, curriculum, programs, support
• Renowned arts facilities: MOA, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (3 venues), Belkin

Gallery, Freddy Wood Theatre, Somerset Theatre

• Highest Arts research intensity in Canada (70% success rate in last SSHRC Insight round)
• Impact through public scholarship: UBC leadership in media hits and research coverage
• VSE (Economics): BIE program, faculty growth, CERC, new home in the Iona Building,

Centre for Big Data Economics,

• New professional degrees: BMS, BIE, MPPGA, 1st-entry BFA, MDS: Comp. Linguistics
• Success in the Vancouver Summer Program and Future Global Leaders

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SWOT: WEAKNESSES

• Reliance on dated and fragile UBC IT systems
• Historically outdated/residual model of departmental administration with jack-
• f-all trades administrators
• Insufficient staff support (leanest at UBC)
• Declining facilities, deferred maintenance issues, no newly-built offices space

since 1960s

• Insufficient diversity in international students. Size of international student body

creates challenges that we haven’t fully met

• Insufficient funding for top graduate student offers (especially in Economics)

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SWOT: OPPORTUNITIES

(THOSE NOT COVERED ON HIGHLIGHT SLIDES)

• Scholarly communications/writing across UBC-V (School of Journalism, Writing & Media)
• Proposed programs: Neuroscience, The Study of Religion; Middle Eastern Studies,

Jewish Studies, Blockchain Certificate, and many others

• Increased research grant support, award nominations, and support for research centres
• Investments in infrastructure, which along with the Mobile-Eco Faculty Program and
• ffice audits, will create new space
• Vantage exit, or partial exit, will present us with more control over international admits
• Creation of a unit to house our interdisciplinary programs
• New Arts Degree Requirements

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SWOT: THREATS

• Retention and recruitment of post-tenure faculty, especially indigenous and racialized
• faculty. We are heavily dependent on housing/daycare, competitive salary bids
• Seismic vulnerability
• Severe space shortage
• Reliance on international students (31%) = 65% of tuition revenue, if global flows are

interrupted

• The anticipated demographic “dip”
• Uncertainty around future collective agreements and continuity of Provincial support
• Increasing strains on student mental health

Q& Q&