September 18th, 2018

Student Alumni Advisory Committee

MEETING MINUTES

Present: Trevor Smith, Laura Mele, Simran Bassi, Andrew Letchuk, Marsha Ryan, Kim Collins

Regrets: Carling Barry-Spicer, Carolyn Lee-Jones, Pauline Mwangi, Hazel Williams

Updates

Recap of summer institute events

We held two events during the summer institute.
We only held two because students had said in previous years that too much was happening on top of their classes
The first week we held a pub night on Thursday. No one attended that event.
The second week we had a communal potluck breakfast. Lots of students attended and had breakfast.
As the SAAC didn’t have any funds, Kathryn offered to pay for the breakfast out of the School’s petty cash.

Student engagement funding update

Last year the Dean office gave 28 thousand dollars to each school for student engagement.
We are the only school in the faculty that actually hires a person to do engagement and a number of the schools didn’t spend their money.
We spent every penny and then some!
Before the summer institute I submitted a proposal for SE for the 2018-2019 year and there was some concern that schools won’t receive any funding.
Ultimately we received enough money to cover my salary at 2 days a week for the upcoming year.
There are also separate pots of money for activities that we can apply for.
There is one pot of $50,000 for spring/summer student engagement activities for schools. Schools who want to utilize these funds will submit a second short proposal in early spring and we will allocate the funds as needed. We need to keep that in mind before the summer as that may pay my salary and fund events if we choose to host them.
There is also $40,000 for student engagement activities funded by the dean’s office. This pot will be split into two categories. $20,000 will support students for things like international placements, conference travel, etc. Last year we were able to support two students to attend conferences and hopefully we can increase this during this year.
Another $20,000 will be funds be loosely used for student engagement.
So while we didn’t get the same pot of cash that we had last year we do have money that we can apply for this year.

New Business

Why Take Disability Studies at Ryerson video promo and recruitment material

So as we have pots of money that we can apply for and there is a suggestion that we should re-submit our proposal to produce a video about disability studies to be used on our website and for student recruitment.
For those of you who are new to the committee for the past 5 years the committee has wanted to produce a video to tell prospective students about the program this would also be paired with written material that we could send out to colleges and employers
The idea was approved and Kim will rework the proposal to get it ready for submission

Student Letter Writing Campaign proposal – 100 days, 100 letters

To document the silenced voices and needs of disabled and marginalized voices during the conservatives government the School will support a letter writing campaign.
Kim will write proposal to support ASL and access needs for the event.

Larissa Allen Employee Award

Last year we nominated Paris for the Larissa Allen Employee Award.
Paris works so hard to support students, staff and faculty and deserves to be formally recognized for all her hard work
Unfortunately she did not win last year
Kim will work with the members of the Deans office and re-submit the nomination

Sue William Excellence in Teaching Award

Last year we also nominated Chelsea Jones for the Sue Williams Excellence in Teaching Award.
For those of you who haven’t met Chelsea yet, she is an extraordinary instructor who has been with the school for a number of years
Kim will re-work and re-submit her nomination

Alan Shepard EDI award

Last year Kim was nominated for the Alan Shepard EDI award. It was a privilege to be nominated and sadly she was not selected.
Kim will rework and resubmit.

Changes to SAAC structure

There are proposed some changes to how the SAAC functions.
Last year SAAC developed roles for members, there was a vice chair and members at large.
Those roles didn’t seem to work particularly well.
All members will be listed as members at large

Disability Pride March and banner

New Director Search

Kathryn Church will be going on Sabbatical next year and so the school will be looking for a new director.
Esther as a tenured faculty can apply but Eliza who does not yet have tenure cannot apply
Also, others from across the university and outside can apply for the position
There may be a possibility of having a student sit on the search committee and Kim will keep everyone posted about the opportunity
The committee may also want to think about how we would like to acknowledge Kathryn’s work as the director over the past several years.
Suggestions were made to have a series of vignettes in video form, to create a SAAC award and to present it to Kathryn at the Summer Institute.

Approaching employers for the PPR — training in disability Studies

The School needs to approach employers for the PPR
The committee suggested; community living, Kathryn sending out a request to alumni, approaching banks

Any other new business

Vision Passion Action