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Residence and parking rates increase Campus Affairs approved the motion to raise residence, food and parking rates effective fall of 2018 FATIMA WASIF ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR The Campus Affairs Committee approved an increase in residence and food rates on campus for the 20182019 ancillary budget as well as reviewed plans for an online tool for the Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Centre. Susan Senese, UTM’s interim chief administrative officer, stated that the residence rates are expected to change because of general feedback from students. In place of an increase across all residences, newer rates have been designed to reflect the value of offered accommodations. This proposal has resulted in overall residence rates increasing 3.5-to-4 per cent, but Oscar Peterson Hall increasing by 9 per cent, while McGrath Valley decreases by 1.7 per cent. According to the assessor’s report the new values were determined by, “a market and demand analysis was completed during the during Student Housing Master Plan consultations which evaluated the value of residence style. In 2018-19, the residence rate structure will change to reflect
YASMEEN ALKOKA/THE MEDIUM
The residence rate for Oscar Peterson Hall will increase by 9 per cent. this value.” According to Senese, the new budgeting plans were proposed based on consultations with multiple advisory groups. The groups are formed by students, staff, and faculty members,
some of which include the residence housing and dining committee, as well as the transportation and parking committee. According to the meeting’s agenda, “Residence is entering a period of ma-
jor maintenance and capital renewal of its residence. Hospitality struggles to maintain conference groups due to the changing availability of meeting room and accommodation space; and continues to plan for large in-
vestments in food outlets to service the UTM population, including the renovation of the Davis Food Court. Parking continues to make payments toward the loan received from UTM for the parking deck.” Approximately 100 beds were taken out of service to accommodate displaced office space for faculty during the construction of the North Building Phase 2. With the completion of the building projected to be completed by August 2018, the 100 beds in Erindale Hall will be placed back in use, whereas Putnam Place will become unavailable due to phased renovations. Senese also stated that food prices will go up by about three per cent, which would be reflected with increases across Canada. This increase is also a reflection of the increase in minimum wage across Ontario. Hospitality will also fund around two million dollars for planned food court renovations. Other increases include a three per cent hike in parking permit prices, with the pay and display maximum increasing to $15. Fees continued on page 2
Academic Affairs approves curriculum changes The humanities, social sciences, and the sciences will see new courses and internship opportunities SHARMEEN ABEDI STAFF WRITER WITH NOTES FROM ALICIA BOATTO NEWS EDITOR Curriculum changes for the humanities, social science, and science departments were approved during the Academic Affairs Committee meeting last Monday. The committee also discussed future plans for increasing experiential learning opportunities for UTM students. A total of 76 new half-courses and two new full-courses were added. Some minor changes passed at the meeting involve prerequisite changes in philosophy, as the new requirements will now include PHL101H5 and PHL102H5 as options. Other changes involve course name and course description changes. The humanities department will also continue hiring new faculty to lower the student to faculty ratio. According to the item’s proposal, “The new courses being proposed reflect two aspects of UTM teach-
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The curriculum changes come as part of UTM’s plan to revitalize. ing: first, the generally heightened level of attention to course offerings as a result of curriculum mapping initiatives being undertaken in all UTM units; and second, the contin-
ued hiring of new faculty members to improve student-faculty ratios and fill current gaps in teaching expertise.” Changes to the sciences depart-
ment consisted of 46 minor program changes, 23 new half-courses, and one full-year course. There were changes in course descriptions and prerequisites, and in admission
requirement changes. Additionally, new internship opportunities have been added, including the introduction of seven new courses , which will be offered on a rotating basis. “Among the notable changes are new program admission requirements to streamline admissions across all departmental programs, the introduction of experiential learning opportunities (new internship course), and an early computational training course (Introduction to Scientific Computing),” the curriculum report reads. Proposals for curriculum changes also included calls a potential inter-disciplinary program from the Health Science field from Biology in addition to a new stream in the Medicinal Chemistry program from CPS. Changes to the social science curriculum affected 21 programs. Changes were made in economics in order to simplify the requirements. Changes continued on page 2