The task of developing and monitoring the Faculty’s Academic Plan is one of the primary responsibilities of the Academic Policy & Planning Committee (APPC), a standing committee of LA&PS Faculty Council. Under the committee’s mandate, APPC is to work “in tandem with the Dean and in close consultation with Departments/Schools & Colleges [to] oversee the development of the Faculty Academic Plan, oversee coordination / implementation of the plan, and report to Council on its initiatives”.
Following Senate approval of Building a Better Future: York University Academic Plan, 2020-2025 in June 2020, APPC began developing the first Academic Plan for LA&PS. To this end, APPC hosted a number of virtual consultation sessions during the 2020/21 academic year, including three Town Halls and 21 unit-level visits to LA&PS Schools, Departments, and Colleges. The committee also conducted two online surveys, maintained a dedicated email address for inquiries and suggestions about the Academic Plan, and hosted an eClass site, the “LA&PS Academic Plan Consultation Repository,” where participants could engage in discussion forums and access documents relevant to the planning process. These opportunities, as well as the Town Halls, were made available to all students, staff, and faculty in LA&PS. The unit-level visits were attended by YUFA and CUPE instructors, student representatives, and staff.
The consultation sessions focused on three main themes:
Recognizing historical strengths within the Faculty, as well as areas for further growth.
Identifying opportunities for alignment with Building a Better Future: York University Academic Plan, 2020-2025.
Establishing guiding principles to direct our academic mission over the next five years.
APPC analyzed the data received, identifying common themes that resonated across a number of units. Some of the recurring topics of our collegial consultations included the following:
- enhancing student supports
- building on our capacity for inter-disciplinarity
- supporting internationalization
- addressing the needs of non-traditional students
- maintaining our commitment to social justice
- improving the digital infrastructure
- supporting access initiatives
- improving our physical spaces
- promoting experiential education
Drawing on these common themes, APPC drafted a preliminary set of principles and shared them for feedback with members of Faculty Council in April 2021. The committee also undertook a cover art contest, encouraging LA&PS students to use the common themes gleaned from the unit-level consultations as inspiration for artwork to include on the cover of the Academic Plan. That contest ran concurrently with the drafting work done by APPC.
Because the Academic Plan was developed in consultation with all of the constituent units of LA&PS, the principles contained in these pages represent our collective aspirations for enhancing the strengths of our Faculty and identifying areas for further growth
Cover Contest
Thank you to all LA&PS students who submitted your wonderful designs to our contest to create the cover of the Academic Plan.
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Honourable Mentions:
