By: Alexandra Holyk
Ryerson must submit a report on sexual violence to the Board of Governors (BoG) and Ministry of Colleges and Universities by the end of the year, according to vice-president equity and community Denise O’Neil Green.
Green announced that several amendments have been made to the university’s sexual violence policy—including the university’s new obligation to maintain statistics and report them to the BoG and Ministry of Colleges and Universities.
The report must contain the number of times Ryerson students requested and obtained supports and services for sexual violence-related incidents, information about these accommodations and any initiatives established by the university to promote the awareness of them.
It also asks for the number of incidents and complaints of sexual violence reported by students with supportive information.
“These changes are here to ensure greater transparency and accountability,” Green said.
These amendments come after The Eyeopener reported in March that the provincial government would provide colleges and universities with more funding for on-campus initiatives addressing sexual violence.
The policy was originally implemented in June 2015 and its only amendment prior to this year was made in late 2016.
Here’s what else you missed at the November BoG meeting:
One BoG member’s term comes to an end, while another one begins
After being appointed in 2010 and serving three consecutive three-year terms, president and CEO of Canadian development and marketing corporation, Mohammad Al Zaibak attended his final meeting on Thursday.
Al Zaibak was recognized for his involvement in numerous Canadian organizations and institutions as well as his dedication to student life and leadership at Ryerson over the last nine years.
Iyvan Chandran, a fourth-year computer engineering student and former vice-president education for the Ryerson Students’ Union, attended his first BoG meeting as an official member.
He was elected by students to be part of the BoG negotiations committee and will serve for the remainder of the 2019-20 term.
Ryerson provost and vice-president academic Michael Benarroch leaving for the University of Manitoba
Ryerson announced on Nov. 20 that provost and vice-president academic Michael Benarroch will become the university’s 12th president and vice-chancellor.
Benarroch joined Ryerson as provost and vice-president academic in July 2017. Prior to this, he lived in Winnipeg, M.B. and worked at both the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg.
Benarroch said that he will remain in his current position until June 30, 2020. It is not yet known who will take his place.
PhD student received Ryerson Gold Medal and the Board of Governors Leadership Award
Jenny Liu, a psychology PhD student, received two prestigious awards from the university for her development of a resilience model and ways of measuring resilience within a person.
In partnership with psychology professor Maureen Reed, as well as several other Ryerson faculty and external support, Liu launched a digital application called Multi-System Resilience. Liu said its goal is to evaluate how a person deals with everyday challenges and provides tips to build resiliency.
“We all can improve and maximize our resilience, so how can we get it in the hands of more people?” Liu added.
Updates on how the Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA3) risks Ryerson’s funding
The SMA3 between Ryerson and the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development outlines the university’s performance on a provincial scale and ideas for future improvement in strengths and financial support.
Benarroch said at the September BoG meeting that the university is continuing to work closely with the government to establish a new five-year SMA.
It implements a performance-based system that determines how much funding the university gets from the government on a year-to-year basis, Benarroch said.
Benarroch added that each metric will have a target to reach with a band of tolerance. If the university misses the mark in one of the metrics, some government funding will be withdrawn.
The 10 metrics that will measure Ryerson’s performance includes graduate rate, graduate employment and research funding and capacity. According to Benarroch, all of the metrics are expected to be implemented by 2020-21.
“This is a big change in how we function as a university,” Benarroch said.
The provost and vice-president academic also said that student enrollment will affect corridor funding—financial support in operating grants from the government—for undergraduate and graduate students, saying that it will be “frozen.”
The next BoG meeting is set to take place on Jan. 29, 2020.
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