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Notes from FIMS Open Graduate Student Meeting

13 June 2016

FIMS Associate Dean Pam McKenzie

New Manager, Graduate Student Services

Brandi Borman – FIMS MLIS Graduate (2002)

  • Did a co-op in a Waterloo public library

  • Also did an independent study and guided research project (with Pam on medical reference questions)

New FIMS Building

  • Scheduled to be completed by late October

  • Relocation is scheduled for December 2016 after fall classes end

  • The new building will have the same feel as the Physics and Astronomy building atrium (same architect)

  • Graduate Student Services will be separate from (but close to) the Dean’s Office

  • The Grad Lounge, GRC, and labs will all be on the third floor

  • Grad Lounge

  • There will be a separate meeting room off of the Grad Lounge for student group meetings (about the size of NCB 266), and there will also be lockers in this room for student groups

  • There will be a cubby for student group fundraisers within the Grad Lounge

  • The GRC will have a maker room

  • There will be a lot more “bumping space” in the hallways of each floor

  • There will be two large general use classrooms that can be booked for other uses, as well as smaller seminar rooms

  • There will be three labs, one of which is very large and can be divided into two rooms

  • There will be printers throughout the building

  • There will be a lot of natural light

  • Faculty offices and thesis-based offices will all be on the fourth floor

  • There might be a terrace off of the GRC (pending budget allowance)

  • The Staging Building will likely be demolished

  • The number of washrooms and stalls are mandated by capacity per square foot

  • There will be no eateries in the new building, but there is a food services area (including a Tim Horton’s) in the Health Sciences Building (right across the parking lot), and there are eateries in Somerville House, which is nearby

  • Parking: the Health Sciences parking lot has been expanded and is rarely full to capacity; there is also the Stadium parking across the street, which is rarely full on weekdays

Program Reviews

IQAP

  • Review happens every seven years, but this is the first time the MLIS/LIS PhD programs will go through this particular process

  • MLIS and LIS PhD scheduled for Fall/Winter 2016-2017

  • June 1: Initial report (volume 1) was submitted to SGPS

  • Over the summer SGPS will provide comments and/or requests for changes

  • Sometime between October and March: a 3-4 member review committee will conduct a 2-day site visit

  • Pam is hoping the site visit will happen between October and December, when we will still be in the current building

  • The committee will include 2 external reviewers, an internal faculty reviewer (an associate dean from another faculty), and, if one is available, a graduate student reviewer from another faculty

  • The committee will likely meet with MLIS and LIS PhD students as well as faculty, Graduate Student Services staff, associate deans, and the dean

  • The external reviewers will write a report, and the dean will have the option to respond

  • The university reviewer will present the program to the appropriate Senate University Program Review committee (SUPR-G)

  • SUPR-G will make a recommendation, which will go to the Senate Committee on Academic Planning and Awards (SCAPA) and finally to Senate

  • The final report will be posted on the university website: http://www.uwo.ca/pvp/vpacademic/iqap/resources/reports.html

ALA Accreditation

  • The MLIS program goes through this process every eight years

  • Much of the work completed for the IQAP report will have to be translated to meet ALA requirements

  • The program conducts a Self Study

  • July 2016-March 2017 the program develops the plan for the Self-Study; ALA Committee on Accreditation (COA) responds, identifies any changes to be made.

  • March 2017-October 2017 (or thereabouts, once COA has approved the plan) the program conducts the Self-Study and submits a draft report to COA. COA responds with any requests for changes.The final report must be submitted at least 6 weeks before the review committee’s site visit

  • The 2-day site visit will take place between January and March 2018

  • The review committee will include five reviewers

  • Pam McKenzie will be the point person for the ALA accreditation process

  • As with IQAP, the review committee submits a report, and the Dean writes a response.

  • June 2018: MLIS Program Head will meet with the Committee on Accreditation (COA); the COA will make an accreditation decision and send a report within 10 days

  • Best case scenario: program will be accredited for another seven years

  • Worst case scenario: conditional accreditation for another three years, with opportunities to meet the ALA requirements for full accreditation

  • The program has been conditionally accredited once (in the 1980s); UBC’s program is conditionally accredited right now

  • One of the ALA’s points of concerns in recent years was developing program-level learning outcomes, which the MLIS program has prepared

  • Pam will be seeking out student involvement during the report-writing process, e.g. through Student Council

  • Information regarding the accreditation process is available on the ALA website http://www.ala.org/accreditedprograms/

Course Planning

  • September: the MLIS Program Committee considers the plan for the next year’s course offerings and decides whether they will request proposals for new course offerings for the following year

  • A priority is offering courses in each Program Content Area in each semester; the plan also considers demand patterns and course evaluations for the previous year’s electives

  • The Program Committee considers new course proposals

  • Associate dean starts discussing teaching plans with full-time faculty for the following year

  • November-January: hiring period for Limited Duties (part-time) faculty for the upcoming summer term (finalized by January or February)

  • The Faculty collective agreement requires that courses be assigned to full-time faculty and standing appointment faculty (longstanding part-time faculty with seniority rights) before courses may be advertised for limited duties faculty

  • February-May: Anticipated openings for limited duties faculty are advertised for the upcoming fall/winter terms

  • June-August: Unanticipated openings advertised for fall/winter terms

  • Anticipated upcoming course offerings are posted on the website: http://www.fims.uwo.ca/programs/graduate_programs/master_of_library_and_information_science/courses.html; note that the list of offerings changes as instructors are confirmed

  • Scheduling of particular courses in a particular term is often dependent on faculty availability

  • Students can have a voice during the September and October MLIS Program Committee meeting(s), where curriculum development for the following year will be discussed

  • Student concerns/suggestions should be directed to the Student Council Academic Liaison (currently Alex Hanam ahanam@uwo.ca) and/or First-Term Representative (currently Joe Maher jmaher2@uwo.ca)

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