KPU senate makes presidential search committee appointments, revises several programs

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s senate appointed new members to a presidential search advisory committee during a meeting on April 27.

Senate added psychology instructor Farhad Dastur, interior design program chair Paola Gavilanez, and Rachel Chong of the Faculty of Educational Support and Development to the committee.

In the same motion, philosophy instructor Mazen Guirguis was recommended for appointment in the event that one of the three committee members is unable to fulfill their duties or meet the requirements.

As per KPU policy, the committee is made up of the provost and vice-president academic, three board members, three students, two deans, and two regular BC General Employees’ Union staff, among other members.

Bruce Choy was terminated from his position as president in early March for confidential reasons, after starting the job in September last year. Choy was placed on a leave of absence in January, with then-provost Diane Purvey serving as acting president in his absence. On March 25, KPU’s board of governors appointed Purvey as president and vice-chancellor pro tem for up to 12 months. 

Senate also appointed KPU Marketing and Digital Strategy Director Leland Dieno to the search advisory committee for the next chancellor. Kim (Kwuntiltunaat) Baird’s second term as KPU’s chancellor expires in October.

Members of senate approved the draft Graduate Studies General Regulation 4: Academic Progress, effective Sept. 1, which “establishes institution-wide standards on assessing academic progress for future master’s students at KPU,” the meeting’s agenda stated.

“This regulation was designed to support the students’ progress, so that students could be aware of the guidance and requirements in order to progress towards their graduate degree,” Senate Vice-Chair Catherine Schwichtenberg said.

“When students come through, they will have a graduate advisor, either one that’s appointed or comes through the graduate council’s committee. It sets up the standards for academic progress.”

Josephine Chan, special assistant to the provost on policy and academic affairs, added that the draft features a structure for faculties and academic departments to provide early support, identify risks and challenges students may face, and set up parameters and goals to prevent early withdrawal and delays in completing their degree.

Senators also approved a list of new and revised courses, effective this September. The new course is Computer Business Systems (CBSY) 1120: Work Smarter with Artificial Intelligence. Two dozen courses were revised: 13 horticulture, three creative writing, three math, two business, two music, and one biology.

Schwichtenberg said most of the revisions are changes to prerequisite requirements, either removing or updating them.

Senate also passed a motion to implement changes to Faculty of Science programs, effective Sept. 1.

The bachelor of science in biology and bachelor of science in health science were updated, in addition to the two degrees’ corresponding honours programs. The programs went through many changes, Schwichtenberg said, such as aligning course outlines and including entry requirements for the honours programs, among others.

Senate also approved revisions to the minor in music and associated courses for the fall.

“Something had to be done, as there were courses that were advertised as part of the minor, but they weren’t included in the original requirements,” Schwichtenberg said.

The courses were MUSI 1113: Introduction to the Music Industry and MUSI 3512: The Business of Music. Since senate voted to discontinue the bachelor of music in musical arts during a March 2 meeting, the minor program also needed revisions to its prerequisites.  

The minor in economics program was also revised for the fall semester. The update “modernizes” the minor program by dropping its upper-level course requirements to 12 credits from 15, which aims to “support interdisciplinary study, timely graduation, and student retention,” the agenda stated.

Senate also passed a motion to change admission requirements to the diploma in brewing and brewery operations program, effective Sept. 1, 2027.

“When we approved brewing micro-credential courses, we post-discovered that students could do all of the courses without actually being admitted to the program, but the brewing diploma courses needed to meet the math requirement,” Schwichtenberg said.

“That, along with a letter of intent [requirement], was also not really helping students. Brewing looked at it [and] realized that this was obstructionist, so have, with approval from the faculty, removed that.”

Senate revised the diploma in engineering physics, which also goes into effect this fall, to add declaration requirements and adjust math requirements to “remove curricular overlap and make the program more flexible and robust,” the agenda read.

Also for this fall, senate revised the bachelor of science in applications of mathematics and its honours program, featuring updates for clarity and changes to some course offerings. Motions to revise the associate of science in mathematics and minor in mathematics were also passed for similar reasons.

Schwichtenberg will remain senate vice-chair after being acclaimed to the position. Provost and Vice-President Academic Pro Tem David Burns and librarian Melissa Cuthill both nominated her.

The next KPU senate meeting is scheduled for May 31 at 4:00 pm online via Microsoft Teams. For more information, visit www.kpu.ca/senate.