AGENDA ___
PROVOST’S REPORT TO COUNCIL
June 2014
Provost’s Committee on Integrated Planning (PCIP)
PCIP met twice in May. On May 12, PCIP discussed a number of documents prepared for the May 26/27 meeting of the Board of Governors. These included the operating reserve guidelines and investment income allocation, the operating fund year-end projections, the detailed operating budget, the 2015-16 operations forecast and resource allocation process, and the University of Saskatchewan Health
Sciences A and B wing renovations.
On May 28, PCIP discussed the adaptation fund, the annual capital plan and the operations forecast.
PCIP also had an extensive discussion about events relating to TransformUS in the past month and revisited the purposes of the project - to find savings to address the projected deficit, to simplify structures and to reinvest in areas of priority, with the overall focus on the financial sustainability and renewal of the University of Saskatchewan. In the coming weeks, PCIP will be assessing the projects to establish which ones can and should continue, and which require further assessment and consultation.
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Canadian post-secondary landscape: Provincial government operating funding
As an update to information provided in the April report to Council, further information is now available on the post-secondary funding provided by provincial governments across Canada. Based on 2014-15 provincial post-secondary education budget highlights from the provinces where our U15 peers are located, the following operating funding changes will occur:
Province
BC
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Funding change from
2013-14 to 2014-15
-0.9%
5.6%
3.4%
2.6%
Ontario
Quebec
TBD
TBD
Nova Scotia 10.6%
Note: Quebec and Ontario data is not yet available for 2014-15.

per cent increase in the base operating grant in the 2014-15 Government of Saskatchewan provincial budget, whereas 3.4 percent represents the increase to the sector.
Dr. Ken Van Rees Receives 2014 International STLHE and Desire2Learn Innovation Award
Dr. Ken Van Rees has received the 2014 international STLHE and Desire2Learn's Innovation Award in
Teaching and Learning. Dr. Van Rees becomes the third faculty member from the U of S whose innovative teaching has been recognized by this prestigious award. A faculty member of the
Department of Soil Science in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, Dr. Van Rees was nominated for his innovative use of visual art as a teaching tool in his soil science field courses. In particular, Dr. Van
Rees developed a graduate level course called Soil Science 898: Ecosystems and Art, which he originally co-taught with Allyson Glenn from the Department of Art and Art History. Bringing art and science together in this course allows students to, claims Dr. Van Rees, “interpret the landscape from a different perspective.” The STLHE’s announcement claimed “The Desire2Learn award was created to support exactly the type of activities that Professor Van Rees applies in his teaching.”
Division of Science and PotashCorp Kamskénow Program Receives 2014 Global Best Award
PotashCorp Kamskénow is a science outreach program that provides hands-on learning in Saskatoon classrooms based on each of the Division of Science’s disciplines: biology, chemistry, computer science, geological sciences, mathematics and physics. Rather than a one-time visit, the unique program offers students 13 weeks of classroom and lab activities led by graduate and undergraduate student role models.
The International Partnership Network’s Global Best Awards celebrate partnerships between educational institutions, private businesses and other stakeholders. Based on the collaboration between the College of Arts & Science, Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools, Saskatoon Public Schools and title sponsor PotashCorp, the PotashCorp Kamskénow program was chosen as joint winner of the 2014
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Award for the North America region. At the official Global
Best Awards Ceremony in Brussels on September 12, PotashCorp Kamskénow and the other winners from around the world will contend for the Overall Category Winner and Overall Global Winner prizes.
Additional funding for PotashCorp Kamskénow comes from NSERC, the Community Initiatives Fund, the
College of Arts & Science and U of S Community Engagement and Outreach.
The Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness - Activity for the 2013/14 Year
Throughout the 2013/14 fiscal year, the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness supported several new and existing projects across the University of Saskatchewan. Our Curriculum Development and Instructional Design teams provided much support in the form of extensive consultation. Each project tied to the GMCTE has one of our Curriculum Development or Instructional Design specialists assigned to it, who works with the team from the academic unit. Furthermore, the Curriculum

Innovation and Experiential Learning Funds provide monetary support for upcoming and ongoing projects. The projects which had new activity with regard to these two funds in 2013/14 are as follows:
Curriculum Innovation Fund Activity for 2013/14
College & Department
College of Arts & Science - International Studies
Project
Global Studies Certificate
College of Nursing
Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public
Policy (JSGS)
Pharmacy & Nutrition
Distributed Learning using ICT in the College of
Nursing
Graduate Student Support for the Collection of
Data Related to Curriculum Review & Revision
Renewing BSc in Nutrition Year 4 Practicum
(Stage 1)
School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS)
Extending Course "ENVS 898: Water Resources
Management in Cold Regions" to distance-learning students in the North
School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS)
Western College of Veterinary Medicine -
Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences
Growing SENS as a Learning Organization
One Health Graduate Certificate (Interdisciplinary
Certificate of Proficiency)
Western College of Veterinary Medicine -
Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences
One Heath Undergraduate Certificate
(Interdisciplinary Certificate of Proficiency) - Course development, student assistance, speaker series, recruitment, evaluation and web tool development
Western College of Veterinary Medicine - Small
Animal Clinical Sciences & Veterinary
Biomedical Sciences (joint)
WCVM NeuroVet - Technology-Enhanced
Integrated Learning in the Veterinary
Neurosciences
Experiential Learning Fund Activity for 2013/14
College & Department
Arts & Science – English
Arts & Science – English
Arts & Science – History
Project
Ethics Training Materials for Students in
Community Service Learning
INCC 201.3 - Alternative Reading Week
Okanese First Nation History Project (HIST 498.3)

Arts & Science - Humanities & Fine Arts
Community-Based Experiential Learning for
Undergraduate Students
Arts & Science - Interdisciplinarty Centre for
Culture & Creativity (ICCC); Women's & Gender
Studies (WGST)
Arts & Science - Interdisciplinary Centre for
Culture & Creativity (ICCC)
Arts & Science – Philosophy
Education - Curriculum Studies
Edwards School of Business
Engineering - Civil & Geological Engineering
Engineering - Experiential & Applied Learning
Center
Saskatoon/NYC Travel Study Program
"Representation, Embodiment and the City"
Cultural Heritage Mapping Project
Philosophy for Children (P4C) Program
EDUC 410.9 Inquiry Project: International Service
Learning Study Tour to Guatemala
Experiential Learning Support for COMM 357
(Marketing Research)
Online Assignment Delivery Application (TEL-
Funded Project)
3D Visualization Design Student-Directed Learning
Space for "BLE 475: Off-Highway Equipment
Design" Course
In addition to this listed financial activity, there are several projects from the previous year (2012/13) that are still underway and continue to evolve. The GMCTE has been pleased with the progress in all of these projects, as well as the development of other initiatives which we have supported via consultations, workshops, courses, and other offerings. We are excited to continue all of our work in our commitment to improving teaching and learning at the University of Saskatchewan.
Curriculum Renewal: The college’s three Working Groups (foundational and capstone courses; the
Aboriginal college-level program goal; and writing across the curriculum) have concluded their meetings for the term and recently conducted a half-day forum for all Working Group members, to share progress and ideas for next steps and future directions.
Winona Wheeler , head of the Department of Native Studies, has been named president-elect of the
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA).
Associate Dean Kristina Bidwell was recently interviewed about “How the University of Saskatchewan is Leading Aboriginal Education” in the magazine Leaders and Legacies: http://leadersandlegacies.com/2014/05/06/how-university-of-saskatchewan-is-leading-the-way-inaboriginal-education/

The College of Arts & Science's Aboriginal Student Achievement Program (ASAP) was featured in the
May 13, 2014 edition of the Saskatoon Metro.
We welcome the new ASSU Student Council for 2014-15, and we look forward to working with the new team: President: Kehan Fu ; VP Academic: Garrison Zellar ; VP Communications: Helen Tang ; VP
External: Graeme Jobe ; VP Internal: Dan Rajapaksa ; Academic Committee: Firuz Rahimi and Rhianne
Husaluk ; Communications Committee: Brooke Malinoski; Ariel Fitzgerald; External Committee: Andrew
Rowan and Apeksha Heendeniya; Internal Committee: Alicia Holland; Sultan Sadat is Member at Large.
Arts & Science alumnus Michael Byers (BA'88) was announced as the winner of the $50K annual 2014
Donner Prize for the best public policy book by a Canadian for his book International Law and the
Arctic.
Alexis Dahl and Margarita Santos are the winners of the 2014 Dean’s Distinguished Staff Award.
Dean McNeill, director of the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra, and a professor in the Department of Music, will perform with Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra featuring Juno Award-winning composer/pianist/saxophonist Phil Dwyer O.C. and his composition Changing Seasons orchestrated for large jazz ensemble, string orchestra, and solo violin, on June 28.
STUDENT AWARDS
Congratulations to Ph.D. student in Chemistry, Abdalla Karoyo , who was selected as the Recipient of
Excellence in the Sciences by the Graduate Students' Association.
Alyssa Scott, a fourth-year environment & society student at the College of Arts & Science, is the winner of the 2014 Gail Appel Global Citizenship Award.
Adam Pottle , a PhD student in the Department of English, took home a 2014 Saskatchewan Book
Award (SBA) in Regina on April 26. His debut novel Mantis Dreams: The Journal of Dr. Dexter Ripley received the City of Saskatoon and Library Saskatoon Book Award at the 21st annual SBA gala.
Shannon McAvoy has become the second-ever U of S student to receive the prestigious 3M National
Student Fellowship. McAvoy, a third-year Regional and Urban Planning student, is one of ten students across Canada to be awarded a 2014 fellowship, which recognizes outstanding leadership in the academic sphere.
English PhD student Jessica Ratcliffe has won the 2014 Barbara Godard Prize for the best paper by an emerging scholar (English-language section). The prize is awarded to the best English- and Frenchlanguage graduate or postdoctoral student papers presented at the annual conference of the
Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures / l’Association des littératures canadiennes et québécoise.
Congratulations to Ph.D. student Abhinandan Banerjee who was recently awarded the Best Student
Contribution Award at the 23rd Canadian Symposium on Catalysis.
Nicolas J.S. Kinar has won the 2013 – 2014 University of Saskatchewan Graduate Thesis Awards – Ph.
D. (Social Sciences A) for his PhD Thesis "Acoustic Measurement of Snow".
Phillip S. Harder has won the 2013 – 2014 University of Saskatchewan Graduate Thesis Award –

Master’s (Social Sciences) for his M.Sc. Thesis "Precipitation Phase Partitioning with a Psychrometric
Energy Balance: Model Development and Application".
FACULTY AWARDS
At the second annual Graduate Students’ Association Gala, Nazmi Sari (Economics) was awarded the
Advising Excellence Award.
Jim Miller (History) was awarded the 2014 Killam Prize in the Humanities – one of five given annually by the Governor General at a ceremony at Rideau Hall. Widely considered Canada’s leading expert in the field of Native-newcomer relations, Miller was chosen for the award on the basis of his exceptional research career and lifetime of contributions to public service.
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s College Teaching Excellence Awards : Hugo Cota-Sanchez
(Biology), Ann Martin (English), Robert Patrick (Geography & Planning).
This year’s winners for the Provost’s Awards in Outstanding Teaching are: Loleen Berdahl (Division of
Social Sciences), Ann Martin (Division of Humanities & Fine Arts), and Michael Horsch (Division of
Science).
Jan Gelech (Psychology) was the winner of the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student
Teacher.
Rod Johnson and Bert Weichel of the Department of Geography and Planning are the joint winners of the 2014 Sylvia Wallace Sessional Lecturer Award.
Congratulations to College of Arts & Science faculty who were honoured with 2013/14 USSU Teaching
Excellence awards at a gala ceremony on March 30. This year's recipients from the college are: Alec
Aitken (Geography and Planning); Tansley David (Languages & Linguistics); Kathryn Labelle (History);
Dean McNeill (Music); Carla Orosz ( Drama)
Ian Burgess (Chemistry) and Carl Gutwin (Computer Science) are the recipients of the Division of
Science's inaugural researcher awards. The Distinguished Researcher Award and the New Researcher
Award recognize faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to their disciplines. The
New Researcher Award is presented to a faculty member in the Division of Science who received his or her Ph.D. less than 10 years ago.
RESEARCH
Several college research teams received awards from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R.
Evans Leaders Fund for projects: Geoff Cunfer (history) for the expansion and renewal of the Historical
Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) Laboratory; Natacha Hogan (toxicology) for new equipment to study how contaminants affect the immune systems of some at-risk amphibian species; Ron Steer
(chemistry), Matthew Paige (chemistry) and Li Chen (engineering) for technology to produce efficient, low-cost solar cells from environmentally friendly organic materials, and measuring errors in electronic circuits; Ajay Dalai (chemical engineering), Hui Wang (chemical engineering), and Robert Scott
(chemistry) to support the establishment of state-of-the-art catalysis research facilities both in the
College of Engineering and at the Canadian Light Source on campus; Glenn Hussey, Kathryn McWilliams

and Jean-Pierre St.-Maurice (Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies) to design, construct and deploy a new advanced imaging radar which uses the latest digital radar techniques to make more detailed observations of the lower portion of the ionosphere; Christy Morrissey (biology), John Giesy
(toxicology) and Karen Machin (veterinary biomedical sciences) to build a multi-purpose housing and integrative bird research facility; Ian Stavness (computer science) for a proposed new facility that will bring together biomedical computation, biomechanics, and computer graphics; Qiaoqin Yang
(mechanical Engineering), Akira Hirose (physics), and Wenjun Zhang ( mechanical engineering) to build a new multi-functional vapor deposition system for developing novel nanostructured coatings for a variety of applications in industry. Congratulations to the EEG Hyperscanning Laboratory (EHL) for the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience of Inter-Brain Cognition proposal submitted by Janeen Loehr (psychology).
This CFI award from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund provides $177,721 to build and equip the EHL; an integral component of the expanding Social Sciences Research Laboratories.
Chijin Xiao (physics and engineering physics), and collaborator Akira Hirose will receive $347,000 from
NSERC Strategic Projects grants for work on nuclear fusion.
The research highlights for the month of June are reported in the attachment by the office of the vicepresident, research.