Any student trying to select their courses knows that it’s no easy task. People often seek out resources or reviews of potential classes, using advice from older students or online reviews to help them make their choices.

But as it turns out, students should have had access to an even larger amount of course information all along.

A McMaster University policy put in place in May 1997 stipulated that the course evaluations from each faculty should be made public—both for students and for faculty members, with the intention of “providing students with information that may help them choose their courses.”

And yet, 16 years after the policy was put in place, students don’t seem to have access to these evaluations.

Martin Dooley, a professor of Economics and Chair of the Joint Committee of the McMaster University Faculty Association and the University Administration explained that the policy hasn’t been followed for years.

“We have a whole policy that’s been broken down in many, many ways,” he said.

Dooley, as Chair of the committee, brought the years-old policy to the attention of university administrators and faculty after discovering of his own accord that it wasn’t being followed.

“I called the library to see about [the availability of a paper copy] on my own initiative,” he explained. “They told me they hadn’t kept this for at least five years, so clearly something was wrong.”

The original version of the policy required that results of from each course evaluation, as well as the course statistics, be available to students in print through the University Library and the MSU, as well as online.

Though the goal would be to have results of evaluations public, the system currently operates through an opt-in policy, in which each professor must give their approval before details are released. The responsibility for this is put on each Department Chair.

Dooley explained that although he had filled out the form indicating his consent, the evaluations of his classes were not available.

He was inspired to take a revised version of the policy to the attention of the Joint Committee, and then to the Senate, where it will be discussed in the coming weeks.

The provincial government announced a new tuition framework last Thursday that allows Ontario universities to increase tuition fees by an average of 3 per cent starting this year.

Though the number is down from the previous framework’s 5 per cent allowance, groups including OUSA, CFS-Ontario and the MSU aren’t satisfied with any increases above inflation.

“It is disappointing that the provincial government has not tied tuition to a more fundamentally fair rate of inflation,” said Huzaifa Saeed, VP (education) of the MSU in a release.

“However, I respect the fact that the old framework was not continued, despite pressure from academic institutions to do just that.”

The new tuition framework will be in place for four years, and the 3 per cent limit on tuition increases applies to most full-time arts and science and college programs. The increase is above Ontario’s average rate of inflation, which is 2 per cent over 10 years.

Tuition for professional and graduate university programs and high-demand college programs are allowed to increase by up to 5 per cent, down from 8 per cent.

According to Saeed, the MSU will now divert its efforts to lobbying for more government investment in the financial aid system. Specifically, the MSU will advocate for eligibility expansion for the 30 off tuition grant and a lower debt cap on the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant.

In a statement responding to the Province’s announcement, OUSA says the new framework “makes progress” toward a more affordable system but has not adopted key recommendations made by students.

OUSA recommended last fall that the government freeze tuition for at least a year and increase per-student funding at the rate of inflation.

CFS-Ontario recommended this past February that tuition fees be reduced by 30 per cent over the next three years.

It’s not always easy to decide what courses to take. Every year, after flipping through the course calendar or asking friends, students battle with SOLAR to choose their courses.

But with a recent website development, the MSU hopes to make the process easier.

Current MSU VP (Education) Huzaifa Saeed has spearheaded the creation of the MSU Course Wikipedia, an online database of course information. The website, which is currently a beta version, is based on a site established by the Western University Science Students’ Council.

“It was something I noticed last year,” explained Saeed. “When it comes to actually choosing a course, the only information available is the course outline, which often doesn’t go up until August. The other source students have is MacInsiders, which has course reviews…but if something is designed with ratings in mind that might not be the best thing for you to get information from.”

The MSU-run website, which was programmed by McMaster computer science student Abdul Rahman Khodr, is able to be edited by the general public.

The pages are meant to give a more comprehensive look at each course, including a breakdown of content and assessment methodologies. Saeed explained that this was key, since according to surveys administered over the course of the year, students care a lot about how they were assessed.

Each page will also have space for comments, so as to allow for course reviews or extra information.

While Saeed is in the final weeks of his term, he hopes to see good progress on the project before then, with the goal of having at least 10 or 15 courses posted as models for students to work from.

And he thinks his successor will also be keen to promote it. He noted that both candidates for the position have shown awareness of and interest in the project.

“Since the MSU doesn’t really have a traditional role in on-the-ground academics, they’ll take it upon themselves to really run a grassroots campaign,” he said.

The plan is also to have individual faculties take charge of posting their own courses through the faculty societies and their VPs Academic, giving the VPs “the option to do more policy [work] and direct academics.”

The website is set to be officially launched this week, and the goal is to have the website be fully functional by September 2013.

The MSU is bringing back the #WheresTheWifi hashtag after partnering with UTS on a $100,000 Wi-Fi pilot project on campus.

New surveys on the MSU’s website and Facebook page were released Monday to gather feedback on which areas of campus are most in need of Wi-Fi.

Huzaifa Saeed, VP (Education), who sits on the Wi-Fi working group and is spearheading this year’s pilot project, says it’s an important step towards a larger-scale initiative.

The Wi-Fi working group consists of UTS, CLL, Library, Facility Services and the Registrar.

“I will be reporting to UTS later this week, and we will work out where we can spend the money,” said Saeed.

“I think it’s important for students to contribute, especially since Wi-Fi was such a big issue in the last [MSU] election,” he said.

In less than 24 hours, over 600 votes were casted on the MSU’s channels. So far, the Burke Science Building and Student Centre seem to be where most students have identified the greatest need for Wi-Fi.

The survey on the MSU’s website differs from the one on Facebook, providing a longer list of choices and asking for student satisfaction with Wi-Fi on campus.

Mukhtar Galan, current SRA representative (Engineering), ran with the slogan ‘Where’s the Wi-Fi?’ in his presidential campaign this past January.

Galan said he is very supportive of the pilot project and student poll.

“There are a lot of empty tables and study spaces on campus that can’t be used because there’s no Internet connection,” he said. “We have good space, we just need to optimize it.”

“I was surprised to hear from so many first-years last year that they couldn’t connect to Wi-Fi in some common rooms,” said Galan. “I think that’s a problem.”

However, the cost to expand Wi-Fi in residences is closer to $500,000, says Saeed, so it wouldn’t be feasible as part of the pilot project.

“After the project, [the MSU] will be submitting a multi-million dollar proposal to the University for Wi-Fi upgrades on campus,” Saeed said.

UTS’s website states that areas eligible for University funding are public gathering areas for students where there is seating or workspace. This includes lobbies, libraries and lounges.

‘Out of scope’ areas for Wi-Fi funding by UTS are classrooms, administrative areas, and faculty and staff offices. Wi-Fi improvements for these areas can be secured through departmental or project funding if available.

Discussions to improve Wi-Fi on campus, in addition to other technological services on campus, have been ongoing for years.

Last year, MSU President Matthew Dillon-Leitch and executives worked to get UnivMail undergraduate e-mail accounts migrated to Google.

The University’s ERP (enterprise resource planning) project was also announced last year. The purpose of the five-year project is to modernize and streamline McMaster’s outdated business processes.

The initiative entered the ‘fit-gap’ stage earlier this month. During this stage, members of the implementation team will examine how the selected PeopleSoft software fits McMaster’s business process needs, and where there are gaps.

 

 

 

 

 

By Jodie Scoular

McMaster is part of an agreement between seven Ontario universities to launch a new credit transfer initiative.  McMaster students taking first-year classes will now be able to take arts and science courses from participating universities in their hometowns that will contribute towards a bachelor’s degree.

The new credit transfer consortium will come together to create one master list of 20 first-year courses that will make transferring a simpler process.

Previously, it was difficult to tell if other schools would accept credits from other institutions without being subjected to a long, drawn-out affair.  Now, some universities are looking to create a database of widely accepted courses that students can take to get rid of the guessing game.

Sevan Taghelian, a third-year social science student at Mac, commutes to school each day all the way from St. Catharines.  She says that an initiative like this has the potential to help students in her type of situation, and that distance prevents her from taking summer courses at Mac.

“It would cut down commuting time, which is less stressful because that’s less of my time and money wasted on travel,” she said. “Distance is one of the reasons I hold back from summer school because it’s too far and not worth the commute for one class a day.”

At this point, the initiative will only benefit people taking first year courses; the rationale being that these courses cover general subjects that are not specific to one institution.

Ryan Kinnon, executive director of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Association, and the MSU’s Huzaifa Saeed pointed out that the new system will not benefit students who don’t live in the vicinity of Ontario’s ‘leading’ universities.

“Northern and rural students will not benefit from this because all these universities are central. So you can’t really say that we are improving mobility for them,” said Saeed.

Peter Smith, McMaster’s associate vice president (academic), says that eventually the university hopes to include upper-year classes and expand into programs other than arts and science.

Upper-year classes will take more work to convert into universally accepted credits because each institution has their own tailored curriculum.

Ultimately, the new credit transfer system provides a boost to McMaster’s “letter of permission” program, which already has many of the benefits the new system offers.   The letter of permission allows all students to take courses from other universities, perhaps in their hometowns, including online classes.  A consultation with an academic advisor is necessary to find out which credits are transferrable.

A more streamlined credit transfer plan may benefit summer students and those taking courses through correspondence.

Currently, McMaster does not offer online courses or courses in “distance format” of any kind for undergraduate degrees, so this type of credit-transfer program could be beneficial for students who wish to take online courses offered at other universities.

School officials say that meetings to determine the finer points of the plan for this program have just begun, and specific details will be released once all participating institutions confirm them.

The other six universities involved in the consortium are Queen’s University, University of Guelph, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and Western University.

As many students have already experienced this year, OSAP is no longer primarily a paper process and there will be no more lineups to receive financial aid.

Glen Murray, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, stopped in Hamilton this morning to give a statement about the streamlining of OSAP.

OSAP Express is the new application process, and it affects more than 300,000 applicants and recipients in Ontario. Approximately 15,000 post-secondary students in Hamilton are expected to benefit.

The program requires students to sign a loan agreement once in their post-secondary career rather than each academic year. Its aim is to speed up confirmation of enrolment and direct deposit processes, and to eliminate lineups at the financial aid office.

“This came as a result of student associations advocating for change in the system, and we've delivered,” said Murray.

He said the new program would make receiving student aid easier while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars for institutions that choose to implement it.

“Moving forward, there is going to be a qualitative way in which we spend,” said Murray.

Huzaifa Saeed, Vice President (Education) of the McMaster Students Union, said at the announcement that OSAP Express is a much-needed step toward a more accessible post secondary system.

“The cost of education is a big issue, but a large part of the issue has to do with reception [of financial assistance].”

Pointing to a 2009 federal survey on financial literacy, Saeed said many students are in the dark about financial options and have not taken full advantage of all available student assistance.

Murray’s announcement comes on the heels of the 30 per cent off tuition grant introduced last January by the provincial government.

The grant, promised by the Liberals in the 2011 provincial election, aims to make education more affordable by delivering assistance with less hassle.

The program offers refunds of $1,680 to students in college and university programs and $770 to students for those in college diploma and certificate programs.

"So often, students are eligible for something and they don't know. As a result they end up not accessing that resource," said Ted McMeekin, MPP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale.

"Streamlining the process will put it all together for students to get that information."

Since the tuition grant came out, 200,000 refunds have been received, which means approximately 100,000 refunds have yet to be claimed.

The grant is available to full-time students at a public college or university in Ontario whose parents have a gross income of $160,000 or less. Students must be residents of Ontario and must have graduated high school within four years before applying directly to a postsecondary program.

McMaster’s student population has taken off since 2000, and last year, the university hit its operating peak.

An unexpected surplus of students chose McMaster last summer – about 400 students above target – which meant that the university couldn’t accommodate every student who wanted and was eligible to live in residence. First years were offered $1000 to live off campus, plus priority placement in their second year.

Though last year’s large freshman cohort was a provincial blip, with a record-setting 90,000 first years entering universities across Ontario, rising enrolment numbers are a growing concern.

A campus capacity study based on data from 2008-2009 concluded that McMaster needed approximately 12 per cent more space than it had in order to support student enrolment.

As of 2009, residential facilities have the largest percentage of space on campus at 20.5 per cent, followed by academic departmental offices and research labs for faculty and graduate students. Classroom and library facilities comprise about 8.5 per cent each, and common-use student activity space covers 1.5 per cent.

Dean of Students and Associate Vice-President (Student Affairs) Phil Wood, who was on the study’s steering committee, said there is an ongoing effort to optimize the use of classroom facilities and to improve amenities such as wireless Internet access.

As McMaster’s student population grows, so does the need for more study space on campus.

In 2009, Thode Library’s third floor was renovated and became home to the iSci Program, and the following year, the fourth floor of Mills Library became the Lyons New Media Centre. While the renovations were good news to certain programs, they meant the loss of study space for the general student population.

In response to growing demand, the University administration and McMaster Students Union (MSU) have worked to secure more permanent study space and 24-hour access to Thode Library during exam time.

Current MSU president Siobhan Stewart has proposed an agreement to keep Bridges Café open longer during exam periods, beginning this December.

Vivian Lewis, Acting University Librarian, said the number of seats in libraries has increased dramatically from about 1,900 in 2004 to just over 2,900 in 2009. This past January, the entire book section on the second floor of Thode Library was moved to the basement, making way for 390 individual carrels in a new quiet study area.

“We’ve been investing a lot of time and intellectual labour into creating more seats for students,” said Lewis. “At the same time, we have to consider the quality of the work environment and the valuable collections we have in our libraries.”

Huzaifa Saeed, VP (Education) of the MSU, said that apart from overcrowding on campus, the MSU is concerned about higher student-to-faculty ratios and a decrease in the flexibility of course options for students.

“Rising enrolment is only one piece of the puzzle,” he added. “We are currently researching best practices across the higher education sector to improve quality of education for large class sizes.”

Although official numbers won’t be released until November, first-year confirmation numbers from the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre suggest that incoming class will be smaller than last year’s. This time around, the residence space issue is not so dire.

Even so, the number of students enrolling in Ontario universities has been steadily climbing (from 275,000 in 2000 to 434,000 in 2012). A recent report from the Council of Ontario Universities says that province-wide enrolment is up 2.5 per cent from last year. The challenges that come with this are ever present.

Projects that would increase McMaster’s campus capacity include the new $65-million Wilson Building dedicated to liberal arts studies, on which construction will begin next year, as well as a downtown health campus that will be a facility for teaching, research and healthcare delivery.

The Wilson Building will be used by more than half of McMaster’s student population, and the new health campus, to open in 2014, is expected to serve 4,000 students.