PRESIDENT’S UPDATE
March, 2006
CASEA News Items
- Claire Lapointe and Rosemary Foster have been working tirelessly
on the 2006 program for York. I have seen the results of their
efforts, and I know it will be an exciting conference. I am personally
familiar with the time and commitment that it takes to bring
together a four-day program and banquet, and I thank them in
a most heartfelt way for their work.
- As a conference aside, keep in mind that there are no hotels
near York. The closest is 4.5 kilometers away, and in Toronto
traffic that can be a lengthy trip. Claire was on-site for the
meeting of program chairs and tells me that some of the on-campus
accommodations are excellent.
- While the entire program looks superb, I particularly want
to highlight the CASEA Seminar, which takes place as a double
session in the morning of the last day of the conference (Tuesday,
May 30th). Having been involved with CASEA for over 20 years,
I have witnessed substantial changes in the conversations and
content within the discipline of educational administration.
In this year’s seminar, Claire and Rosemary have asked
new scholars to address the educational administration they know
and what they see as the issues facing us in the foreseeable
future. The seminar will be chaired and facilitated by Rosemary,
and will include scholars from across the country: Annie Pilote
(Laval), Ken Brien (UNB), Jacqueline Ottman (Alberta), Dawn Wallin
(Manitoba), and Randy Wimmer (Saskatchewan).
- We have also had a committee working on our Constitution and
By-laws, and they are bringing forward recommendations for changes
to our AGM in May. The committee is made up of Carolyn Shields
(Chair), Claire Lapointe, Derek Allison, and Dan Brown. I thank
them for their good work.
- Our awards committees are also working to be ready for the
Annual Meeting. This includes the T. B. Greenfield Dissertation
Award, chaired by Derek Allison, the Master’s Award, chaired
by Janice Wallace, and the Distinguished Service Award, chaired
by Barbara Gill. The time involved in doing this work is substantial,
and I greatly appreciate the commitment of the members of each
of these committees, all of whom will be identified at the AGM.
- I remind everyone that CASEA is hosting the annual Canada Research
Chair Lecture at York. The lecturer will be delivered by Dr.
Karen Mundy of OISE/UT, and is entitled Global Governance and
Educational Change. It is scheduled on Day 2, Sunday, May 28th,
10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
- I want to also acknowledge the tremendous work done by Coral
Mitchell, Rahul Kumar, and Herman Yu, at Brock, in designing
and constructing our new interactive discussion forum (http://www.casea.org/forum).
I have invited Coral to give a brief presentation at the Annual
General Meeting. All those who are listed as CASEA members on
the CSSE website have been imported into this database, and that
list is updated monthly. For anyone who wishes to use the forum
prior to the AGM, when you log on you will be asked for a username
and password. The username is your e-mail address, and the password
is your CSSE ID.
CSSE Board of Director’s Meeting
The Board of Directors met in Ottawa on October 28-29, 2005. The
following are highlights of the meeting.
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Don Fisher (President) and Judy Ciufo (Associate Executive
Director) of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social
Sciences met with the Board to provide an update on Federation
activities. The primary points raised were:
- CFHSS continues to lobby the federal policy makers on the increasing
importance of their role in post-secondary education. In particular,
the Federation is urging the government to double the budget
to SSHRC, and to develop a national vision for post-secondary
education. Given the pending election, this is seen as an opportune
lobbying time.
- Don noted that the Federation will be present at the National
Dialogue on Higher Education, to be held in Ottawa at the end
of November. This is a meeting of federal and provincial officials
and policy researchers.
- This is the 75th anniversary of the Learneds/Congress, and
the Federation will be hosting a celebration on May 31st at York
University. David Suzuki will be the keynote speaker.
- The Federation played a role in convincing SSHRC to increase
Aid to Scholarly Publication by $500,000, and increase of 40%.
- Asked about the activities of the Canadian Centre for Learning,
Don noted that CCL has money and is currently involved in approximately
25 applied research projects. Alice Collins noted that CCL is
accountable to the federal government, and that its mandate is
to show by 2009 that research on learning has an impact.
- CFHSS has published a report on the roles and importance of
scholarly associations. Entitled Reviewing Scholarly Associations:
Knowledge Networks for the Next Generation, the document, and
descriptions of other Federation activities, can be viewed on
their website: http://www.fedcan.ca
SSHRC
- Nouhad Hammad (Committee 17, SSHRC) met with the Board of Directors
to provide an update on SSHRC. The key points she noted related
to SSHRC’s new vision, outlined on page 13 of their publication,
Knowledge Council. The key components of the vision are: (a)
clustering research, (b) mobilizing knowledge, (c) connecting
Canada to the world, and (d) research tools for the 21st century.
This document can be viewed on SSHRC’s website under the
heading of the new strategic plan (http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca).
She also identified two new program initiatives from SSHRC.
The first is the International Opportunities Fund, with
four competitions per year, offering development grants of $25,000
and project grants of $75,000. The second is the Knowledge
Impact on Society, with grants of $100,000 annually for
a maximum of three years.
Nouhad also outlined the new scoring grid for Standard Research
Grants:
1.0 – 2.5 not fundable
2.6 – 3.5 may be funded
3.6 – 4.5 should be funded
4.6 – 6.0 must be funded
She noted that there are new evaluation forms and that the forms
have changed (ex: no supporting documents needed).
Annual Meeting (Conference) Items
- Directors were reminded of the new first author rule for the
annual meeting.
Members can be first authors on one paper per society, but they must be members
of each society in which they wish to present a paper as first author.
- The Board met with the program chair for the 2006 Annual Meeting
at York University, Alice Pitt. Alice indicated that there is
a conference website, and that registrations and accommodations
will be able to be done on-line. Most of the meetings will be
held in the TEL Building (Technology Enhanced Learning). The
on-site organizer is Barry Denman.
- The program chairs met on January 27th, 2006. The conference
will be held from Saturday, May 27th until Tuesday, May 30th.
The program will be extended for four full days. CASEA has been
allotted 32 slots.
- The 2007 Annual Meeting will be held in at the University of
Saskatchewan., from May 26th until May 29th. An official theme
has not yet been announced. The program chair will be Sam Robinson.
Immediately following the conference, on May 30th, there will
be a full-day plenary on aboriginal education.
- Future Annual Meetings:
2008 – University of British Columbia
2009 – Carleton University
Society Business
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