Health faculty update and townhall

October 20, 2023

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to provide an update on the work of the Senate Committee on Academic Health Programming and invite you to an upcoming townhall. You’ll recall that Senate tasked this Committee to explore a new faculty that will enhance our health profile.

The Committee’s campus-wide survey from Sept. 1-25 received more than 1,900 responses from faculty, staff, students and community members—most of whom expressed enthusiasm and excitement about the initiative. We will share a summary of survey results with the UVic community following our presentation to Senate on Nov. 6, including through a Nov. 17 townhall from 12-1 p.m. in Sngequ House. All faculty, staff and students are invited to attend for a presentation followed by a Q&A.

Learn more and register for the Nov. 17 townhall

The survey results will help to inform future consultations. In the coming months, in addition to the townhall, we plan to visit academic units that are likely to be impacted by the creation of a health faculty.

Our project has an ambitious timeline, outlined on our project web page. The first phase involves developing recommendations to Senate on whether to establish a health faculty and, if Senate agrees, a list of foundational units, draft mandate and name. We plan to bring an initial proposal to Senate for discussion in December or January, and for approval a month later. Determining foundational units and mandate upfront will help provide certainty to units and individuals who are wondering if they will be affected by this change and allow the Committee to focus on supporting the evolution of units throughout 2024.

As outlined in our update to campus on May 9, 2023, this will not be a net-new faculty. If Senate agrees to a new faculty structure, some departments and schools will migrate to a new faculty. Others may migrate to different existing faculties. Many of these details will be determined after Senate’s initial approval.

We recognize that proposed change of this scale brings both excitement and uncertainty. Our web page is updated regularly, including after every Committee meeting, and includes an FAQ. I invite you to submit additional questions to healthfaculty@uvic.ca so that we can continue to address questions and concerns in a timely way.

Thank you to everyone who completed our survey, and we look forward to seeing you at our Nov. 17 townhall.

Sincerely,

Helga Hallgrímsdóttir, PhD
Chair, Senate Committee on Academic Health Programming
Deputy Provost, Office of the Vice-President Academic and Provost