Senate serves as UFV’s academic governing body, making decisions that shape the daily experience of students and faculty. It advises the Board of Governors — responsible for the university’s business affairs — on matters of shared interest. Monthly public meetings are open to all members of the UFV community. This article will recap key agenda items of the hybrid Senate meeting held on Friday, Mar. 13, 2026.
Dr. Tracy Ryder Glass, provost and vice president academic, motioned for the discontinuation of the Anthropology extended minor. According to a memo from Ryder Glass to Dr. James Mandigo, president and vice chancellor, this decision was made because of a decreased interest in students pursuing the program.
“The proposal notes that this discontinuance is requested due to a consistently low student enrollment since 2019. There are no students currently enrolled or declared. No concerns were noted from any of the consultation areas, including the budget office.”
This motion was voted on and carried, and will be effective May 1, 2026.
Ryder Glass also made a motion for the Liberal Arts Diploma to be discontinued. According to her memo to Mandigo, the program removal will have very minor, to no impact on the budget. Her memo also listed additional reasons for the removal of the diploma.
“This discontinuance streamlines course delivery as there is overlap with the Associate of Arts degree which is a widely recognized articulated credential. All students currently in the program will be supported through to completion.”
This motion was voted on and carried, and it will be implemented starting Jan. 1, 2027.
David Johnston, registrar and associate vice president, motioned for Senate to approve changes to the Legal Administrative Assistant Certificate. His memo outlined that the main changes are for the entrance and program requirements.
“Entrance requirements for those without business office training have been changed to accept work experience within the past four years (rather than two years) and to no longer require a resume or letter from an employer. The CGPA required for graduation has been changed from 4.00 to 3.67.”
New course modules have also been created for the program to include Indigenous ideas and beliefs.
“Program outcomes have been developed in alignment with UFV’s Institutional Learning Outcomes, and the program now integrates principles of Indigenization.”
This motion was voted on and included some abstentions.
Dr. Mandigo’s President’s Report provided an update on the review of the sector sustainability report as it is ongoing, and the report is expected to be made public later this spring.
He also discussed his attendance, representing UFV, at the 2026 BHER Executive Summit.
“They brought together leaders from industry and business together with leaders of post secondary across Canada…
“When you hear some of the business leaders talk about the kind of change they want to see, particularly around AI, they aren’t talking about it in years or months. They’re using days to quantify the type of change that they’re seeing. It’s quite daunting, but exciting at the same time, in terms of the opportunities, how business and industry are turning or seeing post secondary playing a major role in the new economy across Canada.”
Ryder Glass’ Provost report covered UFV’s community engagements and the ongoing events occurring around campus. She commended the International Women’s Day celebration and the March for Sustainability event.
Mark Brosinski, UFV’s director of budgets and resource planning, reported on the budget and introduced the draft consolidated budget which detailed how the decreasing number of international student enrollment is changing UFV’s landscape.
“UFV saw a significant drop. The number of new international students, from 23/24, where we welcomed over 1,500 new international students, dropped to just below 350 new students this past year. Roughly, a 79 per cent drop in our international students.”
Brosinski went on to explain how this population change is influencing UFV to be more conscientious with budgetary restrictions.
“UFV took a balanced, multi-stated approach to budget reductions, reduced spending by about $15.6 million. First focusing on non-salary, discretionary expense budgets, such as travel, supplies, miscellaneous, and hospitality. Then also looking at our course plans, and by ways to streamline our course delivery, our reducing the total number of sections that we would be delivering in relation to the number of students that we aren’t expecting for next year.”
However, the university is still in a deficit.
“Despite all the reductions, UFV is still presenting at $2.4 million deficits, for 26/27.”
Brosinski emphasized restructuring within the budget.
“If we were to make deeper cuts at this stage, it would likely jeopardize some of our core academic programming, student support services, and impact our ability for long-term enrollment of the institution. So, litigation work, deficit mitigation work will continue on through 26/27.”
