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, Nov. 14, 2025.
Senate Governance committee, Dr. Gerry Palmer, associate professor of the school of business motioned for the approval of the revisions made to the Instructional Responsibilities Policy (Policy 46), which provides the framework of instruction and learning that instructors and students comply with.
The rationale for the policy came after reflecting on the major changes made in post-secondary education including the integration of Truth and Reconciliation movements and the COVID-19 pandemic, where instructors and students were forced to pivot to online-only learning.
Dr. David Harper, associate professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, put forward an amendment to the policy. He proposed the removal of certain sections that he saw as overreach or as outdated. The motion sought to remove the requirement that professors state their use of AI in the development of course tools and remove clauses that interfere with instructor autonomy.
“Many of the statements in [the policy] are not telling us what to do, but strays into telling us how to do our jobs. In that light, it hardly respects our expertise, our domain expertise, and the diversity of different disciplines that we have at UFV.”
The motion Harper made to amend the policy was voted on and defeated eight to four, with four abstaining from voting on the Senate board. The motion then reverted back to the approval vote for Policy 46, which was approved.
Dr. James Mandigo, president and vice chancellor, formally introduced Dr. Tracy Ryder Glass, as the new provost and vice-president academic, whose five year term will officially begin on Jan. 1, 2026. Ryder Glass is currently the acting provost, starting that term after Mandigo was appointed as president earlier this year in 2025.
Ryder Glass motioned to approve the discontinuation of the Migration and Citizenship, Graduate certificate and diploma programs, as well as the discontinuance of the Global Development Studies (GDS) program extended minor. Sylvie Murray, dean of the College of Arts, ensured that the Global Development program itself will still exist.
“We’ve just made the condition that this is a program that is not presented in the right way, although the topic is very important, but the Graduate Diploma certificate is not.”
The reason behind the discontinuance of the program was due to consistent struggles with enrollment numbers being too low and overall demand. The senate board voted on the motion presented and it was approved.
Ryder Glass’ Provost report spotlighted the UFV Student Changemakers club’s Changemaking week which took place from Oct. 6-9, where Dr. Anna Griffith (Changemaker and Curriculum Developer) and Dr. Martha Dow (Senior Advising Changemaker) shared ideas and learned from each other to better understand what changemaking is and how it impacts them.
Ryder Glass commented on the intention behind her lengthy report as a whole.
“The real focus of it is around student success and how we promote that … we want to look at the things that we’re just doing exceptionally well, and I think part of that is the opportunities for students and celebrating who they are and what they’re doing as well.”
Also highlighted in the report, was the Coast Capital sponsorship of the 2025 annual Trades & Technology Opportunity Fair, which was designed to give students the chance to meet with leaders and service organizations to learn more about different jobs and networking opportunities. With more than 25 leaders and service organizations present, they connected with around 500 Trades and Technology students and 55 high school students during the event.
In the President’s Report, Mandigo included a statement about the federal government’s continued limitations on how many international students are allowed into Canada, which is preventing more people from pursuing post-secondary studies in Canada. The limitation deeply impacts the University’s revenue projections, with an anticipated $22.5 million loss in tuition revenue from international students.
Mandigo also announced in the meeting that Premier David Eby will be doubling the funding put toward trade programming through Skilled Trades BC, making an increase from $107 million to $214 million annually –– an investment not seen in two decades.
With this change, he commented on the benefit of that support despite UFV’S financial challenges.
“We have a lot of allies behind us … today’s announcement is an example of how our community, business owners, industry leaders, members of elected officials, have been working with us to convince [the] government that this is a significant investment.”
Veronica is a Staff Writer at The Cascade. She loves to travel and explore new places, no matter how big or small. She is in her second year at UFV, pursuing the study of Creative
Writing.