Education Council (also known as EdCo) is an internal governance body of as required by the . Education Council considers curriculum and educational policies relating to students, standards, planning and operations.
In carrying out the business of Education Council, members exercise their best individual judgment in accordance with the Mission, Vision, Values and Strategic Directions. All eligible members vote freely on all issues considered by Education Council regardless of their association with a particular portfolio/area of the institution.
Council meets on a monthly basis except during July and August. During the summer, and other breaks, the Operations Standing Committee deals with matters requiring action. The Operations Standing Committee is subject to the authority of Education Council and its work is reviewed and ratified by Council.
Other Education Council Standing Committees provide in-depth curriculum (the CPR committees), academic policy (ARP), and calendar review (CCC). These standing committees make recommendations to Education Council and Council relies on its standing committees to ensure appropriate program area expertise as well as the independent perspective provided by additional members from outside the program area. All standing committees report directly to Education Council.
In December 2005, the Education Council officially took over from an Interim Education Council in place during the transition from Okanagan University College (OUC) to .
Education Council has its roots in the Okanagan University College Education Council. The OUC Education Council met for the first time in February of 1995 following substantial changes to the College and Institute Act of British Columbia (“the Act ”). These changes to the Act included the establishment of a bicameral system of institutional governance in which the Board of Governors and Education Council were assigned roles and responsibilities.
OUC Education Council met monthly on a regular basis from February 1995 until April 2005. On March 17, 2004, the BC government announced the 2005 dissolution of OUC and the institution was placed under the control of a government-appointed Public Trustee.
The South Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton, and Salmon Arm campuses of OUC became the new and the Interim Education Council was formed with faculty, staff and students elected to the former OUC Education Council and moving to . To ensure representation from all regions and representative groups, a small number of volunteers were also named to the Interim Education Council. These members, as well as administrators named by the President, met from May to November of 2005.
Following elections, the formally-constituted Education Council began work on December 7, 2005.
The bylaws under which Education Council operates are available.
While some members of Education Council are appointed, others are elected. Faculty (10 seats) and support staff (two seats) elections take place in the spring; student (four seats) elections take place in the fall. The election rules are available. Read the Election rules.
Education Council Bylaws
Education Council Forms
Meeting Schedule and Deadline
Members of the 2024-2025 Education Council
Under the province’s , an Education Council consists of 20 voting members, representing the following areas:
(a) 10 faculty members, elected by the faculty
(b) Four students, elected by the students
(c) Two support staff, elected by the support staff
(d) Four educational administrators, appointed by the College’s President
Chair - Jillian Garrett
Vice-Chair - Leanne Mallory
Faculty Representation
Arts – Jillian Garrett
Business – Brenda Ridgeley
Foundational Programs - Christopher Torrie
Health & Social Development – Brett Wade
Science/Technology – Morgan Martin
Trades – Kelly Brochu
Shuswap Revelstoke – vacant
North Okanagan – Leanne Mallory
Central Okanagan – vacant
South Okanagan Similkameen – Eva Gavaris
Student Representation
Shuswap Revelstoke – vacant
North Okanagan – Amelia Leader
Central Okanagan – Emmarith Balili
South Okanagan Similkameen – vacant
Staff Representation
Support Staff - Kristine Wickner
Support Staff - Michelle Somerville
Educational Administrators
Provost and Vice President, Academic – Samantha Lenci
Associate Dean, Arts and Foundational – Chris Newitt
Special Advisor to the President (in-community program design) – Joan Ragsdale
Associate Dean, Trades & Apprenticeship – Danny Marques
Non-voting Members
President – Neil Fassina
Registrar and Secretary to Education Council – Inga Wheeler
Board of Governors representative – Cindy Battersby
Indigenous Advisor - Rhea Dupuis
Approved items, minutes and agendas
Please note that Education Council is in an advisory role to the Board of Governors and many of the items approved by Education Council also require Board of Governors approval before they can be implemented.
The current Board of Governors Board schedule can be viewed on the website , with regular meetings quarterly in March, May, September. and December. Please consult with the Education Council Secretary should you have any questions around the process or lead time required for full approval of an item.
Standing Committees
Please check the subcommittee meeting agenda to ensure the subcommittee meeting dates or times have not changed from the schedule.
Committee Membership
- Academic Regulations and Policy Committee membership
- Curriculum Criteria and Calendar Committee membership
- Operations Committee membership
- Tributes Committee membership
- CPRC AFP membership
- CPRC BUS membership
- CPRC HSD membership
- CPRC ST membership
- CPRC TA membership
- Ad Hoc Governance Committee membership
Forms
Effective October 2021, the PDF forms have been replaced by (Kuali).
Your login credentials for Kuali are the same as your myOkanagan credentials.
Please contact Education Council for assistance.
Cross-listed courses have the same course title, calendar description, course content, level (first digit of the course number), and credit value, but subject codes and course numbers may differ. Cross-listed courses are identified as such in the Calendar.
- Cross-listing proposals must have the approval of all relevant departments, portfolio curriculum review bodies, Education Council standing committees, and Education Council.
- Course content, calendar description, format, contact hours, methods of evaluation, and selection and recommended assignment of faculty will reside with the originating department.
- A full calendar description will be provided for the courses in all departments using the cross-listed course. The course description for XXX should conclude “This course is also offered as YYY. Students with credit for YYY cannot take XXX for further credit.”
- will maintain a table of cross-listed courses to ensure:
- Credit will be granted only once for the cross-listed courses.
- Students will continue to meet program requirements for the number of courses taken outside the portfolio or outside the area of specialization.
- A cross-listed course may only be used once to meet the requirements for a Major/Minor/Emphasis/Specialization/Option.
- The costs involved in offering a cross-listed course will be negotiated between the departments.
- Faculty members capable of teaching the cross-listed course need only exist in one department.
- will maintain a record of the consultation and agreement between the cross-listing departments.
Past practice has been to limit the calendar description to 60 words or less. This is not so much a requirement now that the calendar is online. The new course and course revision forms both tell you how many words you have provided in your description but do not limit you if you need a longer description.
The calendar description should be placed on your course outline. A technique some are using to provide additional information about the course is to add a portion to the course outline, immediately following the calendar description and separated from it by a heading (Course content, or Additional description, or Additional information), which provides expanded or additional information about the course. For example, for a computing course, you may wish to provide information about the software being used. For an English course, you may wish to describe a specific approach or emphasis you will be using. For a Topics course, you should provide details of the specific topic(s) being considered.
If you are developing policies which need to be approved by the Academic Regulations and Policy (ARP) standing committee and then Education Council, you may submit a policy proposal through the Kuali Curriculum Management system.