Institutional Initiatives

Integrated Planning ensures that long-range planning and budgeting is aligned with the strategic priorities and the mission, vision, and values of the university.

The Integrated Plan, developed annually by the Integrated Planning Committee co-chaired by the Provost and Vice-President Academic and the Vice-President, Finance and Administration, outlines SFU’s priorities, initiatives, programs, and an associated budget framework over a three-year planning cycle. Committee membership is designed to provide cross-portfolio perspectives, while ensuring the academic mission remains central to the committee’s work.

Based on the Integrated Plan and recommendations from the Budget Planning Committee, the Integrated Planning Committee makes annual recommendations on major projects, institution-wide initiatives and resource allocation decisions that will advance the university’s strategic priorities. Before the Integrated Plan is recommended for discussion, review, and approval by the Board of Governors, the committee seeks input from the Senate Committee on University Priorities (SCUP) and approval from the President.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

• Dilson Rassier, Provost and Vice-President Academic (Co-Chair)
• Martin Pochurko, Vice-President Finance & Administration (Co-Chair)
• Joanne Curry, Vice-President External Relations
• Dugan O'Neil, Vice-President Research & International 
• Rummana Khan Hemani, Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President Students & International
• Karamjeet Heer, Associate Vice-President Finance
• Kevin Oldknow, Senior Advisor, Academic Planning, Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic
• Eugene Fiume, Dean of Applied Sciences (Decanal Term Appointment)
• Ujwal Kayande, Dean of Beedie School of Business (Decanal Term Appointment)
• Naomi Krogman, Dean of Environment, (Decanal Term Appointment)
• Brian Stewart, Chief Information Officer
• James Beresford, Executive Director and Chief of Staff, President's Office (non-voting)

RESOURCES (Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic)

• Zareen Naqvi, Executive Director, Institutional Research and Planning
• Sara Du, Director, Finance and Resource Planning
• Mary Holmes, Director, Strategic Projects and Analysis
• Glynn Nicholls, Director, Academic Planning and Quality Assurance

RESOURCES (VP Finance and Administration Office)

• Michael Strang, Senior Director, University Project Delivery (Coordinator)
• Jacqueline Toering, Senior Director, Enterprise Risk & Resilience
• Janis Kennedy, Director, Budgets
• Scott Penney, Director, Planning & Analysis

One primary objective of the Office of the Provost is to support What’s Next: The SFU Strategy, which outlines four university-wide priorities, including: "Uphold truth and reconciliation". The Provost's Office works with the Office for Aboriginal Peoples and provides support for Indigenous initiatives related to students, learning and teaching, and finance and budget administration. 

The SFU Medical School is part of the Provost and VP Academic portfolio. For more information please visit the SFU Medical School website.

The work of academic advisors is essential to supporting students in their academic journeys. The academic advising review, Academic Advising 1.0 and Beyond, was initiated by the VP Academic and Provost in the Fall 2022 term with the goal of strengthening advising at the university.   

The project intention is to develop and define a shared understanding of what academic advising means at SFU, and how we can better support students as well as advisors in their work. This includes potential enhancements related to:

• Advising model (governance, structures, roles and responsibilities)  
• Advising standards (curriculum, guidelines for practice, approaches)   
• Advising training frameworks, tools and technology   

The project includes a widely consultative process with SFU students and advising stakeholders to inform recommendations. 

steering committee 

The steering committee was co-chaired by Rummana Khan Hemani, Vice-Provost, Students & International and Dr. Lara Campbell, Associate Dean Undergraduate Programs, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences with membership representation from students, Faculties and Student Services. 

A report, including recommended next steps, will be available for the community in the Fall 2023 term. 

“Experiential education is when learners purposefully engage in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop learners’ capacity to contribute to their communities.” – Adapted from the Association of Experiential Education

Simon Fraser University values the exceptional student learning experiences that result from experiential education. To understand the diverse landscape of experiential education offerings at SFU, the university launched the Experiential Education Inventory (EEI) project in Spring 2021.

The project aligns with the Student Experience Initiative and the Academic Plan. Its goal is to produce a living inventory of curricular, work-integrated, and co-curricular offerings at SFU.

We hope to create a resource that will help the university—including administrators, faculty members, instructors, and staff members—communicate systematically about experiential education and support student recruitment, advising, and retention. We also want to support the student learning journey by making it easier for students to discover and make decisions about the opportunities available to them.

The success of this project will depend upon broad participation from the university community. Stay tuned for details.

SFU is currently reviewing its multi-campus academic framework to better understand the academic governance and identity of each campus, in support of the strategic priorities, mission, vision and values of the university.

This initiative includes multiple phases, with the current phase being research and data collection for the development of a discussion paper. The paper will include information on the multi-campus model at SFU and other universities with the intent of providing reflections and observations of common themes or trends, opportunities or constraints, academic governance models, and key questions for exploration and discussion in future phases.

UniForum Program

What's Next: The SFU Strategy prioritizes transforming the SFU experience and eliminating barriers that hinder faculty and staff from doing their best work. Co-led at SFU by the provost and vice-president academic and the vice-president finance and administration, the UniForum global benchmarking program is a valuable initiative by identifying areas of improvement, streamlining processes, and supporting decision-making that enhances the service experience for the university community and supports the academic mission. Through performance indicators and best practices, the UniForum program gathers and compares SFU activity and administrative service data with those at other participating universities, highlighting areas for further study and planning to remain responsive to evolving needs. Some areas for collective improvement have been identified and leaders of a number of SFU service areas are beginning to use UniForum data, along with other inputs, to pilot improvement projects. SFU is working with Cubane Consulting on this initiative to ensure the data collected is analyzed and interpreted in a meaningful way.