Senate met on October 31, 2025. Here are the highlights:
Fall Graduation Approvals
Senate approved the fall graduation of 575 undergraduate students and 612 graduate students, for a total of 1,187 students.
Senate also approved 50 medals and prizes for outstanding academic achievement. These included 16 graduate medals and 34 undergraduate medals.
The university congratulates all successful graduates and medalists.
New Master’s Program Approved
Senate approved the introduction of a new Master’s in Mineral Exploration and Resource Management, as presented, to commence in Fall 2026. This is a full cost-recovery program offered online, providing a concentrated course of study on the science and practice of mineral exploration.
Quality Assurance & Cyclical Reviews
Senate approved the Final Assessment Reports and Executive Summaries from the Cyclical Reviews of the following programs:
- Joint graduate programs in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Graduate and undergraduate programs in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies
- Graduate and undergraduate programs in Music
Senate Election Procedures Approved
Senate approved the following Senate Election Procedures:
- Senate Internal Election Procedures
- Senate Appointment Procedures for the COU Academic Colleague, Alumni Representative, and Clerk of Senate
- Senate Procedures for Elections to Other Bodies
These three procedures outline clear and consistent processes for nominations and elections to Senate, ensuring transparency, fairness, and compliance with Carleton University’s bylaws.
Suspension of Program Admissions
Senate was informed of the suspension of admissions to the following programs:
- M.Eng. Infrastructure Protection and International Security, effective Fall 2026
- M.Eng. Infrastructure Protection and International Security with Collaborative Specialization in Cybersecurity, effective Fall 2026
These suspensions were initiated by the respective academic units, endorsed by the Deans and the Vice-Provost (Academic and Global Learning), and all necessary administrative actions have been completed by Admissions, the Registrar’s Office, and Graduate Studies.
Senate was also informed of extensions to the existing suspension of admissions to the following programs:
- Bachelor of Information Technology – Optical Systems and Sensors
- Food Science (B.Sc. (Hons) & minor)
Discussion of proposed Institutional Impartiality Policy
A significant part of the Senate meeting was devoted to a dialogue between Senators and the President about the newly proposed Institutional Impartiality Policy, during which he addressed several questions raised.
Senator Spotlight: Janine Debanné
Janine Debanné, BArch, MArch, is an Associate Professor in Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism and has been at Carleton since 2001. Prior to her role at Carleton, she was a full-time professor at the University of Detroit Mercy. During six years in Detroit, in addition to teaching, she practised in a local architectural firm and carried out research on the theme of lived modernist architecture, revisiting Mies van der Rohe’s renowned residential district Lafayette Park (1959-1964) as a participant observer. Her prior experience also includes practising at architectural firms in Ottawa, Gatineau, and Toronto.
Since returning to Canada, her research and publications have focused on Ottawa’s regional modernist houses of the 1960s, investigating them as the domestic architectural corollary of the process of building Canada’s capital city in the postwar years. Reaching what she light-heartedly calls her career’s mature years, she has been reflecting on her
decades of teaching to write on architectural pedagogy, contributing for example to the book Teaching and Designing in Detroit: Ten Women on Pedagogy and Practice (Routledge 2019).
In addition to having performed administrative roles in her department over the years, Janine teaches various architectural theory, history, and design courses, including a course titled Canadian Architecture recently renamed Architectures in Canada; a workshop in architectural drawing; and design studios that integrate local, national, and international travel, while training students in site- and building-design as poetic problem solving.
Born in Ottawa, Janine maintains close ties to her community by writing articles for local media outlets on current areas of interest such as the Canadian suburb, zoning, and dwelling and neighbourhood form, helping to promote public dialogue of architecture and community. Proud of her mixed English-Canadian and Lebanese-Francophone heritage, Janine’s cultural background informs her interest in transculturality and fuels her pursuit of an inclusive Canadian identity and language of architecture.