Appendix B – Policies

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

1. Humber community members are required to use social media in a responsible and professional manner in accordance with Humber’s Values, Policies and Procedures, including but not limited to the Acceptable Use Policy, Policy Statement on Upholding Free Speech, and Provincial and Federal laws as applicable.
2. Social media applications, regardless of how such applications are accessed, should never be used for:
   • Conducting operational business transactions on behalf of the College;
   • Matters pertaining to confidential information or private information about Humber or Humber community members including students, prospective students, employees, faculty, contractors, donors, or alumni.
3. Members of the Humber community who express personal opinions on social media are reminded to indicate that their opinions are personal and that they are not speaking on behalf of Humber.
4. The Department of Marketing and Communications:
   • Is the lead social media account holder for Humber’s Primary social media accounts and is the designated Humber Social Media Liaison providing oversight to College social media accounts and guidance to Humber’s departments, faculties and the University of Guelph-Humber Social Media Liaisons on consistent user experience.
   • Is responsible for maintaining the master list of all College-affiliated social media accounts, their account holders, and login credentials for continuity and/or security reasons. Social Media account login information shall be kept confidential and stored in an encrypted and secure location.
   • Can recommend the suspension or deactivation of any accounts which have remained inactive and/or dormant for an extended period of time (four weeks or more).
   • Can direct Secondary social media accounts in the event of an emergency regarding the type of content to be posted including emergency-related information and updates, in conjunction with the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management.
   • While not responsible for monitoring or prescreening content that appears on affiliated social media account(s), reserves the right to remove or request the removal of content that is deemed threatening, hateful, discriminatory, obscene, offensive, commercial, and/or a violation of intellectual property rights, College policy or laws.
5. Affiliated Secondary and Professional social media accounts:
   • Will be managed and maintained by the applicable Faculty or Department that created them. If a Humber affiliated social media account is managed by a third party, this must be reported to the Department of Marketing and Communications and approved by the Dean/Director/designate of the Faculty or Department. The Faculty or Department that created the account(s) remains responsible for the account’s content and activity.
   • The Dean/Director/designate of their applicable Faculty or Department is responsible for ensuring that employees managing their Humber affiliated social media account(s) have read and understand this Policy as well as the accompanying Social Media Procedure and Social Media Guidelines (collectively referred to as the Social Media Playbook).
   • Must adequately reflect their connection to Humber through consistent branding and website links which conform to Humber brand standards in order to ensure consistent user experience across all channels. This includes, but is not limited to, accurate branding and identification in public account descriptions, bios, profile information, logos, avatars and profile icons.
   • Must be registered with the Department of Marketing and Communications including confidential login information and account holder details for the Social Media Liaison for use in the event of an emergency, temporary suspension, deactivation or where the account manager is not accessible or no longer works at Humber.
   • Should maintain consistent activity in order to remain online or live. Inactivity and lack of consistent monitoring may affect Humber’s reputation. Accounts that no longer have an identifiable Social Media Liaison or administrator should be deactivated.
6. In order to limit the social media footprint and keep track of the number of graduates, alumni and employees registered on professional networking sites, the creation of additional Primary or Secondary social media accounts outside of Humber’s main presence on social media used for professional networking and/or corporate and educational recruitment (LinkedIn and similar platforms) is not permitted (this does not include user groups on these platforms, i.e. “HRT class of 2007 group”, “Humber design grads”, etc.).
7. Individuals found in violation of this Policy may be subject to remedial action and such violations will be reviewed by the respective manager and Human Resources Department in accordance with applicable collective agreements and/or terms and conditions of employment.

POLICY STATEMENT ON UPHOLDING FREE SPEECH

“The objects of the colleges are to offer a comprehensive program of career-oriented, post-secondary education and training to assist individuals in finding and keeping employment, to meet the needs of employers and the changing work environment and to support the economic and social development of their local and diverse communities” (Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Act, 2002).

Freedom of expression, which means the right to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn, must be protected as it is essential to discovery, critical assessment and the effective dissemination of knowledge and ideas and leads to social and economic advancement.

Colleges must be places that allow for open discussion and free inquiry where diverse voices can be heard and ideas and viewpoints can be explored and discussed freely and debated openly without fear of reprisal, even if these are considered to be controversial or conflict with the views of some members of the college community. Although colleges greatly value civility and all members of colleges share responsibility for maintaining a climate of mutual respect, it is not the role of colleges to shield members of the college community from ideas and opinions that they may find disagreeable or offensive. It is up to individuals and not colleges to make such judgements for themselves and to debate and challenge ideas that they find unacceptable.

Members of the college community are free to criticize and contest the views of others, however, they may not obstruct or interfere with the freedom of others to express their views. The rights of others to express or hear ideas must also be respected. Colleges may reasonably regulate the time, place and manner of freedom of expression to ensure that it does not disrupt normal college operations and ordinary college activities or endanger the safety of others.

Speech that violates the law, including the Ontario Human Rights Code, is not allowed. Speech that constitutes harassment, a threat or hate speech is not allowed. Other context specific boundaries to freedom of expression may also apply such as those arising out of the terms of employment and collective agreements.

This policy statement is aligned with other college policies, all of which shall be read in harmony.

Existing college mechanisms and processes will be used to handle complaints and ensure compliance with the policy. Complaints that remain unresolved may be referred to the Ontario Ombudsman. Existing disciplinary measures will apply to those whose actions are contrary to the policy.

Colleges will consider official student groups’ compliance with the policy as a condition for ongoing financial support or recognition, and encourage student groups to adopt policies that align with this policy.

SWAG POLICY

1. General
   • FMCA shall request, distribute, and use SWAG with the principles of sustainability in mind.
   • SWAG cannot substitute for payment for service, and those being paid for a given activity are not eligible to receive SWAG as a token of appreciation for that activity.
     • When a guest speaker is needed to teach special skills during class time, compensation shall be requested by the Program Co-ordinator and assessed by the administrator responsible for the program. The AD, CE Business Manager, or Placement Manager shall make the final determination of the compensation.
     • Remuneration for guest speakers and facilitators of talks, workshops or seminars that fall outside regularly scheduled classes shall be assessed by the administrator responsible for the program. Compensation shall be determined by the AD, CE Business Manager, or Placement Manager.
     • In the instances described above, the AD, CE Business Manager, or Placement Manager shall require a written request no less than 10 business days prior to the scheduled class visit.
   • For field trips and on-site visits, the Faculty will not pay any special fees or issue gift cards or SWAG as gratitude to the host. If the site has regular public entrance fees associated with it, the Faculty will pay with 10-days’ advance approval by the appropriate AD, CE Business Manager, or Placement Manager. These activities should be pre-planned and budgeted as early as possible.
   • In the interest of equity, SWAG cannot be used as student prizes for academic activities.
   • Program Advisory Committees offer in-service professionals the unique opportunity to give back to their respective professional communities by providing feedback on academic curriculum and work-integrated learning opportunities. The advisory roles and responsibilities of these committee members are governed by Humber’s Program Advisory Committees Policy, and thus advisory committee members are ineligible for SWAG.
2. In-Class Activities
   • Guest speakers appearing during scheduled class time may be given SWAG as a token of appreciation.
   • Professors must discuss with their AD, CE Business Manager, or Placement Manager no less than 10 business days in advance compensation for in-class guests who
     • are delivering more than two-hours of content
     • are teaching specialized skills
     • are recurring or delivering content over repeat visits
   • SWAG will be assigned according to the type and duration of activity.

     • SWAG Type	Suggested Use	Value
       Guest Tier 1	Mock Interviews, Panels, Session 60-90 minutes	Swag Bag OR $25 gift card
       Guest Tier 2	Session 91-120 minutes	$25.00 gift card plus $25 SWAG OR equivalent of $50 of SWAG
       Guest Tier 3	Partnership Development	High-value SWAG

   • Rationale for Guest Tier 3 SWAG must accompany requests. Guest Tier 3 requests will be reviewed with the administrator responsible to ensure strategic alignment with the cluster, and the AD, CE Business Manager, or Placement Manager will sign off on the request.
3. Outreach Activities
   • Student volunteer compensation will be managed by the Events team under supervision of the Faculty Business Manager.
   • Student volunteers will select from pre-set SWAG options or co-curricular credit as applicable; duration, frequency and level of skill required will be metrics for determining whether SWAG or financial compensation is most appropriate.
   • Professors requiring SWAG at a program-led outreach activity will submit a written request to humbermediaarts@humber.ca no fewer than five business days in advance and include the date, location and intended audience for the activity, as well as the preferred SWAG pick-up location (North – K107; Lakeshore – A120).
   • SWAG for program outreach activities will be available for pick up at either North or Lakeshore Campus as specified by the requestor.

For more information on any policy at Humber, please visit "Polices and Procedures Resource".

EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT POLICY

If you plan to make a purchase of any kind where you wish to be reimbursed by the college, you must obtain approval from your manager first. Requests for reimbursement without prior approval can be denied.

An item that occasionally comes up relating to the Expense Reimbursement Policy, specifically deals with Conflict of Interest. The exact wording in the policy is found below:

1. Humber shall not acquire goods and services from a business or other entity owned by an officer or employee of Humber or from anyone with whom the officer or employee has a close personal relationship and who holds a controlling interest, either directly or indirectly, in any corporation or business entity.

PURCHASING POLICY

Anytime Humber does business with any individual or company for any service or product, we must follow the Purchasing Procedures, which includes adhering to the Purchasing Policy.

As a publicly-funded institution, Humber cannot enter any contract with a vendor that is not already a vendor of record without going through the process of an open, competitive bid. We are required to obtain competitive quotes for any purchases made over $3,500 in a given year to a single vendor, even if that expense is not incurred all at once. This ensures fairness and equity of where tax dollars are spent. It also prevents breaches of contracts and other policy issues identified in the Purchasing Policy.

Fortunately, for commonly and frequently used services, the college signs agreements with companies that ensure we use them exclusively. That’s part of the deal when they post these opportunities publicly. These companies become what’s known as “Vendors of Record.” Breaches of these contracts can result in the company suing Humber for not using them.

If a company/vendor/product is such that competitive quotes cannot be obtained, we may be able to request a Sole Source exemption. These are given in very specific circumstances and is essentially like applying for an exemption to the policy. These are strictly reviewed and only awarded in specific circumstances as these can be seen as a way to avert the policy in order to get what you want. View example of this.

Another important note is that no matter what program you teach in, we are first and foremost an educational institution. In other words, even if something is considered normal or acceptable in the industry you teach in, it isn’t necessarily acceptable in the education industry (which is where our allegiance always lies).

All Humber Policies, and there are many, can be found here.

If you remember nothing else from this email, remember only this: Administrators are briefed on all of these policies so it’s important that you seek approval from your manager prior to making any purchases or commitments for purchases with any vendor/individual.