BUFA Selected Senate Issues for February 26, 2014.
As you may recall, the February 5, 2014 Senate meeting was cancelled due to inclement weather. My initial update for that meeting is available on the BUFA Blog section of our website (seanc129.sg-host.com).
The February 5th meeting has been rescheduled for February 26 and several new items were added to the agenda. Of particular interest is the report of the Senate’s Ad-Hoc Committee on Program Review and Prioritization (PRP) by its Chair, Dr. Nota Klentrou. One of the first tasks of the PRP was to revise its mandate in order to address concerns that the initial mandate did not provide a clear purpose for the Committee and also proposed a process of initial screen of programs before any broad consultation had occurred. In the proposed revision, the PRP will focus on determining how an academic program “contributes to the University’s mission and fits its current priorities as broadly articulated in the SMA….based on a set of objective qualitative and quantitative criteria”. The proposed process is designed to be “consultative, transparent, and equitable” and the outcome will be to “guide an academically responsible institutional prioritization of resource allocation”. In the draft mandate, prioritization is to be based on a set of weighted criteria that will be developed in consultation with the University community and concentrate on “the relationship between resources and priorities, not on an academic ranking of programs”. The Committee is in the process of meeting with Deans, Chairs and Directors, with broader public consultation planned for the future.
We note that President Lightstone has not yet updated his report to include the outcome of his January meeting with Dr. Paul Genest, at Queen’s Park, in which President Lightstone and Provost and Academic VP Neil McCartney received feedback on Brock’s Strategic Mandate Agreement. We look forward to hearing details about the discussion with Dr. Genest at this Senate meeting.
The full Senate agenda and associated documents can be found at https://www.brocku.ca/university-secretariat/about-the-senate.
Thanks,
Linda Rose-Krasnor, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology
President, Brock University Faculty Association
Brock University
500 Glenridge Avenue St. Catharines ON Canada L2S 3A1
Phone: 905-688-5550, ext. 3870 | Fax: 905-688-6922
[email protected]
