At its October 9th meeting, Senate voted to undertake a review of academic programs, including the Library. The review will be conducted by an Ad Hoc Senate Committee for the Review and/or Prioritization of Academic Programs, following the process described in Appendix B of the Governance Report, which can be found on the October 9th Senate agenda website (https://brocku.ca/webfm_send/28394). The Committee will comprise of one representative from each Faculty and the Library on the Ad Hoc Committee on Program Review and Prioritization. who will be elected on an at-large basis (not only by those voters within each Faculty and the Library); the Provost and Vice-President Academic (ex-officio); the Planning, Priorities and Budget Advisory Committee Chair or designate (ex-officio); the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Vice-Chair (ex-officio); representatives from the Brock University Student Union and the Graduate Student Association, and observers representing the Deans, BUFA, and the Alumni Association. A motion to add a representative from the Faculty of Graduate Studies was defeated. Following considerable discussion about whether new programs should be included in this year¹s review, it was decided that the review would focus on those programs that had been approved by Senate prior to July 1, 2013. The relation between the work of Ad Hoc Committee and the mandate of the Academic Review Committee still needs to be resolved.
I expect that there will be a call for nominations and volunteers for the elected positions on the Ad Hoc Committee in the near future. Individuals who are included in the Senate electoral list will elect the representative from their own Faculty or the Library. The Ad Hoc Committee will choose its own Chair and is mandated to consult broadly in constructing the criteria it will use for program review, both for the initial screening and also for the more detailed second-stage review and prioritization. A timeline is to be established within one month of the formation of the Committee. All meetings will be open, and there will be open access to the information that the Committee will use to make its decisions. The Committee will report directly to Senate and will provide regular updates to the Brock community.
Due to a lack of time, the Planning, Priorities and Budget Advisory Committee did not give its report. Therefore, there was not an opportunity at this meeting to discuss the financial documents appended to the agenda.
Regards,
Linda
In an earlier version of this note, the election of Faculty and Librarian members of the Committee was incorrectly indicated as occurring within each Faculty and the Library.
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]
