Last week, Provost Shirley Neuman began the planning process which will set U of T academic policy until 2009. On Friday afternoon, Provost Neuman held the first of a series of town hall meetings to gather ideas for the planning process from faculty, staff, and students.
“There are three things I’d like to achieve from the planning process,” said Neuman early last week. “Most importantly, I’ll get a sense of priorities for the whole community; new ideas [for the planning process], and if people think ideas in the process are totally wrong-headed, I want to know about it.”
The academic planning process will eventually produce long-range plans for the university’s policy on a wide range of subjects. These may include diversity on campus, accessibility, staff hiring, funding for academic departments, faculty tenure, and student housing, among others. At this early stage of the planning process, Neuman says she is looking for input from students and staff to get a better idea of “what a large proportion of the community sees as priorities.”
Central to these discussions are a series of green papers—early-stage documents meant to encourage discussion—which are available through U of T’s website (see sidebar). Neuman stressed on Friday afternoon that “the green papers do not articulate defined ideas or defined priorities.” Instead, she said they are only the beginning of a consultation process that will take place over most of the spring.
The meeting, held at Innis Town Hall, was well attended, though few undergraduates were present — staff and faculty made up the majority of the audience. After briefly outlining the content of the green papers, Provost Neuman opened the floor to comments from the audience. The suggestions made covered a wide variety of topics.
Peter McMillan, an undergraduate arts student, noted that the U of T no longer offered a general liberal arts degree: “There should be a place for liberal arts at this university,” he said. “Currently, one can come through a bachelors [degree] at the University of Toronto without being literate or well-read.”
Peter Russell, a retired professor of political science and former principal of Innis College, spoke about U of T’s mandatory retirement policies, saying that since as many as 45 per cent of faculty will reach retirement age within the next decade, the university should make better use of them.
“With the U of T facing a shortage of resources,…it should be finding more flexible ways of retiring faculty,” Russell told The Varsity after the meeting.
Other topics which the meeting attendees brought up were ways to encourage commuter students to spend more time on campus, more powerful student governance, and increasing the availability of co-op placements and internships.
“I’m very happy about the questions which were asked,” said U of T President Robert Birgeneau after the session was over. “I was also very pleased and impressed with how well Provost Neuman spoke on her feet.”
Neuman herself thought the meeting was a success. “I think there were a lot of good ideas raised,” she said afterwards. “I think there was a good level of engagement.”
Noting the small number of undergraduate students in the room, Neuman said that it was the first of twelve meetings, and that she felt confident there would be a higher undergraduate turnout in the future. “We’re holding [the meetings] in the colleges to encourage undergrads to attend,” she said. “I wish that undergraduates, as well as grad students, will participate in the process.”
Representatives from the Students’ Administrative Council and the Graduate Students’ Union, said they could not yet comment because they were still discussing the green papers, which were first made available last week, but would be involved in the planning process as much as possible.
Sean Mullin, an undergraduate representative on the Governing Council, encouraged students to give their input.
“I want to make sure that as many students as possible are getting involved in this,” said Mullin late on Friday. “I think [the green papers] are very ambitious documents. They’re good now, but we want to look at what’s missing.”
Neuman also encouraged students and staff to point out omissions in the plan, and make suggestions as well. An on-line discussion board, the meetings, and a dedicated e-mail address are all available to send in suggestions (see sidebar). Neuman stressed that the process must involve as many people as possible to make it truly representative of the university’s population. “After all,” she said, “lots of heads are better than one.”
