U of T’s Governing Council has always stunk of tokenism when it comes to student representation. With just eight students on the 50-member committee-a full 25 of whom are appointed by the provincial government-the university has made it quite clear that its students are to be seen and not heard.
Now that U of T’s Presidential Search Committee has been named, that tokenism is no longer a vague impression, a hunch, or a feeling: it is a mathematical fact.
The committee that will choose U of T’s next president has 15 members. Three of those are students. The number of votes needed to approve the presidential candidate? Twelve. This means that the next president of this university could conceivably be chosen without even one student voting in favour.
Instead of just flat out telling us “it doesn’t matter what you think,”-which is, no mistaking, the message here-Governing Council thought it would look better to let three students sit at the grownup table, secure in the knowledge that they could safely ignore their shrieks and whines. This is not just patronizing; it insults our intelligence.
Since the votes of the three students who are on the search committee are essentially empty gestures, The Varsity suggests a novel way of using them: Don’t cast those votes. For any candidate. Propose something else, something new.
Don’t elect a new president: abolish the office.
What does the president do? Why do we need one? U of T was essentially without a president throughout August, after Robert Birgeneau announced he was shucking his contract three years early and going to California (some would argue we were without a president for the four years he was here, too). Employees got paid; floors got swept; professors kept teaching; the walls didn’t cave in; the burning flesh of the damned didn’t rain from the skies. Things pretty much went on as they had before.
So why the rush to find another seat-warmer for Simcoe Hall?
President Birgeneau abandoned his post-why don’t we do the same? Let’s leave the office of president empty and just save ourselves the $400,000 salary. The actual operations of the university are looked after by the vice-presidents; we have a ceremonial figurehead already in the Chancellor, Vivienne Poy; the finances are looked after by University of Toronto Asset Management and the VP Finance; fundraising is looked after by the Development office; recruitment is in the hands of Admissions and Awards; working with students is handled by Student Affairs; and the faculties do most of their own hiring. The few actual ceremonial and organizational duties of the president can be farmed out among these offices.
The president’s office at Simcoe Hall could be turned into a museum of U of T history; the president’s swank Rosedale residence into student housing.
The job of president essentially consisted of two things: being the face of the university to the public, and shaking the hands of as many rich people as possible so that they’ll write large cheques. These are both important tasks, but they don’t depend on a president to make them happen. Remember, President Birgeneau neither loomed large in the public eye (ask ten random people who the president of U of T is or was-could any of them name him?) nor did he fatten the university’s bottom line (the fundraising campaign which recently topped $1 billion was mostly the work of his predecessor, Robert Prichard). The university is still standing today, and doesn’t seem much worse or better off than it did before Birgeneau arrived.
When Chancellor Poy retires from her post, give the position to a Canadian celebrity, someone with instant name-recognition, and pump up the budget of the development office to boost fundraising. Both presidential duties are distributed to professionals, and the university isn’t wasting its money, time, and effort on finding a warm body to fill an almost totally redundant position.
W.C. Fields said “I never vote for things. I only vote against.” Instead of voting for a new president, we encourage the 15 members of the presidential search committee, and especially its three student members-Bruce Cameron, Linda Gardner, and Mahadeo Sukhai-to vote against the office of president, period.
