More Master’s programs?
Cheryl Misak, U of T vice-president and provost, told the council that the university has too many student spaces for its PhD programs and not enough for its Master’s programs. In the current economic climate, she said, students are looking for a relatively short-term qualification that will put them in a better position for employment once the economy improves.
“We would like to reallocate the number of our doctoral student spaces to Master’s student spaces because we have intense student demand. The queue for our professional Master’s programs is threatening to circle around the block,” said Misak.
The Council of Ontario Universities has joined U of T in asking for the provincial government to allow the university the ability to reallocate graduate spaces, but the province has not budged yet. Misak insists it would cost the province almost nothing to grant the request.
Capital projects approved
Governing Council approved the construction of a new electrical grid to make more power available to the Medical Sciences Building. A brief provided to the council noted that as the university’s research activities expand, electrical systems that support existing buildings come under increasing strain. A second project involves the construction of an upgraded IT facility at Scarborough Campus, to be completed by January 2010 at a total cost of $3.9 million.
Much ado over election rules
Several major changes to Governing Council’s elections rules provoked much debate. GC reduced the election season from five to three weeks, partly in response to complaints from students that the lengthy campaign period interfered with their studies.
In addition, the number of signatures required to be eligible to run for GC was reduced from 20 to five. Some members argued that collecting 20 signatures was too onerous and discouraged participation while others said they felt it improved the quality of candidates. When GC referred the issue to an expert on electoral procedure, the expert concluded that there was no compelling reason to reduce the number of signatures and recommended that the university undergo a trial period before fully instituting the change.
Speaking rights
Governors clashed over speaking rights for Jeff Peters, a former governor who has a speech impediment and speaks through a translator. Peters disagreed with another proposed change to the election rules that would have allowed students participating in the Professional Experience Year program to vote in GC elections as full-time undergraduates. He noted that the change did not go through the University Affairs Committee as the other changes did, and urged GC to send the proposal back.
Peters was then asked to wrap up his comments by GC chair John Petch. GC rules set the maximum time for a speaking request at five minutes. Joeita Gupta, a student governor representing part-time undergraduates, spoke up and said Peters should be given at least 10 minutes due to his speech impediment. Peters was granted two more minutes, but got out little more than a sentence before the chair reminded him that he had a minute left.
Gupta’s frustration boiled over. “As a governor I’m disgusted with what we just saw,” she said. Another governor, Geoffrey Matus, objected to Gupta’s remarks. “I feel that it’s completely unacceptable for members of APUS to call your actions disgusting,” he said to the chair. “I’ve been on the Governing Council now for five years and I feel like I’ve been hijacked by it. […] We have to listen to the same stuff every time and we give them an enormous amount of rope.” A few members applauded his remarks.
Concerns over Israeli Apartheid Week
Florence Minz, a government appointee, criticized U of T in light of the upcoming sixth annual Israeli Apartheid Week in February. She felt that the university should demand the name be changed.
“The title indicates that the discussion is over. A conclusion has been reached,” said Minz. “There is a name for this: it is propaganda.”
Another governor agreed with Minz but raised the possibility that any actions taken against Israeli Apartheid Week ran the risk of raising the event’s profile, which he felt was currently poorly publicized and relatively ineffectual. The council agreed to look into these concerns.
This article has been updated. A previous version incorrectly reported this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week as the fourth annual event, and Professional Experience Year as Professional Engineering Year.
