Senate Meeting Report, 2010-11-17

From: Marc Richard
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 6:51 PM
Cc: Marc Richard
Subject: Senate Meeting Report, 2010-11-17

Colleagues,

The following is a summary of the Senate meeting which took place on Wednesday, November 17, 2010.

The meeting began with Dean Manfredi presenting a resolution on the death of Professor Catherine Shaw and Dean Madramootoo presenting a resolution on the death of Professor Guy Mehuys.

Senate adopted the minutes of the last Senate meeting (not yet posted), the report of the Steering Committee (not yet posted) and the agenda (

In her remarks from the Chair, Principal Munroe-Blum discussed the Strategic Re-framing Initiative (SRI), about which she has recently sent a memo to the McGill community. She remarked that McGill's preeminence in university rankings is fragile because its reputation and leadership in areas it has traditionally taken for granted is increasingly being challenged in Canada and internationally. McGill is facing more and more competition for funding and for academic and student talent. The SRI is being undertaken because McGill needs to look at how it does things, how it is performing and how it is using its resources, and because it needs to determine how it can work better rather than more.

Further to this section of the Principal's remarks, Senator Janda asked in what way the SRI was connected with the process currently underway to produce a 2012 White Paper that will revise the 2006 "Strengths and Aspirations" White Paper. The Principal responded that the SRI aimed to make sure that McGill was not missing any opportunities to revamp its processes in parallel with the White Paper strategic planning process, and to ensure that it has the tools with which to do so.

Principal Munroe-Blum next discussed the forthcoming Rencontre des Partenaires en Éducation, which will take place on December 6. About 140 groups and individuals (mostly the former) have received invitations to participate in this day-long event, which will involve workshops in the morning, an afternoon plenary and a wrap-up session. There will be distinct thematic tables on accessibility, performance and funding. Principal Munroe-Blum will be there to present CREPUQ's perspective. This perspective is still being developed, but a major message will be that the funding of Quebec universities is falling behind and that the government must reinvest in this sector.

In the period for formal questions, Senator Abaki asked a question regarding the student-centered university ( Responding to the first part of the question, which concerned the difference between policies, procedures, guidelines, regulations and administrative decisions, Provost Masi noted that a very similar question was asked in Senate on a previous occasion, and indicated that a link would be provided to the detailed answer which had been given at that time. One distinction which he pointed out was that true regulations and policies require governance approval (i.e. from the Board, from Senate, or from a committee of one of these bodies), whereas guidelines and procedures may or may not require such approval, depending on their subject and purpose. The Provost added that the implementation of policies is typically the province of administrative decisions, and that the Administration makes various reports to governance bodies (whose domain involves strategies, policies and accountability) on the implementation of policies. Regarding the claims made in the last two elements of the question, the Provost expressed the view that these assertions were unsupported by evidence. He stated that the Administration has indeed reaffirmed its commitment to the principles outlined in the Principal's Task Force on Student Life and Learning, and has provided mechanisms (such as the Report Card) by which to hold itself accountable. He acknowledged that some lacunae have been identified, and that more must be done in these areas.

In a follow-up question, Senator Abaki asked whether there might be student representation in the process for setting tuition fees. Provost Masi responded that tuition fees are not actually a policy; they are an administrative decision made in the context of the Quebec government's policy on tuition, within whose parameters McGill must operate.

The next question, from Senator Reid, concerned space constraints for out-of-faculty students ( Deputy-Provost Mendelson responded by describing the two most obvious constraints on student registration: the availability of space (such as labs) and the availability of staff (such as faculty members and lab demonstrators). In view of these constraints, registration priority must be given to students who need a particular course to complete their programs.

The final question, from Senator Possian, was on the subject of advising ( In her response, Dean Everett indicated that the restrictions of Bill 100 do not apply to staff providing services to students. Increased budgetary resources have been allocated to advising. Advising was a topic included in a report submitted to the Deputy-Provost in February 2010; Dean Everett listed highlights from this report and also discussed some recent developments.

Provost Masi presented a report on the recent Joint Board-Senate meeting ( and Dean Kreiswirth gave a PowerPoint presentation (not yet posted) on the current state of graduate and postdoctoral studies at McGill ( Following Dean Kreiswirth's presentation, Senator Sieber asked if he would entertain suggestions from Senators and others regarding questions for future surveys. Dean Kreiswirth responded that such suggestions would be welcome.

The next agenda item was a follow-up discussion on the 2012-2016 White Paper ( during which Provost Masi invited feedback from Senators. Referring to an earlier remark by the Principal concerning the different methodologies and emphases of the various university rankings (such as the high value placed by one particular ranking on Nobel Prize winners), Senator Richard commented that such rankings should be used judiciously because anchoring McGill too slavishly to these measures could distort what the University does and lead it to pursue goals which did not fit the institution. Provost Masi concurred, noting that while McGill likes to be among the world's best universities, it does not structure its management around the rankings. Senator Janda expressed surprise at how little McGill's research focus was reflected in the strategic planning document, and asked whether the University should not be trying to identify the most important research question it ought to be pursuing. Provost Masi responded that some consideration had been given to this issue, and that a number of fields such as neuroscience have been designated as areas of strength. Senator McDonough commented that, in addition to identifying areas of strength, it is important to explain why McGill is strong in these areas.

Senator Ma approved of the twin goal of achieving lower student-faculty ratios and smaller average class sizes, but asked how both objectives could be attained in the current financial context. Provost Masi acknowledged that it was a challenge to do both; compared to the Canadian average, McGill has been successful in the first category but has not done so well in the second one. On the subject of deferred maintenance, Senator Wade stated that the University has made great strides in academic renewal but that it is also necessary to provide academic staff with the infrastructure they need. Senator Dudek, referring to the fourteen proposed areas of action listed among the questions submitted to Senate, remarked that the more goals a strategic plan contains, the less strategic it becomes. Provost Masi indicated that one of the purposes of the present consultation was in fact to consider whether McGill should still be pursuing all of these goals.

Senator Lawson expressed concern that accessibility of education was not explicitly mentioned. On the topic of the aggressive academic renewal that has been pursued in recent years, Senator Deguise asked whether it was not time to move into a stabilization mode. Provost Masi responded that "aggressive" did not necessarily have just a numeric sense. Dean Jutras expressed the view that the document being studied included a number of givens, and that in order for it to be a strategic plan it needed to focus on measurable targets and actionable items.

At the conclusion of the discussion, Provost Masi indicated that there would be one more session in Senate on the White Paper, and he invited continued input on this topic by way of emails addressed to his office.

The next two items of business were a presentation on Campaign McGill ( by V.-P. Weinstein and Professor Yalovsky, and the presentation of the 423rd report of the Academic Policy Committee ( The last agenda item was the adoption of the report of the Senate Nominating Committee ( further to which the Provost provided an update on the proposed revisions to the terms of reference of the Committee on the Rights of Senate. The Nominating Committee has been discussing the report submitted to it by the C.R.S. in this regard, and will continue to do so at least for its next meeting. The Nominating Committee will bring its recommendations to Senate once it has completed its review.

The next Senate meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 8, 2010 . If you have any questions, please get in touch with us.

Regards,

Your librarian Senate reps,

Jodie Hebert

Joan Hobbins

Marc Richard