The Following Is a Brief Summary of the Senate Meeting Which Took Place on Wednesday, May
From: Allibrarians [mailto: On Behalf Of Jim Henderson
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 3:43 PM
To:
Subject: Re: Senate Meeting Report, 2007-05-23
Colleagues,
The following is a brief summary of the Senate meeting which took place on Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Principal Heather Munroe-Blum opened this final Senate meeting of the 2006-2007 academic year by thanking for their service the Senators who were finishing their term. She welcomed observers from the State Institutes of Islamic Studies (IAIN) in Indonesia. Dean Grant then presented a eulogy for Professor Robert Nicholls.
In her remarks from the Chair, the Principal announced that the new Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance), Mr. François R. Roy, would be taking office on June 4. His appointment was approved by the Board of Governors on May 22, as was that of Professor Ellen B. Aitken as the new Dean of the Faculty of Religious Studies. The Principal thanked outgoing Dean of Religious Studies Barry Levy for his contributions. Work is actively underway to clear the approval processes to set up the facilities of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM).
On the federal scene, the government announced last week its Science and Technology Strategy, which McGill welcomes. On the provincial scene, in the wake of the financial difficulties being experienced by UQAM, the Principal published a letter in last Saturday's Le Devoir reaffirming McGill's commitment to good governance. CREPUQ's Executive Committee met last week with Education Minister Michelle Courchesne to discuss topics which included university financing. The government and the minister remain committed to reinvestment in education and to the principle that increased tuition fees will not result in a decrease in government funding to universities; on the negative side, no refinancing before the 2008/09 year is expected. Planning is underway for this fall's annual joint Board/Senate meeting; its theme will be sustainability.
In the period for questions, Senator Bouchard asked a question on the availability of scholarships and prizes for mature and second degree undergraduates. Provost Masi quoted the financial support goals given in the report of the Principal's Task Force on Student Life and Learning at McGill; he distinguished between the forms of financial support which are based on need and those which are based on merit, and reviewed the forms of funding which were available to mature and second degree undergraduates.
A second question posed by Senator Bouchard dealt with exams and advising for interdisciplinary undergraduate programs. On the first matter, the Provost answered that the goal is to provide conflict-free exam scheduling for everyone; it is impossible to achieve this fully, given the many constraints that are involved, but that the typical number of conflicts each semester -- about 100 to 200 conflicts out of 38,000 exams -- is quite low. On the second matter, the Provost said that advising questions should generally be taken to the deans; he added, however, that the report of the Principal's Task Force on Student Life and Learning included recommendations on advising, and that he will report more fully in the fall on the initiatives underway in this regard.
The Provost presented a report on the 2007-2008 budget. The budget places a greater focus on what the University is spending its money on rather than on where it is spending it. The budget was supposed to be approved next week by the Board of Governors, with input from Senate, but, because of a rescheduling of the Board meeting to May 22, the budget was adopted a day prior to today's Senate meeting. The Provost indicated he would work hard next year to see that this kind of scheduling problem does not happen again. The budget document ( has a number of typos which will be corrected before the document is finalized. This will include re-labeling the column in the headcount table on page 8 of the document (page 16 of the PDF file linked above) which presently reads "Librarian: 197". The re-labeling will make clear which categories of library staff are included in this count, and whether tenured / tenure-track librarians are already counted in the column labeled "Tenure Track: 1,586." The Provost brought attention to effects of the continuing academic renewal, with 800 new professors hired in the past 10 years. His presentation included a graph showing the gap between the number of faculty that were expected to retire versus those that actually have; more have continued to work than expected.
V.-P. Dowsett Johnston gave an update on the upcoming launch (on October 18) of McGill's funding campaign ( noting that it will designated the "Comprehensive Campaign" rather than "Capital Campaign".
Senate approved / adopted the following:
*** 391st Report of the Academic Policy and Planning Committee (D06-69).
*** Policy on the Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Human Subjects (D06-73).
*** Safe Disclosure Policy (D06-72). The text adopted ( has been significantly revised in light of feedback received at the March 28 Senate meeting; these revisions are described here: An amendment on the floor of Senate added an article 7.3, which will appear in the final published text.
*** Employment Equity Policy (D06-68).
*** Report of the Nominating Committee (D06-71). Note that, as part of the revision to the terms of reference of various Senate committees, the Academic Policy and Planning Committee (APPC) will henceforth be known as the Academic Policy Committee (APC). Part B of the Report of the Nominating Committee, the Annual Review of University Tenure Committees, Senate Standing Committees and Joint Committees, included, in addition to ex officio committee memberships of the Director of Libraries, the following librarian / library-related Senate committee memberships:
Committee On Continuing Education
Valerie Mayman - 2008
Committee On Information Systems And Technology Representatives of the Administrative Units:
Jane Aitkens - 2009
Committee On Physical Development
The Trenholme Director of Libraries' delegate [Lonnie Weatherby]
Committee On The Rights Of Senate
Marc Richard - 2009
Committee On Student Discipline
Cynthia Leive - 2009
Advisory Council On The Charter Of Students' Rights Joseph Hafner - 2010
Senate Committee On Libraries
The Provost, Chair [Professor Anthony C. Masi] The Trenholme Director of Libraries [Ms. Janine Schmidt] Chairs of the Library Advisory Committees (including Macdonald Campus):
Professor Andrea Bernasconi (Life Sciences) Professor Julie Cumming (Branches) t.b.a. (Macdonald Campus) Professor Robin Yates (Humanities and Social Sciences) Professor Luc Chouinard (Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics) Professor Jane Glenn (Law) Three faculty members appointed by Senate:
Professor David Ronis (Chemistry) - 2009 Professor Jody Heymann (Institute of Health and Social Policy) - 2009 Professor Carman Miller (Arts) - 2010 Two librarians appointed by Senate:
Mr. Jim Henderson - 2008
Ms. Cynthia Leive - 2010
One non-academic library staff member appointed by Senate:
Ms. Mary Lourenco (Nahum Gelber Law Library) - 2009 Vice-President (University Affairs) of SSMU, or delegate: Mr. Adrian Angus Three undergraduate students (one from Macdonald Campus):
Ms. Emma Loosigian
t.b.a.
t.b.a.
One graduate student: t.b.a.
One Continuing Education student: t.b.a.
Ms. Nancy St. Pierre, secretary
Senate received the following for information:
*** Annual Report of the Committee on Information Systems and Technology (D06-64)
*** Annual Report of the University Admissions Committee (D06-70)
The Principal concluded the meeting by thanking Secretary-General Johanne Pelletier and her team for their invaluable assistance to Senate during the year.
Minutes of Senate meetings from 1998 onward are available at the following URL, with minutes of current Senate meetings being posted shortly after their approval at the next Senate meeting:
Agendas for Senate meetings from 1998 onward are available at the following URL, with the agenda of upcoming meetings being posted a few days beforehand, i.e. sometime after the meeting of the Senate Steering Committee held the previous Wednesday:
Documentation for Senate meetings (excluding confidential documentation) from November 15, 2006 onward is available at the following URL, with the documentation for upcoming meetings being posted a few days beforehand, i.e. sometime after the meeting of the Senate Steering Committee held the previous Wednesday:
If you have any questions, please get in touch with us. The first Senate meeting of the new academic year will be held on September 19, 2007.
Regards,
Your Library Senate Reps,
Jim Henderson
John Hobbins
Marc Richard