Kenneth Mills and Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Letter to the Academic Council

Read the letter at: http://academicplan.ca/2010/08/24/letter-to-the-academic-council/
. . .
 
6 August 2010
Lannor Mallon, Manager
Faculty Governance and Curriculum

Glenn Loney, Assistant Dean & Faculty Secretary and Registrar
 And all members of the Academic Council

Dear colleagues,

We hope this letter and its two attachments find you well. We are sorry to write in mid-summer, in interruption of precious research- and rejuvenation time, and before membership on the Academic Council for 2010-11 is secure and its meetings are set. We trust you will communicate this message and the letters to all new members and appropriate parties.

As you will see, a group of department chairs and directors and concerned colleagues of many kinds, have written, first, to to the Governing Council and, second, to Dean Gertler to expressing concerns about the process leading up to the A&S Academic Plan, and about aspects of the Plan itself. If it were not mid-summer and time permitted, it is reasonable to assume that the lists of signatories would be rather longer. The Faculty’s recent moves to converse with unit heads and others about the changes proposed by the Strategic Planning Committee, and to reassure that a consultation process will follow, are very welcome. But we still look forward to learning about the specifics and the scope of the process, and whether, to put it bluntly, eveything will be on the table for consideration, modification if – when deemed appropriate – rejection. As such, our letters register: that we are particularly concerned by the Strategic Planning Committee’s lack of consultation with academic leaders and key stakeholders in reaching its particular recommendations and considering alternatives for addressing what we agree is a grave budgetary situation; that preparations towards implementation of the Plan have in some cases begun before discussion and approval; and that several of the elements proposed at the Plan’s core lack persuasive academic rationale and intellectual justification, or, at very least require considerable attention and development; and that, to reiterate a central point from above, it has not been demonstrated that the proposals – and not alternatives – are our best solutions to battle a deficit which we understand to be serious.

We’re aware of the integral role which your body, the Academic Council, plays in evaluating Faculty policy and procedure, and in advising the Governing Council, and thus send on these letters for your consideration at this time and going into the autumn of 2010. We would be grateful for your reassurance that they will be passed on to the AC’s membership for the next academic year.

With warm best wishes for the rest of summer and for our important discussions ahead,

Kenneth Mills and Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi

 . . . 
Read the letter at: http://academicplan.ca/2010/08/24/letter-to-the-academic-council/