July 22, 2010
Dear Chair Petch, Vice-Chair Nunn, President Naylor, Provost Misak and other distinguished colleagues and members of the Governing Council of the University of Toronto,
On 13 July 2010 the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences issued his Academic Plan for 2010-2015. A few days earlier some of its provisions had been transmitted to the departments involved, and concern was already being expressed. When the complete plan was circulated the major provisions and their implications created astonishment in those affected by them and among many others with overlapping academic missions: the smaller language departments conflated into a single School of Languages and Literatures, a number of Centres dismantled, including the disestablishment of the university’s internationally-known Centre for Comparative Literature. The Dean’s Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) was small and it worked without real consultation with the stakeholders whose roles it intended to change. Furthermore, the committee announced a tight schedule of deadlines by which time its recommendations were expected to be in place. Though “town hall” consultations have been promised in the fall, there is concern that these may proceed on the assumption that the Plan’s recommendations will be accepted. News about the proposed changes has already produced much national and international comment, in effect putting the reputation of the university at risk.
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read the full letter at http://academicplan.ca/2010/08/24/letter-to-the-governing-council/
