The first public presentation of the University's latest Foundational Document started out with a strong statement of expectations about research, scholarly and artistic activity - all faculty are expected to do such work, and the U of S is expected to support it "to the fullest extent possible".

At a campus town hall meeting Jan. 23 attended by about 75 people, the Research, Scholarly and Artistic Work Plan was summarized by Acting Provost Ken Coates and Bryan Harvey, Acting Vice-President Research, who recalled for the audience a time when "research was something you did on the side". That contrasts sharply with today's understanding that research is "a hallmark of the institution". He added that the U of S remains committed to the teacher-scholar model and the integration of research into all activities.

Harvey pointed out that the use of the word 'research' alone instead of 'research, scholarly and artistic' was for the sake of brevity only.

Referring to a graph illustrating research revenue by source, Harvey explained the Saskatchewan government's contribution to the University in 2001-02 equaled 31 per cent of all research revenue, with 17 per cent coming from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and another 10 per cent from the federal government. One very important source of money, he said, was the Tri-Council which contributed 18 per cent of the year's total, and funding "from the big, bad corporations" was around five percent. This is a source of funding the University "has just recently started tracking more closely".

"Whatever we do, we can't get away from the fact that independent scholarly inquiry is the centerpiece of university life," Harvey said, but the plan suggests the U of S must make "careful and considered choices" among research initiatives to ensure the best opportunities are available.

A number of activities designed to support research are outlined in the work plan. Harvey said that to create research opportunities, the University must address issues like balancing faculty workloads, adding that "we're not going to see an extra $50- or $100-million from Regina to hire faculty so we have to be innovative". This could include making more use of sessional lecturers, he said, adding later during a question period that this is a strategy that should be considered but not one "that should be pushed". He then suggested the University's best professors might be best used teaching first-year classes, which is not always the case today, and that sessional lecturers have a part to play in finding creative solutions to sharing workload.

Implementing the teacher-scholar model is also listed in the work plan as a way of supporting research activity, but Kinesiology Professor Jim McClements commented later in the meeting that "as each Foundational Document unfolds, each starts with a commitment to the teacher-scholar model, but then it tends to drop out of the rest of the document." He cautioned the University to "take care" that document recommendations support the model. "We have to be careful," he said, "that we don't naturally assume this (the teacher-scholar model) is going to happen just because we're doing all these other things."

Mathematician Murray Bremner suggested that new career streams developing from the yet-to-be-released faculty complement plan will see the University in fact move away from the teacher-scholar model.

Coates responded by admitting the balance between teaching and scholarly work varies over the years so "there is no one model that fits everybody". Consideration should be given to "how people age. We have to look at the structures we have and the assumptions we make" in order to support people and "help people make changes".

Other research-supportive activities outlined in the work plan include: expanded training programs; mentoring of post-doctoral students; and more involvement of undergraduate students. The role of the office of the Vice-President Research was also addressed. Here, the plan advocates the office maintain a database of activities and expertise, provide faculty with timely information about research opportunities and funding, encourage research partnerships, and "establish funding to facilitate research success".

Harvey said research can also be supported by engaging professors emeriti, a group he described as "a huge resource". The University must also celebrate its research excellence - "We have to quit being Canadian and brag about it. Unless we put it on the map, Saskatchewan is off the beaten path for most people."

The plan goes on to outline financial and resource needs like space for research activities and graduate students as being key to meeting the University's Strategic Direction goal of increasing research intensiveness. It also states that the institution needs to set research priorities, "core areas (of research) essential to a medical/doctoral university", Harvey said.

A number of research fields of excellence have already developed at the U of S - Aboriginal, biotechnology, agriculture, health - and others will emerge for initiatives like College plans, Harvey said. But Biology Professor Peta Bonham-Smith commented that "areas of excellence shouldn't be named. They've got no place in a Foundational Document" because they will evolve from the process.

Another audience member suggested that instead of fields of excellence arising from College plans, "some may want fields of mediocrity", to which Harvey replied that naming the existing areas of excellence is a way to alert Colleges that "they need to be aware these fields exist and they need to be included in their plans."

Coates added that the challenge is to build a research culture at the U of S and build toward research excellence by "getting everyone involved".

Engineering Professor David Dodds pointed out that while there is intensive research in fields key to Saskatchewan like agriculture and health, there has been no commitment to research that would benefit the provincial economy in areas like oil, gas, mining and manufacturing. Harvey acknowledged the point and suggested Dodd "convince us, convince the University and then convince the government that we bloody well should have this".

"This," said Coates, "is the kind of discussion these documents were designed to spark."

For more information, contact communications.office@usask.ca

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