Atkinson back as Provost after restorative year on leave

By Colleen MacPherson

Provost and Vice-President Academic Michael Atkinson Photo by Colleen MacPherson

Taking a year's leave of absence from a position in the upper echelons of a university, including in the U of S, is far from the norm, but Michael Atkinson believes doing just that benefited not only himself but the institution as well.

The Provost and Vice-President Academic reclaimed his office in August after spending a year of administrative leave as a visiting professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Western Ontario in London. It was a restorative 12 months, he said, a valuable break that was absolutely key to his acceptance of a second five-year term as Provost.

"I could not have stayed in this job another year or so without having to stop and rebalance work and life," said a thinner, fitter-looking Atkinson. For the Provost, work pressures are always immense "and although I don't resent it, it's just part of the job, if you don't have time for your children and your spouse, if they've lost out", a nice long leave is one way to make amends.

Very few Academic Vice-Presidents take a full year off. Leaves of two to three months are much more common and when Atkinson announced his plan, what he heard from his colleagues across the country was, "aren't you afraid that everything will go to hell?". To this, Atkinson replied no, even though his departure would come in the middle of the massive and complex Integrated Planning process.

"My view was that we were putting together great momentum around the President's vision, around the deans, around the whole organization. Instead of worrying about it, I thought it would be a good thing. It would be a chance to test the continuity of our messages and a chance to hear a new voice from this office which shapes the occupant as much as the occupant shapes it. I also knew we had a great team who understand what we're trying to do, and would stay the course."

"I never would have left if we hadn't gotten out the President's Strategic Directions and the Provost's White Paper on Integrated Planning," he continued. "Once that was done, it was time to go. And I think it's good for people to have a little bit of a break from me."

So Atkinson, his wife Heather McWhinney and their four-year-old daughter Claire moved to London and took up residence in a rented apartment that he said they furnished "like grad students" with used furniture and no television. It was one thing they decided they could live without, and they did.

In London, the change in his pace of life was dramatic, from a culture where he was often "locked into days of dealing with the crisis of the week" to hours of solitude spent reading in the library and writing. But the transition took some time.

"I had to get the University out of my system, and that took a little while. I started out reading and writing about universities but then somewhere around November (2002), I decided I didn't want to do that any more."

That's when he made the switch to writing about political corruption and preparing a fourth-year seminar course on democratic theory that he is now teaching here.

"It brought me back to my own discipline, back to my academic pursuits, back to the future really because in the future, either there will be another position for me out there or I'll go back to research and teaching, and that's an attractive option."

Atkinson said he has always mourned his loss of involvement in research and teaching, so returning from leave with a seminar course was particularly satisfying. Students, he said, bring a freshness that is revitalizing.

In the spring, he also travelled to the United Kingdom to make contact with universities and funding councils in that country "with an eye to bringing back here an appreciation of the evolution of the British education system". He looked particularly at how British universities are grappling with tuition issues, and at how much further advanced the economic development role of universities is there compared to Canada.

Here he observed strong links between universities and the industrial and social issues that exist in their immediate areas. From this experience, Atkinson said he sees a need "to work out our social and economic development role and ask how does that roll out programmatically?"

And now he's making the readjustment back to the hectic life of a Provost, a transition that has certainly been made easier by both the welcome he's received and the good condition of his office.

Atkinson was almost overwhelmed by the reception he got when he returned in August. While that could be due, in part, to the fact "some people thought I might not come back, it really makes it easier to come to work every day if people are genuinely pleased to see you."

Ken Coates, Dean of Arts and Science who served at Acting Provost over the last year, deserves most if not all the credit for keeping the office moving forward, he said, and he was pleased to see that Coates benefited from the full support of the deans.

"When I got back, I found there were some files that had moved along further than I'd expected and others not as far. I was delighted to find that we'd reached an agreement with the Faculty Association and I was delighted with the work that had been done on the Aboriginal and internationalization (foundational) documents. And the College of Medicine is in far better shape than when I left."

Atkinson himself is also in better shape, having lost 20 pounds during his leave. As the primary grocery shopper for the family and in charge of packing his own lunches, "I realized there was no reason why I shouldn't be more disciplined about the food I ate". The challenge now is to maintain a healthy eating pattern, no easy feat when faced with the growing popularity of breakfast meetings, he said.

Yet of all the things he did during his leave, none brought him more pleasure than spending a year with Claire.

As he begins his sixth year as Provost, Atkinson makes no predictions about his tenure. He's aware that his seminar teaching this term is "building a bridge back to my discipline ... because there always comes a time when one's effectiveness and satisfaction in these jobs ends". The key, he believes, "is not to be afraid of stepping away and frankly, there are other things in life."

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