U of S Plan on web as May 7 deadline nears

With the bulk of the draft U of S Plan for 2003-07 posted on the University’s PAWS web portal April 9, the campus community has now had a week to read and react to the far-reaching document.

The plan offers a vision and many details for a vigorous renewal of the U of S. It proposes revving up some already-successful programs, eliminating a few low-enrolment ones, creating a number of new programs in areas of U of S strength, and using flexible and innovative new ways to support teaching and learning.

At the same time the plan will have the University become much more rigorous in its efforts to cut costs and gain revenue from its business and academic activities.

The tone throughout the more-than-40-page document is that colleges and administrative units must be flexible and open to change and new arrangements, and must work hard over the next three years if the U of S is to achieve its Strategic Directions and become one of Canada’s “tier one research universities”.

Approval by University Council, the Senate and the Board of Governors of President Peter MacKinnon's new Strategic Directions for the U of S two years ago marked the first step in the University’s comprehensive integrated planning process. Since then, Provost & Vice-President Academic Michael Atkinson has overseen integrated planning, which has included drafting of foundational documents on key issues and development by each college and administrative unit of its own plan for 2003-07. From all this, the Provost’s Committee on Integrated Planning (PCIP), with the advice of Council and the college deans, has drafted the U of S plan, which will go, along with the University’s first-ever multi-year budget, to the Board of Governors for consideration and approval May 7.

At press time, the schedule called for Council to consider the plan at its April 15 meeting and then again at a special April 29 meeting, when it will be asked by Atkinson to approve it. Highlights of the draft U of S Plan for 2003-07 include:

Core Themes

Like the college and unit plans from which it draws, the University plan attempts to promote the U of S Strategic Directions – adhering to international standards, attaining academic pre-eminence in certain fields, maintaining a strong sense of place, intensifying research and graduate education, and recruiting high-quality faculty and a diverse and academically promising body of students.

The plan credits the Systematic Program Review (SPR) of academic programs over the past five years with greatly improving the college plans and the current integrated planning process.

It calls for much more interdisciplinarity in academic programs at the U of S in future, noting “The number of Schools, Institutes and Centres proposed in various (college) plans suggests that changes will also be required in organizational arrangements.”

It says resources will be shifted away from low-priority programs in favour of higher-priority programs.

And it adds resources must be saved and spent effectively. And “there are sources of revenue – gained through fundraising, targeted programming, external grants and contracts, cost-recovery activities and the like – that have not been fully exploited.” If colleges want to pursue new initiatives, they will often be required to match central administration’s funding with revenues they can generate from other sources.

Strategic Initiatives

The U of S Plan tackles head-on the role a major university should play in the province and asks how the University can engage Saskatchewan through its teaching, research and outreach missions. It suggests that program initiatives in six areas flow from the University’s sense of place in the province and western Canada.

It says the U of S must focus resources and programs in health-sciences education and research, “aimed principally at addressing pressing issues of importance to the people of Saskatchewan and to the country at large.” By 2007 the U of S plans to form at least 10 major research groups on areas like infectious diseases, the relationship between animal and human health care, and the new medical beamline at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron. It will create a Masters of Public Health, possibly a new graduate program in Vaccinology, a new Interprofessional Health Sciences Council, a new School of Biomedical Sciences, and new BA and B.Sc. programs in health.
The plan wants more U of S engagement with the questions of science, technology and society – so it proposes: higher enrolments in many science disciplines; a bolstered computer engineering program; a new graduate program in biotechnology; and a New Media Centre that promotes collaboration between the fine arts, humanities and information and communications technologies.
High priority will be given to initiatives including: a joint Agriculture and Arts & Science development of an Environmental Sciences undergraduate program; more support for the Toxicology Centre and the Northern Ecosystems Toxicology Initiative (NETI); and a new multidisciplinary graduate program in environmental sciences.
The plan wants to boost commerce education, including: a flexible five-year program giving students both a BA and B.Comm. degree; and entrepreneurship programs in Agriculture, Arts & Science, Commerce, and Engineering.
It wants to increase Aboriginal-related programs, including: development of a new Aboriginal Secondary Teacher Education Program; increased faculty and resources to the Department of Native Studies; creation of an Aboriginal education research centre; and outreach from the College of Agriculture to Aboriginal people.
The plan proposes reengaging the whole academic community in extending the University into the province. This will likely mean some of the current Extension Division’s role will go into a new Continuing Education Unit which will offer non-credit and certificate programming on a total cost-recovery basis. Another aspect of Extension Division’s link with the community will be recast as “engagement” by all colleges and units across campus. The plan says a Foundational Document on outreach and engagement will be development and at the same time “measures will be taken to reassign the work of faculty in the Extension Division so that where possible their activities are better integrated with the outreach and engagement priorities of colleges and units.”
The plan proposes the possible creation of a new Centre for International Studies within the College of Arts & Science, and development of an interdisciplinary master of international trade program.
“The U of S should make the creation of a School of Public Policy a high priority,” the plan adds.
The plan suggests spending $5 million from fundraising sources to create chairs in areas like Aboriginal, environmental science, public policy, health, and computer engineering, and possibly others.

Supporting Success

The University is making a commitment to support students with more scholarships. The plan calls for a boost to graduate scholarships of at least $1 million by 2007 and topping up the new faculty award program by $200,000.
The U of S will spend an additional $500,000 per year for the next two years for undergraduate scholarships, mainly aimed at gifted students.
Additional funding of $350,000 will go to the Student & Enrolment Services Division for student recruitment and a study of key factors in retaining students. SESD will also look at creating a single Academic Skills Centre for students, offering help with math, writing and other skills.
A programs of math and science help for Aboriginal students will be considered.
The U of S will look at expanding work-based learning.
The plan proposes a major push to quintuple the amount of externally funded international research contracts. It also wants the new Industry Liaison Office to promote closer links between U of S researchers and outside organizations to promote commercialization of research.
The plan proposes creation of a new Learning Centre which would include the Gwenna Moss Teaching & Learning Centre, the Extension Division’s Centre for Distributed Learning and other units aimed at research and skills development in teaching and learning skills.
The Library is being recognized as a major research tool for many on campus. It will continue to get five-per-cent annual acquisition budget increases.

Changing Practices

The plan recognizes the need for the University to be more efficient in its use of resources, and the associate vice-presidents have been working on this goal for some time, including leading a thorough review of all business practices .
U of S International will be split up with its student support function going into a new Global Commons for international students and students wishing to study abroad, its research support function going to the Vice-President Research office to support more international research contracts, and its protocol and international visits function going into the University Secretary’s office.
The management of faculty positions will change from “position-by-position” approval to a process of colleges giving the Provost a prioritized list of proposed faculty appointments.
Deans will be urged to ensure equitable faculty workloads, taking into account graduate student supervision.
There may be an effort to look at more use of classroom space to off-peak days and times.
A policy will be adopted that “if the U of S cannot provide a service at a competitive rate internally, or on a for-profit basis, or at minimum cost-recovery basis, the service will be discontinued.” Conversely, the University may also look at whether some services being provided by external companies could be done more cheaply in-house.

Enriching the Physical Environment

The plan provides an update on dozens of capital projects either underway, planned or possible over the 2003-07 period.

Additional plan sections on Changing Structures and Measuring our Progress will be posted on the PAWS web portal over the next week. The Changing Structures section builds on the college and unit integrated plans which identified a host of other organizational arrangements like institutes, schools and centres that would offer new ways for the University to configure itself differently to meet its challenges.

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

News Index

Home · About Us · Issue Dates · Submissions · Ad Information · Back Issues · OCN Policies · Search OCN