Council Column

Planning Committee co-ordinates range of matters for Council

Prof. Jene Porter

By Jene Porter,
Chair, Planning Committee

The functioning of Council depends upon the work done by standing committees. They provide advice to the administration from time to  time, but their most important role is to present written reports with recommendations for Council’s decision. In addition to planning, a chief function of the Planning Committee is to synthesize recommendations that come from other committees so that Council can make a decision. 

Over the last four years, the Planning Committee has focused most of its activities on implementing the four goals identified in A Framework for Planning at the University of Saskatchewan (approved by Council in 1998):

1. Improving the quality of instructional programs

2. Intensifying research efforts.

3. Fostering the teacher-scholar model.

4. Responding to the needs of Aboriginal people.

The Planning Committee spends most of its time dealing with academic priorities and plans, in areas such as  new colleges, departments and programs, systematic program reviews, the process for academic decision-making, the operations forecast, and initiatives of Vice-President Atkinson in Integrated Planning, Framework for Aboriginal Programs, and Enrolment Planning.  Since Council’s decision is required where its exclusive academic jurisdiction applies, these various plans will have to be examined by the committee and then sent to Council for its decision.  The committee also deals with administrative academic issues like admission quotas, the Briercrest affiliation, and capital plans.

With a broad mandate to advise Council on academic priorities and to monitor the implementation of Council’s decisions and recommendations, Planning Committee meetings can cover six or seven topics ranging from the proposed Graduate Student residence to the Toxicology program.  At this time, the committee is spending much of its time looking at the recommendations of systematic program review for last year (which covered the programs in Nursing, and Law, some graduate programs in Education, and some interdisciplinary programs in Arts and Science.)  We are also responding to Council’s request for a report on the Basic Health Sciences Review, and are discussing the Enrolment Plan draft with the Vice-President Academic. 

Within the next few months, we will be dealing with recommendations from our subcommittees on Aboriginal programs and on University Centres.  Work on the next Operations Forecast will begin later in the spring.  We also expect to be looking at proposals for new academic programs in Bioinformatics and Women’s and Gender Studies, and perhaps at proposals for several new graduate degrees.