AGENDA ITEM NO:8.1
UNIVERSITY COUNCIL
PLANNING COMMITTEE
REQUEST FOR DECISION
| PRESENTED BY: | Beth Bilson, Chair, Planning Committee |
| DATE OF MEETING: | April 20, 2006 |
| SUBJECT: |
Outreach and Engagement Foundational Document: Transition to New Organizational Structures |
| DECISION REQUESTED: | |
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That University Council endorse the terms of reference and objectives described in the attached paper for the Centre for Continuing and Distance Education so that it can be created to provide a focal point for the University's efforts to support the continuing education goals of the people of Saskatchewan. That University Council endorse the terms of reference and objectives described in the attached paper for the New Learning Centre to support teaching and learning at the University of Saskatchewan on the understanding that a more complete proposal will be brought forward for consideration and approval by no later than September 30, 2006. That pursuant to the institutional goals identified in the attached paper, the Extension Division be disestablished on July 1, 2007 or as near to that date as is feasible. |
DISCUSSION SUMMARY:
The attached document, The Extension Division: Impact of the Outreach and Engagement Foundational Document and Transition to New Organizational Structures, proposes the creation of new entities such as the Centre for Continuing and Distance Education and a New Learning Centre as well as the disestablishment of the Extension Division and the redeployment of its existing resources.
At its March 16 meeting, Council had a full discussion of the enclosed document and raised a number of key issues. The Planning Committee's response to these issues is outlined below.
We note, as we did in our presentation to Council in March, that a number of the changes proposed have financial and administrative implications that lie outside the jurisdiction of Council. It is Council's role to establish academic policy, while the University's administrative offices are responsible for implementing and interpreting decisions reached by Council and the Board of Governors, observing, in the process, institutional policies, collective agreements, legislative requirements, within a fiscally sound and financially balanced framework. Along with other members of Council, we desire that faculty colleagues and other staff be dealt with respectfully, and we are confident that obligations arising out of collective agreements, as well as other administrative concerns, will be addressed in the appropriate forum. It is our view, however, that it is important for Council to signify that it endorses the broad academic direction outlined in these motions, and that it is important to do so at this time so that further delays in obtaining a resolution to these issues are prevented.
The proposals for establishment of new entities and the organizational changes that are now contemplated for the Extension Division described in the attached document are a consequence of earlier decisions taken by Council and the Board of Governors. A Framework for Action: The University of Saskatchewan Integrated Plan 2003-2007 , endorsed by Council in April 2004, identified both the New Learning Centre and the Centre for Continuing and Distance Education as desirable initiatives. The possible shape of both of these units was further described in the Outreach and Engagement Foundational Document approved by Council in January 2006. That document also contemplated the establishment of the President's Round Table on Outreach and Engagement and a new University-Community Relations Office to support outreach and engagement efforts, in addition to the more general support already provided by a number of offices throughout the campus.
In our view, the primary reason to support these recommendations is that the structures that are being contemplated and the redeployment of current resources will support faculty in the colleges and departments to conduct teaching and research programs which are academically sound and which are informed by the concepts of outreach and engagement. Over a period of more than three years, in consultation with Council and others across the University, we have participated in deliberations concerning the most effective way to carry out the mission of outreach and engagement.
This process has included the following:
1) The development and approval of the Strategic Directions. This important statement identified three defining features of the University of Saskatchewan - international standards, academic pre-eminence and sense of place - as well as four strategic directions for the institution - outstanding faculty, increased commitment to research, scholarly and artistic work, a major presence in graduate education and student recruitment and success.
2) The review of college plans, including that of the Extension Division, by the College Plans Review Committee (CPRC), a subcommittee of the Planning Committee which included representation from the Academic Programs Committee, the Budget Committee and the Research Scholarly and Artistic Work Committee. The CPRC conducted a rigorous review of the plans of administrative and academic units, including the Extension Division, in light of factors such as adherence to existing foundational documents, and the integration of the unit with the core mandate of the University. The CPRC noted that "many of the functions performed by the Extension Division are of significant value and importance to the University of Saskatchewan " and acknowledged the "historical relevance of this unit". The CPRC concluded, however, that "it is unclear…that retaining the Extension Division as a separate unit best serves the needs of the University of Saskatchewan ." The CPRC reported on these conclusions to Council in March of 2004.
3) The development of the University's Integrated Plan and the accompanying multi-year operating budget framework. The Integrated Plan stated that fundamental changes are required to the way in which many of the activities currently carried out under the auspices of the Extension Division are supported and resourced.
4) The development of the Outreach and Engagement Foundational Document. This document, adopted by Council in January 2006, amplified the University's commitment to sense of place by linking outreach and engagement to degree-credit teaching and research. There were three major drafts of the Foundational Document, each of which was the subject of extensive consultation. The second draft posed the question of whether outreach and engagement should be centralized in one unit, or decentralized completely; in the third draft, both of these options were rejected in favour of having some functions carried out through centralized units, with others performed through colleges and departments.
The Foundational Document made clear that teaching and research units are already heavily involved in outreach and engagement activity and should become even more involved in outreach and engagement to the extent that their resources make this feasible. The New Learning Centre and the Centre for Continuing and Distance Education (CCDE), previously alluded to in the Integrated Plan, represent two vehicles for deployment of University resources to provide more effective support for credit and non-credit offerings, and other options for the reconfiguration of resources currently associated with the Extension Division and with other administrative offices are outlined in the attached document.
In the course of the Planning Committee's involvement in this process, input was sought from the Extension Division at a number of points. In particular, the Planning Committee met with representatives of the Division to discuss their own major submission, proposing the continuation of a central academic unit which would be devoted to the scholarship of outreach and engagement. Although we gave serious consideration to this option, we were not persuaded that having a separate unit for this purpose was the best way to advance the University's overall mission.
With respect to the proposed CCDE, a question was raised in Council about the cost recovery aspect of this initiative. To this point, the continuing education activities of the Extension Division have been supported by funds from the operating budget of the University. To the extent that the CCDE provides support for coordination of off-campus delivery of degree-credit courses, as the Extension Division has done in the past, access to operating funds may be reasonable. On the other hand, the CCDE may decide that it is desirable to offer non-credit programming that is not part of the core degree-credit teaching and research mandate of the University, and it is expected that a higher proportion of the costs associated with this programming will be recovered from participants.
The changes outlined here are consistent with the idea that faculty based in teaching-and-research units like departments and colleges should conduct academically grounded outreach and engagement. It is our understanding that it is not intended that non-academics be assigned to the academic aspects of this work, though non-academics may well perform administrative and support duties as they currently do in the Extension Division.
The Planning Committee understands that the President's Office is developing a proposal for the Round Table and the proposed University-Community Relations Office following the guidance provided in the Foundational Document. We do however take the point that the timeline for conclusion of these discussions was omitted when the document was presented to Council, and we have made a change to the timeline to reflect its likely date of development and implementation.
The Planning Committee recommends that Council determine the academically grounded matters first - including the authorization needed for the new units and the dissolution of the old - and thereby give direction to the University's administration. Once Council has rendered a decision on academic grounds, the administration can pursue feasible means, within collective agreements and legislation, of implementing this decision.
ATTACHMENT:
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