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Abstract
This article provides an account of the undermining of collegial governance at the University of Alberta in relation to the restructuring of the university in 2020 by the senior administration and board on advice provided by the Australian consultancy firm, the Nous Group. The current president of the university has publicly promoted the restructuring in venues including the Times Higher Education supplement as a model for other universities. The model, a disastrous one for collegial governance, demands widespread attention along with the means by which it was achieved. As Bill Readings declared in his 1997 book The University in Ruins, “the changing institutional form of the university is something that intellectuals cannot afford to ignore.” At the University of Alberta, that changing form is being determined by fossil-fuelled academic capitalism. The account of what has happened is provided by a professor who has served on the university’s senior academic body, the General Faculties Council, for almost a decade. It concludes with several concrete recommendations for bolstering collegial governance at universities in Alberta, elsewhere in Canada, and possibly worldwide—wherever collegial governance is being undermined by restructuring, the corporatization of the academy, academic capitalism, or the disrespect of university boards for the authority of faculty and the academic mission.
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my gratitude to Sourayan Mookerjea for organizing and hosting the panel “The Future of University Governance” with the sponsorship of the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) at the University of Alberta on 20 October 2022, and Laurie Adkin for making this special issue possible.
In memoriam, Len Findlay (1944–2023). Len was distinguished emeritus professor, University of Saskatchewan, and one of Canada’s foremost literary scholars. He played “leading roles in professional associations such as the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada (HSSFC), and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT),” and “made the university a subject of inquiry as well as inquiry’s most eminent locus.” See https://artsandscience.usask.ca/english/research/chair.php#DrLenFindlay.
Disclosure statement
The author has no competing interests to declare.
Notes
1 The phenomenon is of course not new. When describing the phenomenon almost a quarter century ago, Sheila Slaughter and Larry L. Leslie noted that academic capitalism supports “neoliberal tendencies to treat higher education policy as a subset of economic policy” and transform academics into “state-subsidized entrepreneurs” (p. 154).
2 This is the phrasing in the “Terms of Reference” for the General Faculties Council at the University of Alberta as they stood at 17 April 2023. See https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/general-faculties-council-tor.pdf.
3 The characterization of the bicameral system promoted by the Flavelle Commission (1906) as a “compromise” was offered to me by James Turk, former Executive Director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, in a telephone interview of 7 May 2023.
4 CBC News, “University of Alberta to eliminate up to a thousand positions in face of funding cuts,” 13 March 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/university-of-alberta-to-eliminate-up-to-1-000-positions-in-face-of-funding-cuts-1.5497371.
5 This was the metaphor of provost Steven Dew at the General Faculties Council’s meeting of 6 February 2021 (author’s notes).
6 Capital Power is an electricity producer that has transitioned from coal to natural gas and renewable sources of energy following federal and provincial decisions to phase out coal-fired power generation. It also operates power plants in the BC, Ontario, and the United States. For the corporate “mapping” of other board members, see Adkin et al. (Citation2022).
7 Report of the GFC Ad Hoc Committee for the Formal Review of Academic Restructuring, Item No. 13, p. 106, in the materials for GFC’s meeting of 21 March 2022, https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/agenda-and-docs/2022-03-21-gfc-agenda-documents.pdf.
8 Sarah Custer, Times Higher Education, correspondence to the author, 18 May 2023.
9 Bill Flanagan, “Restructuring a university, part one,” Times Higher Education (14 April 2023), https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/restructuring-university-part-one.
10 See Janet French, “Incoming University of Alberta president wants 10,000 more students by 2025,” CBC News, 26 May 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/incoming-university-of-alberta-president-wants-10-000-more-students-by-2025-1.5585965.
11 See, for example, Bill Flanagan and Steven Dew, “Academic Restructuring Update: November 25,” 25 November 2020, https://www.ualberta.ca/uofa-tomorrow/updates/2020/11/2020-11-25-academic-restructuring-update.html.
12 University of Alberta Board of Governors meeting, 11 December 2020, author’s notes.
13 Author’s notes for the meeting of GFC’s Academic Planning Committee meeting of 4 November 2020.
14 See the materials for GFC’s meeting of 22 June 2020, which include my letter to GFC of 12 June 2020, https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/agenda-and-docs/2020-06-22-gfc-agenda-documents.pdf.
15 Author’s notes for GFC’s meeting of 22 June 2020.
16 For their public critique of the consultation process, see Kahane and Shultz (Citation2020).
17 Joel Gehman, correspondence to the author, 19 October 2020 and 10 November 2020.
18 Joel Gehman and Carolyn Sale, “The Invisible College Model,” in the materials for GFC’s meeting of 7 December 2020, p. 33, https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/agenda-and-docs/2020-12-07-gfc-agenda-documents.pdf.
19 Anastasia Elias, Nat Kav, Christopher Lupke, Roger Moore, and Eleni Stroulia, correspondence to members of the University of Alberta 2020-21 General Faculties Council, 4 December 2020.
20 Author’s contribution to email thread “Motion 2b” amongst GFC representatives, 3 December 2020.
21 A transcript of Flanagan’s remarks to the Board on 11 December 2020 appears on page 17 of the materials for GFC’s meeting of 25 January 2021, https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/agenda-and-docs/2021-01-25-02-08-gfc-agenda-documents.pdf.
22 Version of the letter, 13 January 2020, on file with the author with signatures removed. The original letter of 8 January 2020 with signatures was sent confidentially to the president.
23 A version of the letter appears in the materials for GFC’s meeting of 8 February 2021 at https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/agenda-and-docs/2021-01-25-02-08-gfc-agenda-documents.pdf.
24 Flanagan’s reply also appears in the materials for GFC’s meeting of 8 February 2021.
25 On the problem of secret searches, see Adkin et al. (Citation2022, p. 162 and 164).
26 For a description of the Petch Procedure, see page 22 of CUFA BC’s 2020 “white paper.”
27 See the materials for GFC’s meeting of 30 January 2023, Item 8.4, pp. 31–32 at https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/agenda-and-docs/2023-01-30-gfc-agenda-documents.pdf. The provost’s response was offered to a follow-up question of mine during Question Period (author’s notes).
28 The president’s memorandum of 13 September 2022, as sent to members of the General Faculties Council on 14 September 2022, appears in the materials for GFC’s meeting of 17 October 2022, pages 72 to 76, at https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/agenda-and-docs/2022-10-17-gfc-agenda-documents.pdf.
29 The report, issued on 21 April 2017, may be found at https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc-standing-committees/reportoftheadhoccommitteevendorsedapril212017.pdf.
30 Report of the GFC Ad Hoc Committee for the Formal Review of Academic Restructuring, Item No. 13, recommendation 7, p. 113, https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc-standing-committees/exec-minutes/2022-10-03-exec-minutes.pdf.
31 In the absence of Brad Hamdon, this argument was presented by Jax Oltean, Associate General Counsel, University of Alberta. The minutes note that Oltean “pointed to section 19 of the PSLA which outlined the duty of the Board to consider recommendations of GFC on specific matters and explained that the different language in section 26 means that there is not the same duty for the Board to consider any recommendations outside of those outlined in section 19” (p. 4). See https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc-standing-committees/exec-minutes/2022-10-03-exec-minutes.pdf.
32 Author’s notes.
33 The minutes for GFC’s meeting of 17 October 2022 are at https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc/minutes/2022-10-17-gfc-minutes.pdf.
34 Neil Wittmann, opinion for Kate Chisholm, Chair, Board of Governors University of Alberta, 30 November 2022, as sent to members of the General Faculties Council by email attachment on 1 December 2022.
35 This procedure permits the GFC member presenting the recommendation to speak only to a “brief” prepared by the GFC Executive that summarizes the discussion at GFC. In this case, the GFC Executive did not prepare any such “brief.” University of Alberta Governance document “Communicating Recommendations of the General Faculties Council to the Board of Governors,” 15 September 2021, p. 2, https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/media-library/documents/member-zone/gfc-principle-documents/joint-meetings-bgc-gfc-exec-recommendations-final.pdf.
36 See the minutes of the Board of Governors’ meeting of 9 December 2022 at https://www.ualberta.ca/governance/member-zone/board-of-governors/approved-board-open-minutes-12-09-22.pdf.
37 Author’s notes from the University of Alberta Board of Governors meeting of 9 December 2022. The Board’s minutes make no reference to Ms. Chisholm’s reference to the Post-secondary Learning Act.
38 Carolyn Sale, “University of Alberta System of Governance Under Threat, Edmonton Journal, 15 October 2022, https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-university-of-albertas-system-of-governance-under-threat.
39 The 1971 proposal is included in the materials for GFC’s meeting of 17 April 2023, pp. 118–123. The details cited are from pages 26 and 27, respectively.
40 Appendix B, “Summary Outline of Minority Report by D.T. Anderson,” October 1970, as provided to GFC for its meeting of 3 February 1971, p. 33.
41 Universities Canada, “Membership Criteria for Institutional Members,” https://www.univcan.ca/about-us/membership-and-governance/membership-criteria/.
42 See pages 25 to 26 of the 2017 Ad Hoc Committee’s report, where it was proposed that by 2019 GFC consider decreasing its size.
43 Author’s notes from the GFC Executive meeting of 3 April 2023.
44 For CAUT’s statement “Collegiality,” first passed in 2005 and most recently amended in 2022, see https://www.caut.ca/about-us/caut-policy/lists/caut-policy-statements/policy-statement-on-collegiality. See also Shannon Dea (Citation2021).
45 Author’s notes from the GFC meeting of 17 April 2023.
46 Statistics Canada, “Tuition for degree programs, 2022–23,” 7 September 2022, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220907/dq220907b-eng.htm.
48 Duff and Berdahl (Citation1966, p. 34).
49 As Rowlands (Citation2017) notes, universities in the United States used to have an advantage in this respect but there are now “very few remaining academic senates” there “in which all faculty are members” (p. 52). The University of California Berkeley is an exception.
50 See the discussion of Board composition in Adkin et al (Citation2022, pp. 158–165), and Laurie Adkin, Sourayan Mookerjea, and Carolyn Sale, “Don’t lose sight of U of A’s public interest mandate,” Edmonton Journal, 23 November 2015.
51 See the premier of Alberta Danielle Smith’s video remarks of 19 November 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElnoncWI6u8, and the Government of Alberta’s statement of 13 December 2023, https://twitter.com/ABDanielleSmith/status/1735083268083790076.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Carolyn Sale
Carolyn Sale is an Associate Professor in the Department of English & Film Studies at the University of Alberta. Her research specialization is Shakespeare and the law. Her work has appeared in various journals, including Shakespeare Quarterly, and various collections, including The Law in Shakespeare (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), Shakespeare and Judgment (Edinburgh UP, 2017), and the Oxford Handbook of English Law and Literature, 1500–1700 (2018). The collection of essays that she has co-edited with Kent Lehnhof and Julia Reinhard Lupton, Shakespeare’s Virtuous Theatre: Power, Capacity and the Good, appeared in the Fall of 2023 from Edinburgh University Press. She is currently completing the book manuscript “The Literary Commons: The Writer and the Common Law in Early Modern England, 1528–1628.” She was the first president of the Association of Academic Staff University of Alberta (AASUA) elected in open elections by the membership and has served on the university’s General Faculties Council since 2014. As AASUA president (2016–17), she took the AASUA Council through a careful process to garner their consensus that they should endorse the New Democratic Party government’s proposal that the postsecondary education sector in Alberta be placed under the Alberta Labour Relations Code. The government passed that legislation in 2017.