Senate Highlights ‑ Jan. 28, 2019

Following each meeting of the Dalhousie University Senate, Dal News highlights some of the presentations and decisions made.

Senate is the university’s senior academic governing body, with membership consisting of elected representatives from Dal’s Faculties and the University Libraries, elected student representatives, a representative from the University of King’s College and Dal’s senior academic administrators. Senate is responsible for approving new programs; granting degrees/diplomas; managing the reviews of Faculties, centres and institutes; and setting academic regulations and the academic calendar.

Senate meets on the second and fourth Mondays of the month, from September through June. Learn more about Senate and its business at the Senate website.

Self ID forms

Senate Chair Kevin Hewitt shared with Senators, for review and discussion, a draft self-identification form to support diversifying Senate standing and ad-hoc committee membership.

When selecting individuals to serve on ad hoc committees, Senate considers areas of expertise as well as the diversity of committee membership. The new form would support the latter. Filling out the form would be voluntary and confidential, and the info would be used by the Senate Planning and Governance Committee and Senate Nominating Committee to inform committee member selection.

Senators were invited to provide feedback on the draft document, and Senate is currently consulting with Information Technology Services on a technological solution to support the form.

Budget Advisory Committee Report LVII

Provost Teri Balser presented the Budget Advisory Committee’s context report on the 2019-20 Dalhousie Operating Budget. The report, published in early January, was shared with the Dal community to help inform the development of recommendations for next year’s operating budget, which funds the day-to-day operations of the university.

Dr. Balser’s presentation was familiar to those who attended campus budget forums the week prior, and shared with Senators some of the core features of the budget: where funds come from (more than 90% from the government and tuition fees), how money is spent (nearly 75% on faculty/staff salaries and benefits) and some of the pressures on the operating budget (changing demographics, rising costs, limited government funding and more).

You can read more on Dr. Balser’s presentation and other campus budget forums in this Dal News article.

Following the presentation, Dr. Balser and Ian Nason (vice-president finance and administration) took questions from senators on tuition fees, government lobbying and other issues. The BAC’s next report, which will include recommendations for the 2019-20 operating budget including tuition and fees, is expected in late February or early March.

Reports from the President and Chair of Senate

Interim President Peter MacKinnon made his first presentation to Senate. He began with a statement (later also distributed to the Dal community via email) addressing recent concerns voiced about his most recent book, University Commons Divided. “I have been troubled by this concern, and would like to offer my perspective,” he said:

Many of the issues I wrote about are contemporary and contentious. Some are discussed in depth; others are mentioned for limited illustrative purposes. I wrote about them for purposes of discussion. I welcome that discussion, and I appreciate the perspectives that have already been shared with me.
   
The book is about many subjects: university governance, crisis management, academic freedom, freedom of expression, religious freedom and discrimination, and other topics. While I stand by my discussion on these topics, I wish to comment on one matter that has raised concern. I have been interpreted by some as condoning blackface. I do not condone blackface; and I did not condone blackface in the book. I regret any interpretation to the contrary, and the distress it has caused.
   
I will conclude this part of my report by saying that I am pleased to be at Dalhousie, and to contribute and support the mission of this fine university, including strategic priority 5.2: to foster a collegial culture grounded in diversity and inclusiveness. This goal and this value has been part of my life for a very long time. During my presidency at the University of Saskatchewan, I was pleased to champion the priority of diversifying our student body, greatly increasing the number of Indigenous students on campus and enriching our campus culture.

The remainder of his report addressed recent Dal accomplishments and achievements, including strong early recruitment numbers, successes in the On Track retention program, the launch of the SURGE sandbox and the recent announcement of $1.62 in funding from Mitacs for light manipulation research —the largest ever Mitacs grant in the region. While still getting up to speed on policies and initiatives at Dal, MacKinnon expressed his enthusiasm for being back at his alma mater as interim president. “I expect my time at Dalhousie will teach me a great deal,” he said.

Senate Chair Kevin Hewitt shared that the Senate is in the early stages of planning forums on various topics, including diversification and innovation in curriculum as well as global engagement . He reported that a new draft  Research Centres and Institutes Policy will come forward to Senate shortly. Other initiatives cited include a working group on the definition of “student” (in Dal’s policies) and an e-learning strategy, both of which will be considered by the Senate Learning and Teaching Committee before coming forward to Senate.

Steps to Make Diversity and Inclusion a Reality

This meeting’s presentation on diversity and inclusion was from Isalean Harris, an MA student in women and gender studies at Saint Mary’s University. Her presentation on her thesis research was titled, “Where are the Black female faculty? Employment equity policies and the overrepresentation of whiteness.” Supervised by Dr. Benita Bunjun, her research explores how employment equity affects Black women’s access and mobility within higher education.

Looking at both Dal and SMU, with qualitative interviews with tenured Black women scholars outside of Atlantic Canada, the study argues for how “institutional whiteness” prevents growth in the number of Black women scholars. To help address this, she argues universities like Dal should record and track faculty retention data, engage with Black faculty themselves on their experiences, create opportunities for exposure and professional development, and enable curriculum diversity by allowing scholars with different research perspectives to teach foundational courses.