The Retirees' Newsletter

The Retirees's Association ( Faculty, Librarian, Administrator), University of Windsor, Windsor, Ont. Canada

Vol IX, No. 1, February 1999

New Administrative Management

With the appointment of Dr. Ross Paul as President, the completion of the Academic Restructuring Process and revisions to Senate By Laws, the management of the University, now has a new look. One of the first order of business for Dr. Paul was to prepare a Strategic Plan, which was widely distributed for comments and revised in November 1998 and finally approved by the Senate and the Board of Governors.

Effective September 1, 1998 the development of a much more integrated and team approach to the overall management of the University emerged, driven by the Strategic Academic Plan, so that academic, administrative and developmental components are developed concurrently and harmoniously.

The following mechanisms are in place now.

1. The Senior Management Team (SMT):

Consists of President, Vice-President, Academic, Vice-President Administration and Finance, Senior Vice-President, External, and the University Secretary& General Counsel.

2. The President's Executive Committee:

Consists of the Senior Management Team plus the five Executive Deans, University Librarian and the Director of Human Resources.

The Senior Management Team and the President's Executive Committee meets on alternate weeks, the former to ensure the integrated management and development of the University across all sectors and the latter to ensure that academic priorities drive that development.

3. The Senate Steering Committee: as defined in the new bylaws is the principal mechanism to ensure appropriate and effective consultation on all academic matters and the efficient and effective conduct of Senate business.

Accountability: Each member of the Senior Management Team will be assessed annually by the President on the basis of his or her contribution to the five major priorities for the SMT established annually (50%), each individual's priorities for his or her own area responsibility (25%) and his or her professional development activities (25%). (Please see table in President's Strategic Plan). This ensures that each Vice-President is working first and foremost as part of the team and will set an example for the rest of the University to follow.

In turn, the three Vice-Presidents will develop similar schemes for defining the priorities of their respective management teams and the ongoing evaluation of each individual within them.

Dr. PAUL PRESENTS 1999-2000 ACTION PLAN

A 14-page Proposed Action Plan for 1999-2000 was presented to Senate, the Board of Governors and the community which is a means for the university administration to be accountable to them. "I want Senate to have a good feel for what we are doing, to understand that we mean business and that we are accountable," the president said. "Here is what is crucial to the implementation of the "Best of Both Worlds" strategy document."

He said a report will be presented a year from now outlining how well we did, what we didn't do, and what we have to do differently. At the same time, an action plan for 2000-2001 will be tabled.

The proposed action plan begins by outlining a new Academic and Financial Planning Cycle.

"Universities are moving into a different way of working. Government grants play a lower role and tuition a larger role in our planning. We are also moving into an era of faculty renewal where we will have to work hard to attract and retain faculty members," Dr. Paul said. "We have to push the academic schedule back so we can identify the positions we need to fill sooner, locate the people we want and go out and get them, speeding up the selection processes as well."

The plan details objectives and actions for student recruitment and retention, academic planning, faculty recruitment and retention, advancing research, advancing teaching and learning, developing graduate programs, improving student life, looking at alternative program delivery, reforming curricula and other activities. Senate will discuss the document in the next two months.

PRELIMINARY BUDGET OUTLOOK: MORE GRANTS, MORE STUDENTS, SAME TUITION

Administration and Finance Vice-President Eric Harbottle outlined the assumptions and policy changes that are affecting the formation of the 1999-2000 University of Windsor budget to be approved this spring.

He said the new budget will be more decentralized, and it will have a capital funding component. At this time, the university is looking for an enrolment increase of about 200 full-time students and assumes there will be no tuition increase next year. And the university is expecting a 1 percent increase in operating grants from the government, the first since the government announced a 15 percent decrease in 1995.

Vice-President Harbottle also predicted the reduction in faculty will stop, although, there will be some retirements and other attrition.

The university is going ahead with the hiring of at least six professors for Computer Science this year as part of the plan to double the Computer Science faculty over the next two years with support from the government's ATOP program.

Utilities are expected to rise $666,000 in the coming year, and budgeted capital expenditures will likely be in the range of $700,000.

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