Governing board accepts historic overhaul
The Corporation of Bishop’s University effectively voted itself out of existence last month, adopting a motion to scrap the unwieldy governing body and replace it with a much smaller board of governors.
The proposal, presented to Corp by the Governance Task Force, represents a “sweeping change in the governing structure of the university,” according to Corp president Robert Gordon.
The shift has been described as the most drastic governance overhaul since Bishop’s severed its ties with the Anglican Church in 1947.
Among the more drastic changes in the new statutes are a greatly reduced governing board (from 63 members to 17), the abolition of the Executive Committee, and a reduction in size of the Committee on Life at the University (CLU).
As far as committees go at a university overburdened by bureaucracy, CLU is one of the most influential on students’ daily affairs; its purview includes the Code of Student Conduct and the Alcohol Policy.
Furthermore, its budget subcommittee decides what to do with the $685 that each student pays in annual student services fees.
CLU is also the most student-heavy body at the school; currently, 12 of its 25 members are students. After the committees have been restructured this fall, CLU will shrink to just seven members, four of whom will be students – including the chair.
To contrast, only one student will sit on the board of governors. It is not the SRC President ex officio, but sitting President Paige Johnson told The Campus that she will assume the lone student’s seat on the new board of governors.
Currently, three SRC members sit on Corp – the President, the VP Academic, and the Corporation Representative (“Corp rep”). Johnson said that if students are given a seat on the Council of Advisors (an advisory board to the Board of Governors), the Corp rep will assume that seat. If not, then the position of Corp rep will be eliminated.
The new statutes also contain a minor but noteworthy change in academic freedom for students.
Previously, students had “the right of enrolment in courses regardless of race, sex, religion or politics.” This has been updated to read, “the right of enrolment in courses regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or politics.”
The statutes are the product of a long and arduous process which began in October 2008, and which has seen a number of intense discussions, according to Gordon, who joked that the governance task force’s meetings occasionally turned violent.
The task force was formed following news that the provincial government would be introducing a bill to strictly regulate universities’ governing bodies.
The bill (Bill 38), which has not yet been passed, includes mandatory gender equality on schools’ boards of governors, as well as a provision that one member of the board shall be selected by the province.
At its spring meeting on May 15, one Corp member wondered aloud if the new statutes were entirely necessary, given that the legislation is not guaranteed to pass.
President Robert Gordon responded that the massive changes are necessary regardless of the fate of Bill 38.
Other concerns raised included the large proportion of exterior members on the new board of governors. It was suggested that if exterior members are expected to attend all board meetings (at least six per year), it could limit the talent pool to Quebec and Ontario.
Corp member Drew Leyburne said that one solution to this was for the new board to explore teleconferencing and videoconferencing as viable alternatives to six-a-year trips to Lennoxville. This option is also encouraged in the statutes themselves.
Despite a handful of relatively minor concerns, Corporation approved the statutes unanimously, and the room was filled with enthusiastic applause from all sides after the vote.
The statutes, weighing in at a hefty 45 pages, will come into effect on September 14.
