Memorandum
DATE: July 22, 1999
TO: Bonnie M. Patterson, President
FROM: Graham Taylor, Vice President (Academic)
SUBJECT: Report of the Academic Planning Committee
I am pleased to present to you the report of the Academic Planning Committee, reflecting the deliberations of the committee over the past year which were augmented by the results of the survey questionnaire distributed to the Trent community last Fall, a series of round table discussions held by the committee, and other letters and submissions received from departments and individuals. All of these sources offered the committee rich and diverse input as to the future strategic directions Trent may follow. This report presents a series of recommendations related to those issues, some of which may lead directly to specific proposals that could go forward to appropriate academic governing bodies over the next year; while others are of a more general nature and may lead to further discussion within the university community.
Our intent here is not to produce a "blueprint" on the future of Trent, but rather to encourage an approach to our future that enables us to respond flexibly to the challenges of the present while preserving and nurturing the essential values of the university. What we hope to see emerge from this process of review and reflection is a climate of innovation, resolute in articulating the importance of Trent's approach to education, and resilient in our willingness to experiment with new ideas that can enhance that educational experience and foster the overall health and strength of our scholarly community.
In the introduction to the survey document last Fall, we noted that in facing the challenges of the changing external environment, many universities have pursued strategies of structural reorganization. We have recognized the need to look carefully at our academic program structure as part of the review process, and anticipate that there will be some changes, reflecting both the impact of shifts in enrolment patterns and transitions in areas of intellectual inquiry and research. At the same time, many of the recommendations that are presented here are cast in a broader form, exploring initiatives that may be of interest to people in a wide range of disciplines. Rather than focusing exclusively on measures that compartmentalize departments and programs, we have sought to emphasize trends and opportunities that can be of benefit to the university as a whole.
Appended to the Report is a compendium of the responses to the survey document, including both quantitative and qualitative responses. A summary of the round table discussions held in December 1998 and synopses of other communications received by the Academic Planning Committee are on file in the Office of the Vice President (Academic). We wish to thank all members of the Trent community who participated in one way or another in this survey process. We hope that the summary material captures, albeit imperfectly, the diversity of comments expressed by respondents. It should be noted that the survey was not intended to be a completely "open-ended" request for ideas. The committee had been meeting for a number of months previously and sought to test some ideas that had been debated internally with the university community. At the same time, we sought to encourage people to think carefully about teaching, about academic programs and about student needs. Alternative perspectives and ideas were welcomed, and we are pleased that a number of respondents did bring forward alternatives. This is exactly the kind of approach to planning that we are advocating - an approach that evolves through consultation, emphasizes diversity and encourages innovation.
We see this Report as a first step in a continuing process of academic reaffirmation and renewal at Trent. Our long-term objective is to strengthen Trent's position as Canada's pre-eminent university for undergraduate teaching, while retaining its position as the most research-intensive of the small institutions. Some of the ideas presented in the recommendations will require a much larger forum of discussion, others could be implemented quickly, and some are already underway. The committee believes that academic planning can never be fixed in time but must be the result of an ongoing process of continuing dialogue in the context of the changing environment of the university. We look forward to the discussion and the initiatives that our recommendations may encourage.
In this spirit the Academic Planning Committee recommends that all academic units be asked to comment on this document (and raise any other academic issues which fall under long-range planning) by October 30, 1999, to provide the Committee with direction on specific issues for consideration in the coming academic year.
