Senate: Working group to study ways to improve student consultation

The University has struck a working group to examine how consultations and related communication with students are currently handled at McGill, and to recommend improvements, Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson told Senate at its Oct. 20 meeting.

By McGill Reporter Staff

The University has struck a working group to examine how consultations and related communication with students are currently handled at McGill, and to recommend improvements, Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson told Senate at its Oct. 20 meeting.

The panel, which will include both senior administrators and student representatives, will report to Mendelson and Provost Anthony Masi.

The move comes in the wake of student complaints over the recent decision to close the Architecture Café. Indeed, for the second straight month student protesters mounted a noisy demonstration near the entrance to the Leacock Building during the Senate session. The crowd this time appeared to be about one-third the size of the 350 or so who protested during the September meeting.

Inside the Senate chamber, Senator and SSMU President Zach Newburgh thanked Mendelson for setting up the working group on an “issue of importance.” Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum also welcomed the initiative, citing its potentially “far-reaching implications.”

On other matters, Masi told the Senate that the recent naming of Dr. Colleen Cook as the Trenholme Dean of Libraries – rather than the previously used title of “Trenholme Director of Libraries” – reflects both Dr. Cook’s qualifications and a growing preference among North American peer universities to use the title of Dean for libraries.

Progress on McGill’s 2006 White Paper was outlined in a document to be presented later in the Senate meeting by Masi. The document also presents

possible themes and questions for framing the University’s 2012 White Paper, which would build on the successes achieved so far and establish a “roadmap” for McGill for the next five years, outlining the University’s strategy for academic leadership over that period.

That and other documents from the Senate meeting are available at: http://www.mcgill.ca/senate/senate2010-2011/documents/october20/