Jennifer Lewington
The Learning Beat
Monday, August 18, 1997
Page A3
An ad placed last week in some Canadian newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, issues a warning to those considering a position at Canada's newest university, the Technical University of British Columbia.
The Canadian Association of University teachers, which has launched a global boycott of Tech B.C., said in its ad that the new institution "does not offer protections for academic freedom and institutional autonomy contained in other university statutes."
The legislature passed Bill 30, which establishes the new university, last month.
The College Institute Educators' Association of B.C. also opposes Tech B.C., worried that its $2.8-million operating budget will leave less money for other postsecondary institutions.
The new university, to be located in the fast-growing Fraser Valley, has a mandate to work closely with industry and turn out job-ready graduates in technology-related fields. It will operate seven days a week, will offer no tenure (for now) to staff, and its board of governors will have authority over business and academic decisions. At most universities, the faculty-controlled senate takes the lead on academic programs.
All these features raise doubts, in the minds of some, about whether Tech B.C. is a university, or something else.
CAUT president William Bruneau contends that what gives a university its uniqueness is that academic-program decisions are made for educational, not economic, reasons.
Ron Dickson, the government-appointed chairman of the board for Tech B.C., said the new university, the sixth in the province, needs a non-traditional approach to fulfill its mandate. "We didn't want key academic decisions or power entrenched by one constituency," he said. A university council, for example, will operate under the control of the board with an equal number of faculty and industry advisers.
Mr. Dickson does not rule out the later adoption of a traditional senate. In the meantime, he said, academic freedom will be protected by the university's being open with the public about its activities.
He said he is not worried about a CAUT boycott scaring off potential faculty for courses beginning in September of 1998. "We're attracting people for whom this is not an issue."