The following letter was sent to Ron Dickson, Chair of the Interim Planning Council of the Technical University
on November 23, 1995. It is a follow-up to a conversation Robert Clift, Executive Director of CUFA/BC, had with
Dickson at a public meeting in September 1995.
November 23, 1995
Ron Dickson, Chair
Technical University Interim Planning Council
c/o Kwantlen University College
P.O. Box 9030
Surrey, B.C.
V3W 2M8
Via FAX Transmission - 1 Page - (604) 599-2235 - Original to Follow by Mail
Dear Ron,
I am writing to follow up our brief conversation at the public meeting in late September. In response to your request, I am sending via Xpresspost a copy of Governance and Accountability - The Report of the Independent Study Group on University Governance. This report, commission by the Canadian Association of University Teachers, discusses a number of issues relating to governance of universities and I think will be most useful in your deliberations. My sincere apologies for not providing this to you earlier, but as you can imagine, our hands are full trying to stave-off the proposed cuts to federal transfer payments to post-secondary education.
Also in the package is a copy of a letter we sent to the B.C. Labour Force Development Board in response to a draft version of the report Training for What? It outlines some of the concerns we have with respect to narrow definitions of training. Obviously the technical university, by definition, has a circumscribed mandate, but I think some of our comments may be useful to you in framing the broadest possible vision within that mandate.
I am also including in the package a number of copies of our newsletter, CUFA/BC Update, for distribution to your Council. It should prove interesting, particularly because in it we celebrate our Academic of the Year, Peter Hochachka, whose contributions to the field of medicine came about as the result of curiosity-based, rather than directed research.
Finally, I had indicated that we would like the opportunity to meet with you, and possibly your Council, at some point in the near future to discuss a range of issues, particularly governance. As our schedules have now cleared up to a large extent, we would be happy to meet with you at anytime (and place) suitable to you. Please contact me at 291-5201 during business hours, or 817-1649 after hours to make arrangements.
We look forward to meeting with you.
Sincerely,
Robert Clift
Executive Director