Board of Governors

It will likely be standing-room only at a Dec. 13 gala in Toronto to mark chancellor Lincoln Alexander's 80th birthday, president Mordechai Rozanski told Board of Governors at its Dec. 6 meeting.

High-ranking members of the political, business and education sectors are among the guests expected to attend the celebration, which the chancellor has designated as a fund-raiser for U of G. Proceeds from the event will fund new scholarships to promote more diversity at the University.

The president told governors that Guelph's capital campaign is progressing well towards its goal of a public launch next spring. U of G's planning activities are also proceeding, despite current economic uncertainties at the provincial level.

Important informational tools being created to support ongoing planning activities are emerging from the University's performance indicator project, Rozanski added. Prof. Bryan Henry, Chemistry and Biochemistry, has led this project, working with a committee of faculty and staff and assisted by Ken Grant, director of Institutional Analysis and Planning. For the past year and a half, the group has been tracking the University's performance in several significant areas.

The data collected will allow Guelph to assess its overall progress towards its strategic goals and its objectives of being learner-centred and research-intensive, Rozanski said. Given the government's increasing emphasis on university accountability, the information will also help U of G satisfy some of those expectations.

In a presentation on performance indicators, Henry said the matter was being examined at both the macro and micro levels. The goals of both are to make performance measures at U of G transparent, easily measured, focused, few in number and dynamic, he said.

Roger du Toit, head of du Toit Allsopp, Hillier, the consultants hired by the University to help steer a review of its campus master plan, updated governors on that review.

Du Toit said his group - which also includes Prof. Jim Taylor, Landscape Architecture, and Chris Pickard, U of G's director of planning, engineering and construction - has received more than 130 completed "issue sheets," has held 26 meetings with stakeholder groups and organized a town hall meeting and intense design session.

Among the many key issues identified through this process are that the campus community is concerned about parking, walkways, Gordon Street, green space and preserving the University's traditions. The group will hold another town hall meeting in January, and its eventual goal is to produce a report and recommendations by April.

Following a presentation on the science complex by provost Alastair Summerlee, B of G approved a motion to allocate another $2 million from SuperBuild funds to enable continuation of the science complex design development.

Michael Walsh, head of B of G's finance committee, alerted governors that the University will soon have to replace its aging telephone system.

In a planning retreat following the meeting, the board reviewed and discussed the student experience at Guelph. Presentations focused on three areas: attracting students of high quality, presented by acting assistant registrar, liaison, Laura Beattie, and Chuck Cunningham, director of communications and public affairs; delivering a high-quality educational experience, presented by political science student Rich Appiah and Prof. Maureen Mancuso, associate vice-president (academic); and putting a high-quality education to use, presented by Brenda Whiteside, associate vice-president (student affairs), and Prof. Fred Evers, Sociology and Anthropology.