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Academic Information: University Affairs

History
The University of Saskatchewan was created by provincial legislation in the spring of 1907. The first Board of Governors consisted of eight men with diverse backgrounds that included defending the settlement of Battleford during the Riel Rebellion. This rag-tag Board of Governors eventually chose Walter C. Murray, a native of New Brunswick, to be the university’s first president. In 1909 Saskatoon was chosen as the location of the new university and in 1910 construction began on the College Building, which was originally meant to serve as the College of Agriculture. Convocation Hall was added to the plans of the College Building at the request of the Dean of Agriculture W. J. Rutherford (the namesake of Rutherford Rink) who insisted a large room was needed for extension work and farmers’ meetings.

Today the University of Saskatchewan campus is a far cry from its modest beginnings and is home to over 90 buildings, 24 colleges, schools and federated or affiliated colleges and approximately 20,000 students.
For a complete directory of colleges and schools please visit: http://www.usask.ca/colleges.php
For more on the history of the university visit the University of Saskatchewan Archives at: http://www.usask.ca/archives/

Governance
The University of Saskatchewan is a large and diverse place with numerous facets that range from hiring professors to instruct courses and do research to caring for thousands of lab animals. As such the university has developed a hierarchy consisting of many different boards and governed by many divergent policies to keep everything running as smoothly as possible. At the very top of this hierarchy is The University of Saskatchewan Act 1995. The University of Saskatchewan Act 1995 is a piece of legislation passed by the provincial government that spells out things like the primary role of the university, duties of the Chancellor, President, Deans and department heads, as well as the limits on acquiring land and constructing buildings. Most importantly the University of Saskatchewan Act lays down the structure of the other governing bodies of the university. The University of Saskatchewan is unique among its peer institutions in Canada because it has a tri-cameral governance structure. This means that the university is presided over by three governing:

The Board of Governors- The Board of Governors is body that is responsible for directing and overseeing all matters respecting management, administration, control of the university’s property, revenues and financial affairs. Consisting of twelve members including the president, the chancellor and the president of the USSU, the board carries out such duties as overseeing construction and maintenance of buildings and capital assets, appointing the president as well as other senior officers of the university like Deans, setting tuition and other fees, and providing for the establishment or disestablishment of colleges schools and departments.
University Council- University Council is responsible for directing the university’s academic affairs. Council has 105 members including the president, the provost, elected members from each college, two librarians, elected students representing each college and 54 faculty members. These individuals fill the ten committees of council each of which meets to discuss various items of business before making recommendations to council as a whole. These committees are: Academic Programs Committee, Academic Support Committee, Bylaws Committee, Coordinating Committee, International Activities Committee, Nominations Committee, Planning and Priorities Committee, Research Scholarly and Artistic Works Committee, Scholarships and Awards Committee and Teaching and Learning Committee. Among council’s duties are approving all academic programs (including program additions and deletions), reviewing library policies, disciplining students for academic dishonesty and hearing student appeals. For completion of the latter duty it is vital that Council has the requisite number of undergraduate and graduate students in order to properly conduct student hearings and appeals.
The Senate- Senate is responsible for public issues at the university. Senate meets twice a year and is the largest and most diverse governing body at the university with 116 members that include students, faculty as well as elected alumni and representatives of professional organizations. Among other things, Senate has the authority to approve admissions requirements and quotas (on the recommendation of council), new colleges, schools and departments (on the recommendation of council), non-academic student discipline regulations and awarding honorary degrees. The senate also elects the University Chancellor, whose duties include presiding over convocation and conferring degrees. He or she is also a member of the Board of Governors.
General Academic Assembly- This body is technically not a part of the university’s tri-cameral governance structure it deserves an honorable mention. It is composed of the president who acts as the group’s chair, the vice-presidents, the registrar, deans, all full-time faculty members and students. Quorum of the GAA is 150 members and normally meets only once per year. Under the University of Saskatchewan Act 1995 the GAA has the power to require council to reconsider its decision to authorize the board to provide for, on academic grounds, the establish or disestablishment of any college or department as well as the power to dissolve University Council and hold new elections. This body acts as a check on the other governing bodies.

University governance and all information and policies relating to it are handled by the Office of the University Secretary. For more information on university governance including The University of Saskatchewan Act 1995 please visit:
http://www.usask.ca/university_secretary/governance/index.php

Leading the university community are the president and his executive. Besides the president there are five vice presidents (Provost and VP Academic, VP Finance and Resources, VP Research, VP University Advancement and the University Secretary), seven associate vice-presidents (AVP Research, AVP Student and Enrollment Services Division or SESD, AVP Human Resources, AVP Financial Services, AVP Facilities Management, Chief Information Officer and AVP Information and Communications Technology and AVP Research-Health) and Assistant Provost (Assistant Provost Institutional Planning and Assessment) and two vice-provosts (Vice-Provost Faculty Relations, and Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning). The university’s governance structure and organizational chart is available at: http://www.usask.ca/university_secretary/governance/orgchart.pdf

The Colleges
There are 24 colleges, schools and federated schools that make up the University of Saskatchewan.

Colleges are easy enough to understand, there are 13 of them on campus. According the university a college is, “An organizational unit of the University, of which the Faculty is assigned the general responsibility for the development and delivery of programs and courses leading to degrees, certificates, diplomas and other forms of recognition approved by the University, and for matters of scholarship and discipline relating to the students enrolled therein….The chief administrative officer of each College is a Dean.” A school is very similar to a college and is defined as “An organizational unit of the University, similar to a College, but subject to the oversight of a College Faculty or a specially constituted Faculty composed of members of specific colleges and affiliated colleges.” The university financially supports colleges and schools but they still remain fairly autonomous with regards to how their allotment from the university is spent. As stated in the Definition the dean of a college acts as its CEO and according to The University of Saskatchewan Act 1995 this means “subject to the authority of the president, [the dean is responsible for] general supervision over and direction of the work of the college and of the teaching and training of the students of the college.” In addition to a dean most colleges also have vice-deans who work closely with the dean to run the college. A common vice-dean many colleges have is a vice-dean of student affairs.

A federated or affiliated college such as St. Thomas More is slightly different. A federated or affiliated college is defined by the university as, “Federated and Affiliated colleges, e.g., St. Thomas More, St. Peter’s College and Gabriel Dumont College operate financially independently and offer courses that are approved by the University of Saskatchewan. These courses are interchangeable with University of Saskatchewan courses and students are typically allowed to enroll across these boundaries. However, the instructional activity is integrated in the University of Saskatchewan Student Information System. Instructional activity labelled as Federated or Affiliated is independent both financially and as an instructional resource from the University of Saskatchewan.”

For more information on these and other definitions please visit: http://www.usask.ca/isa/information-management/terms-definitions.php
For more information on your college and their governance structure please visit:
http://www.usask.ca/colleges.php

What’s the Meaning of All this?
At the USSU we believe it is important that our members are informed university citizens. This means having a basic knowledge of the university and how it operates. So as you read all this and become an informed university citizen, you may wonder “I’m very well informed about the university, now what?” Well have you ever wondered about who sets your tuition fees and how? Well they are set by the Board of Governors, which counts the President of the USSU as a member. As students it is important to understand issues relevant to us and really what is more relevant to students than the institution we study at? Of course we at the USSU are here to help in and we will always be your voice to the institution, but the more you know the more active and engaged you can be in the campus community.