Anticipation is mounting in the Athabasca University community about recommendations that will be made about the institution’s sustainability in Ken Coates’ third-party review.
“We’re hoping at that point we’ll be able to get some feedback from the ministry, as to what their thoughts are on the report, and that the board of governors can start determining what the direction they want to take from some of the alternatives the report presents,” said academic staff board member Derik Briton.
Coates was commissioned in January to conduct a review of potential options for the long-term sustainability of AU. The university’s board of governors began reviewing drafts of the report during the week of May 8.
Briton added AU’s funding issues are no secret, and as AU moves forward there are different roles the university can take to ensure it continues to serve its function. The stipulation to that, he said, is the government would need to provide funding.
“That’s going to be an issue. There’s been intonations that they would be willing to support the recommendations that would come from this third-party review. That’s been impressed from the beginning, but nothing black and white,” he said.
Executive comments
AU President Neil Fassina declined an interview in advance of public comment on the report by the board and government, and in an email response said the board and government are still in the process of reviewing the contents of the report. A date has not been set for when the results would be commented on, nor a date for when the report would become publicly available.
AU board chair Vivian Manasc, who was appointed in March, declined to interview, stating there is no news at this time.
Athabasca unions
Dr. Ronnie Leah is co-chair of one of AU’s three unions – the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3911 – and said the delay in seeing the report is frustrating, especially since one of the key issues has been transparency.
“One of the key concerns we all have is transparency and being able to trust the leadership,” Leah said. “We try to remain hopeful. We have been hopeful with the new board members and board chair, but it seems to me the longer the report is held back from the university community, the more difficult relations may become.”
Leah added the uncertainty is troubling. She added that she thinks morale is not very positive at the university, and this does not help.
“We have buy-in from everyone right now. There’s all this uncertainty. Really, the way we’d like this to work is the report be released to everybody in the community so we can all talk about it,” she said. “We want to be part of the process.”
Leah also said CUPE had an excellent meeting with Coates and that he listened respectfully to their concerns.
One such concern is that faculty “jobs have been undermined in the past few years,” with members being transferred into a call centre model of education.
Leah said she hopes Coates will address this in his report, as in her opinion the call centre model of student support threatens the long-term sustainability of Athabasca University by reducing student satisfaction and decreasing enrollment.
“I think the university is in danger as a whole if we don’t maintain that academic relationship with students,” she said.
Athabasca University Faculty Association president Lawton Shaw he is very confident about AU’s future, given the consistent messages Minister of Advanced Education Marlin Schmidt has been giving.
“There’s been a fair amount of public messaging from the government about a commitment to the university and Athabasca as a location,” he said.
Lawton added the AUFA is hopeful the report will be positive and will protect jobs as well as the integrity of the institution.
He said he understands the third-party reviewer needed time to go through the process on his own and come up with some recommendations, but the time for the release of the report may have been passed.
One concern he has heard is the search for a new AU provost is underway, and the hiring committee is attempting to hire someone to the position without being able to give them an idea of what is in the third-party review.
“It’s not a great situation,” he said.
Leah noted another effect of the review is the delay of AU’s 2017-18 budget, which she said leads to another aspect of uncertainty.
“Everything is sort of held up here,” she said.
Then and now
Academic staff board member Michael Mauws said part of the reason Athabasca University is currently in trouble is due to “a bit of snowballing.”
“There were definitely some troubles in the past. We’ve had a hard time getting people to just say, ‘OK, let’s let that be water under the bridge and focus on going forward,’” he said. “I can understand why people are cautious. I’m cautious, too, but I do know that if we don’t at some point say what’s possible in the future instead of try to prosecute everyone in the past, we’re never going to move ahead.”
Mauws said part of the reason he joined the board was he had concerns, and in recent years the board has improved a lot.
“We’re actually in the process of revisiting all our bylaws and trying to bring in more transparency and accountability in our bylaws,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go at AU, but at least for the last year or so I can say we’re making progress, whereas in my first two years on the board I was talking to the wall.”
He added that on the topic of suggestions in Coates’ report, it would all come down to implementation in the end.
“I’m guessing there will be some good ideas and there will be some ideas that aren’t my cup of tea, but whatever the idea, the important thing we actually implement it because we haven’t been very strong at that in the past,” he said.
