Report of the Planning Committee to Council
April 15, 1999
The Virtual College of Biotechnology
The Planning Committee wishes to report on progress toward establishing a "Virtual College
of Biotechnology" at the University of Saskatchewan. The following report is for discussion only.
Course proposals and final recommendations on resource allocation will be the subject of reports to
Council following the usual approval process.
Background
Members of Council will recall that the concept of a "Virtual College of Biotechnology" was
first aired by President Ivany in a report to Council in November, 1996. The task of examining this
concept was taken on by the Planning Committee soon after its creation under the new Council
structure. In practice, the work was done by the Task Force on Biotechnology, established by and
reporting to the Planning Committee, chaired by Dean J.W.B. Stewart. The terms of reference and
membership of this Task Force have been previously reported to Council; progress reports have been
presented to Council as part of the semi-annual reports of the Planning Committee.
Biotechnology as a Priority Area for the University of Saskatchewan
A proposal entitled "Academic Priorities in Biotechnology" was submitted in May, 1998, by
the Task Force on Biotechnology for consideration in Council's Priority Determination Process. The
Selection Committee subsequently invited the proponents to submit a revised proposal which was
considered in the autumn of 1998. This led to a recommendation from the Planning Committee that
"Academic Priorities in Biotechnology" be endorsed in principle as the basis for establishing a
priority area for the University of Saskatchewan. Council debated and passed a motion to this effect
at its November, 1998, meeting. A brief description of the proposal was provided in the Planning
Committee report to Council that month.
The "Virtual College of Biotechnology"
The Task Force on Biotechnology and their proposal "Academic Priorities in Biotechnology"
envisaged establishing a "Virtual College" as a means of delivering multidisciplinary programs in the
area of biotechnology. Because one of the Task Force's terms of reference was to identify barriers to
the delivery of multidisciplinary programs, and because the "Virtual College" concept appeared, at
first blush, to be an attractive general means of structuring and governing larger-scale
multidisciplinary programs, the Planning Committee and the Biotechnology Task Force believed that
it might be possible to describe a generic "Virtual College" which could serve as a template not only
for Biotechnology but also for other new multidisciplinary programs of similar scope. The Planning
Committee thus presented for discussion a draft policy document entitled "A Governance Structure
for Virtual Colleges at the University of Saskatchewan" to the December, 1998, meeting of Council.
The discussion at Council and further discussions of the "Virtual College" concept with Deans'
Council and within the Task Force itself revealed a number of problems with the initial model that
had been proposed. It soon became apparent that the notion of a generic "Virtual College" with a
one-size-fits-all governance mechanism was either altogether untenable, or would require such a
prolonged period of reworking that implementation of the intended "Virtual College of
Biotechnology" would be delayed for an unacceptably long time. Therefore the Task Force on
Biotechnology, with the concurrence of the Planning Committee, agreed to put aside detailed
considerations of the generic "Virtual College" in favor of constructing a proposed governance
structure designed specifically to meet the needs of the proposed programs in biotechnology. That
task and the others described in the terms of reference of the Task Force are now complete.
The final report of the Biotechnology Task Force was presented to the Planning Committee
on February 18 and was discussed at two subsequent meetings of the Committee. At its meeting on
March 4, 1999, the Planning Committee formally accepted the Task Force report, and discharged the
Task Force with thanks. The full report of the Task Force is posted on the web at
http://www.usask.ca/university_council/planning. The status, as of March 15, 1999, of the various
course proposals described in the Report is given in Appendix I, together with the most recent version
of the proposed budget of the proposal, "Academic Priorities in Biotechnology". Both the course
proposals and the proposed budget are works in progress and are presented at this time solely for the
information of Council members. The final course proposals and the final proposed budget will be
submitted to Council's Academic Programs and Budget Committees in due course.
The Task Force's conclusions regarding impediments to interdisciplinary teaching and
research at this institution are presented in Appendix II. Comments of Council members regarding
these conclusions would be welcome.
The Planning Committee also endorsed a plan devised by the Vice-President Academic (cf.
memo in Appendix III) for moving the draft program proposals on biotechnology through the usual
collegial approval process. That plan involves striking a small Implementation Committee consisting
of some members of the original Task Force together with Lea Pennock (Registrar's Office), Dale
Amerud (Financial Services) and Gary Kachanoski (Dean of Graduate Studies and Research who has
agreed to serve as the "designated Dean" for the Virtual College of Biotechnology). The
Implementation Committee's task will be to move the proposed programs through the usual
Departmental, College and Council program approval process. Their goal is to have a program in
place by September, 1999, in time to advise first-year students about preparatory course selection,
and to enroll the first students in the program for a start in September, 2000.
The generic "Virtual College"
The work of the Task Force on the generic "Virtual College" has not been lost. The Task
Force's ideas together with subsequent refinements made in consultation with the Deans and the
Office of the Vice-President Academic, are presented in a document entitled "Virtual Colleges at the
University of Saskatchewan", Appendix IV of this report. This document is presented now to promote
a further discussion in Council of the Virtual College concept, and to test current ideas for realizing
this concept in a practical governance structure. The Planning Committee expects a revised document
on the generic "Virtual College" to be presented for approval at a meeting of Council in the near
future.
Appendix I:
Status of the Biotechnology Proposal: March 15, 1999
Appendix II: Impediments to Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research
Appendix III: Implementation Committee Terms of Reference
Appendix IV: Virtual Colleges at the University of Saskatchewan
(Appendices are not available on web site. Contact the committee for more information.)