May 24, 2001
Items for Information
1. Nursing Quota
Council will recall several discussions over the last year regarding the Nursing quota and the Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan (NEPS) program. The Planning Committee anticipated that a resolution of the quota situation in Nursing could be achieved this year. Funds were allocated to Nursing in the last provincial budget to cover increased program costs relating to higher admissions at the SIAST site over the last two years. The Planning Committee agreed to extend the temporary quota for Nursing for one more year, rather than implementing a permanent quota increase at this time. At its April 24, 2001 meeting, the Planning Committee approved the following motion:
Whereas a temporary admission quota of 260 students was approved for the NEPS program in 1999 and 2000 and whereas the full amount of $1.9 million to fund a permanent quota increase has not yet been assured over the long term, the Planning
Committee agrees to approve a one-year extension of the temporary quota for 2001-02 of
260 student admissions in the NEPS program.
The Committee is also drafting a set of procedures for quota changes and hopes to bring these to the June meeting of Council for approval.
2. Subcommittee updates.
Aboriginal Goal Subcommittee – A framework for the development of programs for Aboriginal students is being discussed under the auspices of Vice-President Atkinson and President
MacKinnon.
Joint Subcommittee on Council Policy for Centres – The Planning Committee has recommended that a Joint Subcommittee be established consisting of representatives from the Planning, Budget and Research Committees, to develop policies for the categorization and approval of various types of centres, units and similar support organizations on campus.
Operations Forecast – A Joint Subcommittee with the Budget Committee has been formed to review submissions for the 2002-03 Operations Forecast.
Priority Determination – The Priority Determination Process resulted in redistributing $1,000,000 to five colleges across the campus. One of the goals of the program was to encourage faculty to develop cross-disciplinary programs of teaching and research. A large number of impressive projects were proposed, only a few of which could be funded. The Planning Committee recently followed up with a number of these proposals, to determine whether their proponents had found alternate sources of funding to undertake some of the programs which had been proposed.
The Committee was pleased to find that several proposals had achieved this. When the final report of the Priority Determination project is completed, these proposals will be listed. In the meantime, the chair of the Planning Committee and the Vice-President Academic have written to

2 Planning Committee Report to Council
May 24, 2001 these project leaders to thank them for their proposal. Projects such as these can help to raise research and instruction at the University of Saskatchewan to the high level required in these intensely competitive times.
Systematic Program Review – The Annual Report of the Systematic Program Review to the
Overview Committee is attached for Council’s information.
3. Beck/Khachatourians motion on targeted funding
At its April meeting, Council approved a motion asking the Budget and Planning
Committees to investigate the nature and extent of targeted funding.
The Operations Forecast subcommittee, described earlier, has also taken on the task of reviewing the targeted funding issue. It is expected that a report and recommendations will be presented to the June meeting of Council.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Committee,
_______________________________________
Jene Porter, Chair
Committee members:
R.P. MacKinnon, President
M. Atkinson, Vice-President Academic and Provost
A.J. Whitworth, Vice-President (Finance and Administration)
M. Corcoran, Vice-President (Research)
J. Wallace (USSU academic vice-president)
J. Bobyn (GSA president)
R. Thompson (Sessional Lecturer)
R.E. Bilson
L. Ferguson
S. Fowler-Kerry
G. Khachatourians
F. Leighton
P. Li
W.W.E. Slights
E.B. Waygood
B.L. Dubray, University Studies Group
P.M. Melis, Office of the Vice-President (Academic)
C. Fornssler, Committee Coordinator, Office of the University Secretary