A New Era Begins 1975-78

As in the case of the Working Party's Report, we cannot here provide a detailed summary of the Commission's Report which contains 105 finely-printed pages of sustained analyses and eloquent exposition of educational philosophy. We must, however, give some specific attention to the Commission's analyses and conclusions regarding the Working Party's “major premises". On Academic Participation in University Governance In Section I I of its Report, the Commission commends the Working Party for its “excellent map of the academic t er r i t or y" and states that “ i t has postulated two primary conditions for progress in the future: (1) strengthened academic participation in the government of the University and (2) the integration of departments of study". There is no need, the Report continues, for the Commission “ t o go over again the ground covered by the Working Party". But in order to clarify issues at the outset, the Commission will begin its considerations “ by endorsing both of those conditions laid down by the Working Party". In considering the matter of academic participation in the governance of the University, the Commission recognized the need to examine the position of the Governing bodies o f the Colleges and their constitutional powers. The Report reviews briefly the specific provisions of the College constitutions wi th respect to this issue, and the Commission then concludes: 22. The situation we have described in respect of the three College Boards seems to us an anomaly in the light of our endorsement of the importance of academic participation in the governance of university institutions, since it appears that the Boards of Governors/ Trustees of the Colleges are given by their constitutions supreme responsibility for the general direction of their colleges and in particular are empowered to revoke decisions of their Academic Boards and Councils. It is all the more serious, if, as has been represented to us, the governing bodies of the Colleges are self-perpetuating. Our examination of their constitutions suggests to us that there is substance in this criticism. After a review of the constitutional provisions regarding College Governing Board membership, the Report continues : 23. This characteristic of the composition of theColleges'Governing Boards seems to us unsatisfactory. While we recognize the desire to maintain the traditions of the Foundation Colleges we believe that in the course of time it will inevitably be the members of the academic staff of the Colleges who will be the transmitters of the living tradition; they will be the ones who are in day to day contact wi th successive generations of students. This is not to say that the Governing Boards of the Foundation Colleges have not given an indispensable service to the birth and early life of the University in 20