Several AUFA members attend the December 10 Board of Governors (BoG) meeting. These are the observations they shared with AUFA.
Riot Act: The Board chair started the meeting by telling observers not to disrupt or record the meeting. Observers are only able listen in a phone. This warning was apparently unprecedented. It may suggest the Board is beginning to feel some pressure over their poor behaviour at the bargaining table and were worried about disruption of BoG meetings.
Opaque governance: The reports that comprise the agenda are not available to the public and are mostly dealt with as part of the consent agenda (i.e., there is no discussion). This means that most of the business of the Board is transacted in secret. The meeting ran only about 90 minutes of the 4.5 hours allotted.
Executive dominated: The university executive did approximately 90% of the talking at the Board meeting. Only one public Board member asked a substantive question, albeit a minor one. It is unclear how engaged the Board members actually are in governance.
President’s report: The acting president’s verbal report touched on four issues: performance funding metrics, progress on the near virtual initiative, downward enrollment trends, and progress on EDI initiatives. The acting president said nothing substantive, and no questions were asked of the acting president by Board members.
Enrollments: Some additional analysis of enrollments was presented. The 2020/21 COVID bump in enrollments appears to have been driven by existing student taking more courses, rather than an influx of new students. Some institutions are charging students fees (e.g., the U of L charges $100 for students to take a course elsewhere), which may be affecting visiting enrollments (which are off precipitously). According to the VP University Relations, AU is not doing much recruitment in response to an 11% year-over-year drop in enrollment because it is awaiting the development of an enrollment management strategy.
Lease extension: A two-year extension of leases at the Trail Location (for approximately 7000 sq feet of space) was approved. This was explicitly discussed as transitional space for meetings, hoteling, and collaborations. The leases were to provide for an early termination option.
Chair’s report: The totality of the chair’s report was a gift presentation to the departing acting President and an announcement of seasonal gifts for Board members. There was no discussion of AU’s growing labour unrest.
Thanks to the members who attended this meeting and reported back. The next BoG meeting is March 5, 2022, from 8:30 am to 1 pm