Hi #UAlberta community! I’ll be live tweeting today’s General Faculties Council (GFC) meeting. Follow along for my thoughts on the proceedings! #abpse

Today’s GFC meeting will have long lasting consequences for the UAlberta community, as the council will make a final recommendation on academic restructuring. The most interesting decision will be whether or not GFC endorses the inclusion of executive deans at the college level

After a brief discussion over procedural rules, we’re beginning to debate over the order of the meeting’s agenda. Joseph Doucet moves that GFC vote on the composition of the colleges prior to voting on the leadership of the colleges

Essentially, this would mean that GFC decides which faculties go into which college prior to deciding whether an executive dean or college manager will lead the colleges

The motion goes to a vote. The initial vote count comes out 65-62, with 3 abstentions. Since absentions are counted as no votes at GFC, the motion is tied. However, due to technical difficulties, some members couldn’t vote

Because there were inconsistencies in voting, it appears there might be a revote. Some members are saying their votes weren’t recorded, but Kate Peters, the secretary of GFC, is saying they were

After a lengthy discussion over the vote, GFC has decided to revote due to technical difficulties.

The revote comes back 69-64 in favour, with one abstention. As such, the motion passes and GFC will decide on the formation of colleges prior to deciding on college leadership

Overall, a vital amount of time was taken up dealing with technical difficulties. We’re almost an hour into the meeting and the agenda has yet to be approved

The agenda has passed and we’re now onto remarks from the aGFC chair, @BFlanaganUofA

In his opening remarks, Flanagan indirectly responds to an open letter from International Students Association. He says that concerns over remote learning raised by international students are real but asserts the university cannot mandate professors to upload lectures

Next up to speak is Provost Steve Dew. He gives background on the U of A Tomorrow process and discusses the consultation process undertaken by the admin.

Based on the feedback on the community, GFC will be voting on three motions today

The first motion will be voting on whether or not to endorse a college model.

Motion 2 is about leadership models in a college model

Finally, Motion 3 is about the composition of college models.

The last two motions will likely be the most contentious at GFC

We’re now onto discussing the first motion, which is whether or not to endorse a college model.

First up to speak is Joseph Doucet, an ARWG member. He speaks in favour of a college model, seeing it as the best way forward

Kathleen Lowrey speaks next, criticizing the motion. She rejects the need for “nimbleness” and says that the university shouldn’t be run from the top-down. As such, she will vote against the motion

. @ArtsSquared uses her time to point out that there are outstanding financial questions over college models. Specifically, she asks why her questions to GFC over financial details weren’t answered

Dew replies that responses to her answers have been posted on the GFC site

Next @uasupresident speaks, saying that student feedback has led him to believe a college model is the most appealing restructuring scenario for students

After a vote of 119-10, with one absentions, the first motion passes.

GFC will be recommending that #UAlberta adapt a college model

GFC is now discussing the consolidation of the colleges.

Christopher Lupke is currently speaking in favour of a college of Arts and Sciences, citing numerous other universities that have adapted this formation

Mâtina Kalcounis-Rueppell is up next and she is now speaking in favour of a College of Natural and Applied Sciences.

This college would be comprised of Sciences, ALES, and Engineering. As such, if this model was accepted, Arts and Sciences would remain separate

Numerous professors, including Doucet, Stan Blade, and others, speak in favour of the college of Natural and Applied Sciences.

Importantly, @DavidDraperAB speaks in favour of this model as well, saying that student feedback has led him to support a tri-agency alignment model

After a round of speakers going back and forth, @UASUualberta VPSL Katie Kidd speaks on the motion.

She says that, regardless of the motion adapted, she hasn’t appreciated the way in which certain GFC members have discussed the faculty of Education and the worth of her degree

. @harnoor_kochar, another student rep, is speaking in favour of a tru-agency alignment model

She says most Arts undergrads prefer a college model in which they’re paired with Education, Business, and Law. Highlights that students must be kept in mind in this decision

UPDATE: In a 107-25 vote, with 4 absentions, GFC votes against adapting a College of Arts and Sciences, alongside a College of Professional and Applied Sciences #UAlberta

Interesting to note: Steve Patten, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, voted in favour of a College of Arts and Sciences.

Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell, the Dean of Sciences, voted against the College

UPDATE: In a 114-13 vote, with 8 absentions, GFC recommends that #UAlberta adapt a college model comprised of:
- A College of Health Sciences
- A College of Natural and Applied Sciences
- A College of Social Science and Humanities

After a short break, GFC will be voting on the leadership of college models.

This is largely expected to be the most contentious decision, as representatives are divided on whether colleges should have an executive dean or a college manager

Provost Dew is the first to speak. Overall, he believes a “Dean of College” will best serve colleges

Important to note: a “Dean of College” is the renamed executive dean position. Although the name is different, the role is the same

Off the bat, Eleni Stroulia brings forward an amendment, saying that there isn’t a need for an executive dean role.

Stroulia’s amendment would see colleges be led by a Service manager. She says the amendment would minimally impact faculties and protect autonomy

After an impassioned speech from Doucet, @ArtsSquared puts forward another amendment.

She believes UAlberta needs to protect facilities as an academic unit. Additionally, she asserts creating a new layer of administration in executive deans sends the wrong message to the public

In order to address this, Sale proposes having a service manager handle shared services but to not create new administratives positions, which she claims would make faculties subservient

Currently, numerous representatives have come up to speak against Sale’s amendment.

Kisha Supernant gives notable remarks, as she speaks against Sale’s amendment but says that the restructuring is weighing hard on everyone, especially support staff

In her time, Lowrey claims that the initial vote on the agenda was miscounted twice.

After this, Lowrey goes on to describe how admin has mishandled the feedback process. Midway, she calls out Dew for repeatedly tilting his head back at the ceiling while she speaks

Next, Susan Babcock speaks against Sale’s amendment. She says that, as an academic administrator, that she believes the colleges need clear academic leadership in order to work

UPDATE: In a 21-108, with 2 absentions, @ArtsSquared’s motion fails. Some representatives may have accidentally voted incorrectly, so the exact margin may change

This does not guarantee that #UAlberta will get executive deans, as Stroulia’s other amendment may still pass GFC

Adrian Wattamaniuk, a student rep, is next to speak. He supports the creation of a service manager instead of an executive dean. Specially, Wattamaniuk cites a student survey in engineering which showed 77% of students preferred a college manager

Andrew Sharman is next to speak. He highlights the importance of nimbleness, leadership, and the need to act fast. As such, he supports a dean at the college level

Numerous speakers are now speaking in favour of the amendment, including Kisha Supernant, Nelson Amaral, and Roger Moore.

Concerns touched upon include creating a new level of admin and centralizing decision-making powers in the governance structure

. @uasupresident uses his time to highlight that cost-savings wasn’t the only goal of restructuring: other goals included increasing interdisciplinary strategic vision.

He worries that faculty deans will be overwhelmed dealing with this, which could negatively impact students

After GFC extends the meeting by 30 min, debate over the executive dean role continues!

Fraser Forbes brings up an unique point against executive deans, noting that faculties have a positive history of working together.

Instead of adapting executive deans, Forbes believes we need time to evaluate the leadership needs of colleges, instead of rushing though

Heather Coleman, the next speaker, highlights the importance of understanding that executive deans in Australia, which are the model for the U of A, are largely the same as faculty deans here

She additionally notes that interdisciplinary “comes from bellow,” not from above

Dave Konrad, the undergrad BOG rep, speaks next.

In his time, he states that his primary concern is whether faculty deans will be able to hand the workload under a system without an executive dean

The next speaker, Donna Wilson, says that discussion on executive deans and college managers have made GFC’s decision more complex.

Due to this, Wilson supports tabling the motion to provide GFC with more time on the decision

Debate has now ended on the amendment over the service managers. GFC is now proceeding towards vote over the service manager amendment. If it fails, it’s likely GFC will support an exec dean model

There is currently contention over how GFC members are voting. Lowrey that how votes are tallied over Zoom and whether members are considered present is unclear.

It’s important to note that numerous technical difficulties have been experienced while voting as well

GFC votes to extend another 15 minutes to come to a final decision.

However, due to technical difficulties the vote was conducted over Zoom, preventing observers from knowing the tally. GFC is now rebooting their voting system for the main motion

Major technical difficulties are containing to prevent the vote from occurring. President Flanagan has made an executive decision to extend the meeting until 6:30

Quite a major failure frankly

Donna Wilson once again brings up an important factor that, of the roughly 140 reps, only 95 are currently connecting. She says that a 4.5 hour meeting, with only a 5 min break, is problematic

UPDATE: In a 92-28 vote, with 4 absentions, the amendment passes. As such, if the final motion passes, GFC will recommend a college model lead by service managers, not executive deans

The final tally is contentious, given numerous technical difficulties that occurred #UAlberta

BREAKING: In 102-22 vote, with 5 absentions, #UAlberta’s GFC recommends a college model lead by service managers. Subsequently, executive deans won’t be created #abpse

With that, we’ve come to the end of today’s GFC meeting! Overall, huge decisions made today for the UAlberta community. For further coverage on today’s meeting, make sure to follow @The_Gateway!