External Review Task Forces

This Task Force will address issues that are based on recommendations from the retreat and recommendations 2 and 7 from the report related to departmental structure including the following:

• Strike a sub-committee of faculty members, including those who joined the department after the merger to come up with a plan for a departmental structure that would better support a more collective identity (role of council)
• Create opportunities for meaningful discussion at the department level

• Address how we communicate about ourselves (handbooks, etc.) faculty, sessionals and students.

• Discuss and problem-solve how we can effectively work together given fragmented and limited space

Review Recommendations related to the work of this Task Force

• The Review Committee sees the tension between individual programs and the collective whole as a structural source of distrust and competitiveness and therefore as a significant barrier to progress. To help resolve this, the department is encouraged to begin active efforts toward surfacing and agreeing upon the ingredients of a coherent collective identity, set of goals, and future plan.
• It seems an appropriate time to move beyond the current model of silo academic units and explore the potential benefits of expanded interactions, collaborations and synergies between units and across the department.

This Task Force will address issues that are based on recommendations from the review.

Review Recommendations related to the work of this Task Force

• The department would benefit from a discussion on a collective approach to cross‐cultural understanding, indigenization and internationalization.

The work of this task force also will include consideration of ways to address the following recommendation from the review.

Efforts to achieve a more widespread appreciation for the fiscal realities being managed by the Dean’s Office generally, as well as the implications for planning at the level of the department and its programs, might also serve to reduce the sense of competitiveness between programs within the department that arises from misunderstandings of how decisions are made.

This Task Force will address issues that are based on recommendations from the review.

Review Recommendations related to the work of this Task Force

• The department is encouraged to develop a faculty renewal plan with a focus on diversity.

This Task Force will address issues that are based on recommendations from the review.

Review Recommendations related to the work of this Task Force

• Junior and mid‐career faculty members would benefit from a well‐thought‐out mentoring program with a focus on career development and progression.