Three questions about the Office of the Provost you were afraid to ask:

14 December 2006Laura R. Winer, Ph.D.

Executive DirectorOffice of the Provost

1. What is a Provost?

2. What are our priorities?

3. What is benchmarking?

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Goal of the session--to answer your questions!

To help you:

understand the “alphabet soup”

understand the McGill “provostial model”

understand priorities, performance indicators and benchmarking

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Agenda

1. Who is everyone?

2. What is a “provost” compared to a VP-Academic?

3. What are our planning and strategic initiatives?

4. What are the principles that must underpin all of our actions?

5. What are indicators and benchmarks and why are they so important?

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Alphabet Soup

• AMO• APGE-DGPDS• APO• AP-PB• AP-PP• ARR• AVP-HR• AVP-US

• CIO• DoS • DP-SLL• ED-FS• PIA• TDL• TLS• URO

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Alphabet Soup• AMO

– Academic Management Office• APGE-DGPDS

– Associate Provost Graduate Education - Dean of Graduate and Post Doctoral Studies

• APO– Academic Personnel Office

• AP-PB– Associate Provost – Planning and Budgets

• AP-PP– Associate Provost – Policies and Procedures

• ARR– Admissions, Recruitment and Registrar

• AVP-HR– Associate Vice Principal – Human Resources

• AVP-US– Associate Vice Principal – University Services

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Alphabet Soup• CIO

– Chief Information Officer• DoS

– Dean of Students• DP-SLL

– Deputy Provost – Student Life & Learning• ED-FS

– Executive Director – Financial Services• PIA

– Planning and Institutional Analysis• TDL

– Trenholme Director of Libraries• TLS

– Teaching and Learning Services• URO

– University Relations Office

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And for bonus points!• VP-A&F

– Vice Principal (Administration & Finance)• VP-RIR

– Vice Principal (Research & International Relations)

• VP-IIR– Vice Principal (Inter-Institutional Relations)

• DAUR– Development, Alumni & University Relations

• SG– Secretary General

• ASG– Associate Secretary General

• PVP– Principal, Provost, VPs, DPSLL, APs, SG & Legal

• P6– Principal, Provost & VPs ONLY

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Now for the techies!

• ICS– Information systems and technology

Customer Services

• IMS– Instructional Multimedia Services

• ISR– Information Systems Resources

• NCS– Network and Communication Services

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Agenda

1. Who is everyone?

2. What is a “provost” compared to a VP-Academic?

3. What are our planning and strategic initiatives?

4. What are the principles that must underpin all of our actions?

5. What are indicators and benchmarks and why are they so important?

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What is the difference between a Provost and a VP Academic?

• both are the “Chief Academic Officer”• the VP Academic is considered the “first among equals”

of the Deans• the Provost is “2IC” or “second in command” of the

University

• joint or shared responsibilities with the other VPs

• the Provost is responsible for preparing the University’s budget so that the academic priorities are:

• aligned • balanced • coherent

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Responsible for “Administering the Academy”

• “job #1” is academic matters • relations with the Deans, Faculties, faculty members, and

other academic positions – appointments, renewals, tenure, promotions (AP-PB & AP-

PP, APO)– admissions and enrolment management (DP-SLL, ARR,

APGE-DGPDS) – courses and teaching programs, teaching loads, class-sizes

(APGE-DGPDS, DP-SLL) – student life and learning (DP-SLL)– disciplinary matters involving faculty and students (DoS,

APGE-DGPDS, AP-PP)– Libraries (TDL)– teaching support (TLS)– IST infrastructure (CIO)

• policies to guide our actions for any of the above (AP-PP with SG & ASG)

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The Provost’s job expands…

• the “budget” is now a planning document– planning and institutional analysis (PIA)– academic personnel (APO) and academic

management (AMO)– budget office (AP-PB)

• new framework for alignment at McGill– HR functions (new AVP-HR, dual reporting)– financial and process auditing and performance

indicators (ED-FS, dual reporting)– facilities development (new AVP-US, dual-reporting)

• creating incentives and leveraging: strategic thinking and actions (core provostial team including integration with VP(A&F) & VP(RIR))

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Provost in the middle?

• Governance: – Senate: dialogue and networks– Board: the academic/educational agenda

• Provost is the “meat in the sandwich” – resource allocations, research directions,

public policy, fund-raising priorities, hospital issues

• Principal & VPs & Deans

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Agenda

1. Who is everyone?

2. What is a “provost” compared to a VP-Academic?

3. What are our planning and strategic initiatives?

4. What are the principles that must underpin all of our actions?

5. What are indicators and benchmarks and why are they so important?

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The goals and objectives of McGill: a view through six lenses

1. The White Paper

2. Principal’s Task Force on Student Life and Learning

3. Master Plan

4. Research and International Relations

5. Inter-Institutional Relations

6. Development, Alumni & University Relations

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The White PaperThe 5 I’s

• International students at all levels, an international faculty complement, and multilingual, multiethnic support personnel: cherished characteristics of McGill

• Inquiry-based teaching and learning: the competitive advantage of the research-intensive university in educating undergraduates

• Inter-disciplinary research and teaching programs: extending scarce resources and preparing ourselves for the future

• Infrastructure: making the most of what we have, building the case for getting more, and leveraging, leveraging, leveraging

• Innovation: the White Paper is a call to action

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The Principal’s Task Force

PF-RI-SC: publicly-(under)funded, research-intensive, student-centred university

Recommendations• Academic advising and mentoring• Funding and space• Learning community

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The Master Plan

• grow the campuses in a limited, strategic, sustainable, and accessible manner with a clear, proud, history-embracing, and forward-looking identity

• integrate research, teaching, and learning spaces in appropriate facilities with state-of-the-art infrastructure for a dynamic intellectual community

• protect the natural environment, use our patrimonial landscape and buildings – and the spaces between – creatively

• develop a coherent residential plan for our campuses

• build alliances to support McGill’s objectives: respect for those who respect us and remember that “we live here too!”

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Research and International Relations

Research

Service and support levels

Alignment of priorities and structures

International Relations

Québec, Canada, and beyond

Strategic relations

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Inter-Institutional Relations

• develop and “lobby” for a mission-differentiated public policy for Québec universities and educate Québec City and our sister institutions on its benefits and implications

• work to achieve equitable funding from Québec, and to maximise our share of all available envelopes (student-driven amounts, infrastructure and support for buildings and grounds, research envelopes, other OTO funds)

• improve relations with Québec City and Ottawa (focusing on the non-research portfolios)

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Development, Alumni, and University Relations

Campaign readiness

• align fundraising objectives and targets with top academic priorities

– at the University level

– with the Faculties

– for students

• relations with alumni

• communications and public relations

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Agenda

1. Who is everyone?

2. What is a “provost” compared to a VP-Academic?

3. What are our planning and strategic initiatives?

4. What are the principles that must underpin all of our actions?

5. What are indicators and benchmarks and why are they so important?

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Some working principles

• mission-driven– PF-RI-SC: all three elements are part of who we are and what we do at

McGill• alignment

– all action items and resource allocations must advance our goals, objectives, and strategies

• academic analytics– resolute, but informed, empiricism

• performance indicators and best practices– “That’s the McGill way” is no longer the correct answer

• horizontal consultations and decision-making– avoid “over-verticalisation”: with whom you work is as important as to

whom you report! • services orientation

– “spotlight on service” and beyond • simplification of the 4 P’s to avoid the fifth P

– policies, processes, procedures, and practices (problems)

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Agenda

1. Who is everyone?

2. What is a “provost” compared to a VP-Academic?

3. What are our planning and strategic initiatives?

4. What are the principles that must underpin all of our actions?

5. What are indicators and benchmarks and why are they so important?

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Benchmarking

• Goals and objectives– milestones: internal goal-setting

• Process: learn from (and teach) peer institutions

• Metric: comparison of data for selected indicators

• Iterate, iterate, iterate

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Benchmarking, cont’d

Benchmarking change model

Achtemeier & Simpson, 2005, p. 125.

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An example: McGill’s senior administration

• Do we have more administrators at McGill than we used to?

• How do we compare to our G13 & AAU peers?

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Provost

Deputy Provost

VP (Research &International

Relations)

VP (Admin.

& Finance)

VP (Development, Alumni & Univ.

Relations)

VP (Inter-Inst. Relations)

Secretariat

Principal & Vice-Chancellor

Deans & the Director of Libraries

Chief Information Officer

Associate Provosts

VP (Health Affairs) [& Dean of Medicine]

Legal Services

Senate

Board of Governors

McGill’s current administrative and governance structure

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Chronology of VP-level positions at McGill

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VP Level McGill Dal McM Queen's U de M U Laval U of A UBC U of C U of O U of T U of W UWOAcademic/Provost 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Research 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Admin&Fin 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Facilities 1Students 1 1 1 1HR 1 1 1DAUR 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Planning 1IIR 1 1 1 1Health 1 1Secretary General 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Total VP Level 7 5 6 6 7 7 5 5 6 5 7 5 5

Students (FT) 25805 13234 20536 17234 37267 24707 31501 30678 23598 26793 62575 23595 29715Students (PT) 5393 2315 3734 3549 18272 13881 3888 14170 4209 6783 8716 2530 4293Total Students 31198 15549 24270 20783 55539 38588 35389 44848 27807 33576 71291 26125 34008

G13 Senior Administration ChartChancellor, Chair BoG & Principal/President

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McGill Indiana U Ohio St Rutgers U of AZ UC-Boulder U Iowa UM-Columbia U Pitts U VirginiaVP Academic 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1VP Research 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1VP A & F 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1VP Students 1 1 1 1 1 1 1VP HRVP DAUR 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 0.5CIO 1 1 1 1VP IIR 1 1 1 1 1 0.5VP Health 1 1 1 1 1VP Cont Ed 1 1Secretary General 1Totals: 7 8 8 8 6 5 4 5 6 7

Total Students 31198 37821 50995 34696 36932 32362 28442 27003 26731 20018

Chancellor, Chair BoG & PresidentAAU Similarly-Funded Institutions Senior Administration Chart

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Factors to consider

• Size of McGill– number of students

•1993-94:15,593(ug) + 5,051(grad) = 21,373•2006-07: 23,559(ug) + 7,375(grad) = 30,934

– number of professors•Dec 1993: 1,526 TT staff•Jan 2005: 1,503 TT staff

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Increased complexity: number of programs

Minor Fac Prog

Major Hons Jt. Hons

Jt. Maj

Dip Cert Lic Major Con

TOTAL

1993-1994 50 26 136 59 24 8 14 9 1 3272005-2006 140 31 103 58 32 8 5 8 3 56 444

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Factors to consider

• context over time– national and international comparisons

• funding levels and political situation– reporting requirements – complexity of environment

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• Questions?

• Comments?

• Suggestions?

• Criticisms?

• Concerns?

• Complaints?