1. Three questions about the Office of the Provost you were afraid to ask: 14 December 2006 Laura R. Winer, Ph.D. Executive Director Office of the Provost 1. What is a Provost? 2. What are our priorities? 3. What is benchmarking?

2. 2 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

3. 3 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?

4. 4 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

5. 5 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

6. 6 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

7. 7 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

8. 8 Now for the techies! ICS –Information systems and technology Customer Services IMS –Instructional Multimedia Services ISR –Information Systems Resources NCS –Network and Communication Services

9. 9 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?

10. 10 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

11. 11 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)

12. 12 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))

13. 13 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

14. 14 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?

15. 15 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

16. 16 The White Paper The 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

17. 17 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

18. 18 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!”

19. 19 Research and International Relations Research Service and support levels Alignment of priorities and structures International Relations Québec, Canada, and beyond Strategic relations

20. 20 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)

21. 21 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

22. 22 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?

23. 23 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)

24. 24 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?

25. 25 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

26. 26 Benchmarking, cont’d Benchmarking change model Achtemeier & Simpson, 2005, p. 125.

27. 27 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?

28. 28 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

29. 29 Chronology of VP-level positions at McGill

30. 30

31. 31

32. 32 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

33. 33 Increased complexity: number of programs

34. 34 Factors to consider context over time –national and international comparisons funding levels and political situation –reporting requirements –complexity of environment

35. 35 Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Criticisms? Concerns? Complaints?