Recommendations to Trent's Board of Governors
June 17, 2003
The Arthurs-Lorimer Report of 1997 must not be forgotten or buried!
If the Trent University Board of Governors and its President were to put in place strategies and action plans to address the serious weaknesses in Trent's governance and human resources procedures that were identified in the Arthurs-Lorimer report Trent would have long before now instituted proper strategic planning and proper management controls and measures of accountability and performance.
Trent should take seriously the problems identified in the Arthurs-Lorimer report. In doing so the Board will be taking appropriate action to provide management with training and backup support to enable them to govern the University in accordance with best practices.
If we ask ourselves how Trent can find what best practices are, where the best models are, and what can we borrow from others we will not have to reinvent the wheel ourselves.
To assist Trent with the task of addressing systemic weaknesses in Trent's governance and human resources management a set of 12 recommendations was presented to Trent's board of governors in June 2003.
Included with the 12 recommendations was a supporting list of references on the subjects of;
Recommendations presented to our Board of Governors in June 2003
- The Arthurs-Lorimer report must be mandatory reading for every Board member and must be included in the orientation package of every incoming Board member. The University must dedicate itself to finally solving the problems identified in the report.
[OurTrent Editor's note: The "official" version of this report was once readily available to the public on the Trent University website. Unfortunately it appears that the report and all it's supporting documentation have been permanently removed and are no longer to be found on Trent's website. We have an index of the original web references.]
- Trent needs to articulate its dedication to certain key values that would promote civility which Arthurs-Lorimer found to be in short supply at Trent in 1997. If we look at Trent's Mission Statement the words "mutual respect" and "an ethical conscience" are buried in the midst of many other words in the seventh and last paragraph of Trent's Statement of Goals. By contrast, the Vision Statement of the University of Wisconsin Stout which was the winner of the Baldrige award for the year 2001 contains a strong and clear statement that: "We value active involvement in shared governance, consensus-building, teamwork, open and effective communication, and respectful, ethical behaviour". This is a far more meaningful statement of values that the Trent community might be able to get behind and that would have a chance to influence real decisions and real behaviour.
- In the same vein as recommendation 2, Trent University could benefit from initiating character-based training for all of Trent's employees and students similar to the initiative that is being carried on at Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board under the leadership of the Director of Education, Dr. Avis E. Glaze. Character First is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of character-based training in business and education and provides an example of extensive materials that can be used in a character-based training program. Examples can be seen on the Web by searching the name Character First in Google or another search engine.
- The University must develop an overall strategic plan and each department or sub unit must also develop a strategic plan in harmony with, and in support of, the overall strategic plan. Strategic plans should be widely circulated and clearly delineate objectives. Detailed action plans with timelines, authority and accountability measures should be developed for each component of a strategic plan. Everyone should know who is responsible for what area and what outcomes. Mechanisms for providing coaching or missing resources should be built in so that appropriate actions are taken when goals or timelines are in danger of being missed.
- Mechanisms must be put in place to monitor the progress and implementation of recommended changes in governance. In striving for excellence in management Trent must have a means to continuously know the degree to which objectives are being met and the degree of stakeholder satisfaction. The Baldrige "Education Criteria for Performance Excellence" and its Canadian counterpart provide a blueprint of how to achieve and monitor performance excellence in education. Trent should be in the forefront and always work towards achieving the available official recognition even if Trent chooses not to officially compete for the award(s). The Baldrige National Quality Program web site has extensive valuable material on how an educational institution can pursue excellence. For example, the entire prize-winning documents submitted by the University of Wisconsin is available for review on the web site as an example of how one University implemented the Baldrige program.
- It is inevitable that management will make mistakes. Many universities have put mechanisms in place to contend with this problem and Trent should do the same. For example Trent should establish;
- An Ombuds office (not a Human Rights Officer as is in place now and only deals with discrimination and harassment based on such things as race, gender, etc.).
- Conflict resolution policies and procedures.
- Mandatory conflict resolution training for all managerial staff.
- Policies for protecting whistleblowers.
- Excellent labour relations are critical and very much dependent upon the proper and professional function of the Human Resources department which must be run in the highest moral, ethical, legal, and humane manner. Trent must assure that;
- The Associate Vice President of Human Resources is required to obtain and maintain CHRP certification.
- All Human Resources Advisors must be required to obtain and maintain CHRP certification.
- A Human Resources policy manual for the management of all non union personnel must be developed without delay. The purpose of this policy manual is to assure proper handing of non union personnel. For example, the procedure for the requirement of written warnings and the correction required, the provision of instructions, time frames, support and the monitoring and measuring of progress towards correction must be clear and specific. The policy manual must describe the process, procedure and the consequences should corrective measures not have the specified outcomes. All aspects of the management of non union personnel, including terminations, must be handled according to best HR practice as incorporated in the policy manual and in order to maintain the proper image of Trent as an ethical employer of the highest standard.
- Non-union personnel must be provided with clear and concise terms of employment that define both their obligations and rights and those of the employer with respect to their employment. Other universities have mechanisms in place. Trent should;
- Establish a Professional Management Association for non academic non unionized personnel.
- Make certain that all non-union personnel operate under contracts that clearly spell out their terms of employment, their obligations and their rights.
- Management job descriptions and mandatory qualifications must be clear.
- References of applicants for management positions must be thoroughly checked, if necessary utilizing consultants who specialize in checking references. A search of computerized case law databases should be done to check for references therein to the candidate which might reflect upon the suitability of the candidate for employment for the particular position. No one should be permitted to assume a key management function who does not meet the mandatory qualifications without clear and convincing written reasons being given for making an exception in a particular case.
- IT security is critical to the functioning of the university and steps must be taken to see that IT security is aligned with the objectives and overall strategic plan of the institution. University politics must not interfere with IT security. Procedures used by other organizations to successfully contend with this problem could be examined and the most successful ones implemented at Trent.
- Any case where an employee threatens to sue the University and alleges management malfeasance or bad faith should be required to be promptly referred to a committee of the Board for review so that the Board may consider whether action by the Board is necessary in order to prevent damage to the image and reputation of the University.
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References on the subjects of:
Section 1: |
Ombudspersons in Canadian and U.S. Universities, Conflict Resolution, Whistleblower Policies and Similar References, Protecting the Rights of Non-Union as well as Union Personnel. |
- Association of Canadian College and University Ombudspersons (ACCUO)
- Forum of Canadian Ombudsmen
- University of Western Ontario Ombuds Office
- University and College Ombuds Association, (UCOA)
- Organizations & Associations Ombudsman - University & College Programs
- The University of Waterloo's Conflict Resolution Support Program
- The Diagnosis and Treatment of Scapegoating as an Organizational Illness,Tim Griffin Northern Illinois University
- The Role Of The University Ombudsman In A Dysfunctional System
- How to Blow the Whistle on Suspected Improper Activities, University of California
- Interim Whistleblowers Protection Policy, University of Melbourne
- Whistleblowers Protection Act 2001 - Detailed Procedures, University of Melbourne
- “Whistle Blowing” and Employee Rights (Form), University of Illinois at Chicago HR Policies and Procedures
- Faculty Perspective: Malfeasance in academe and its danger for democracy, C. W. Kauffman, professor, U-M Engineering, U-M Ph.D. University of Michigan
- Professional Management Association for non-union personnel at the University of Western Ontario, Example of problem resolution procedures
- Conflict Resolution, Guide to Managing Human Resources Chapter 15 from the Office of Human Resources at the University of California at Berkley Human Resources
Section 2: |
Accountability, Why Universities Need Continuous Feedback from their Stakeholders in Order to Measure the Quality of their Performance. |
- Accountability - The Annual Cycle of Planning, Reporting and Evaluation in the University of Melbourne
- Baldridge National Quality Program
- Education Criteria for Performance Excellence
- E-Baldrige Self-Assessment And Action Planning, Using The Baldrige Organizational Profile For Education
- An easy-to-use employee questionnaire can help you assess your organization, Are We Making Progress?
- National Quality Institute, (NQI) the Canadian counterpart of Baldridge
- NQI and Excellence in Education
- Online Survey Process provided by David Hutton Associates, a Canadian consulting firm specializing in assisting organizations to attain Quality
Section 3: |
Quality Control in Human Resources. |
- Canadian Council of Human Resource Associations (CCHRA)
- Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO)
- The Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) now a nationally recognized designation
- Why it is Highly Desirable that university HR personnel have CHRP designation
- Society for Human Resources Management
- Human Resources Certification Institute
- HR Certification Institute: HRCI Certification: From Start to Finish
- Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations (CCHRA),CCHRA President's Message by Anne Charette, CHRP, The rebirth of a profession
- Managing the Termination of Employment Relationship
- The Process of Wrongful Dismissal Action - Gary Catherwood (British Columbia)
- “Behind the Curtain: Decision-making in Employment Labour Administrative Law”, Paper Presented to the Canadian Bar Association Seminar for the Session Titled “Where has Wallace Taken Us” - November 23-24 2001 Ottawa
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