Thread by @LaurieAdkin

OK, let me see if I've got this straight. Some #UAlberta BoG members passed a motion today that includes a poorly written paragraph empowering themselves to create “metrics” by which the performance of the UofA’s (yet to be formed) colleges will be evaluated. 1/n @NoUofA42morrow

The President is supposed to report monthly on these performance metrics, which don’t yet exist, but will cover everything from 'clinical outcomes' to financial outcomes to ‘excellence in education’. 2/n

Never mind that none of the public board members is a health professional or an education expert and only one is a professor. 3/n

Excuse me for asking, but who died and made the BoG majority the Rulers of the Universe(ity)? Oh right, the BoG majority did. 4/n

These corporate executives, lawyers, and accountants —like the govt that appointed them—claim to be all about improving efficiencies. 5/n

Yet what they’ve now done is: (1) create a new set of executive administrators, who will require staffs to produce the data on the metrics (that don’t yet exist); 6/n

(2) added this new reporting on a new set of metrics to the existing processes of reporting that the university already does (to the GFC, the BoG, and the Minister). Perhaps they didn't know about these processes. 7/n

They include the university's comprehensive academic plans, its budgets, and—let’s not forget-- the reports that the Minister will be expecting on the performance-based indicators that have yet to be determined for the CARIs (with help from McKinsey & Co.). 8/n

In other words, the UCP govt & its appointees are strangling university administrators in red tape, and those administrators will be throttling academic staff to get numbers on reports. 9/n

And that will be fun, because the professoriate is shrinking by attrition, while the Pres wants to recruit 10,000 more students and our support staff are being fired by the hundreds. 10/n

But I digress. This little paragraph implies that the BoG is going to dream up its metrics, separate from the existing processes of “collegial governance” or consultation with, you know, the people who actually do the teaching and research. 11/n

And it seems they will be turning our President and Provost into White Rabbits who are always late for the tea party, because they are busy collecting data for the Queen of Hearts (in this case, as the paragraph says, the GFC, BoG, and "administration"). 12/n

Wait. The administrators will be reporting to the administrators? Well, that's what the paragraph says. That will surely be efficient. 13/n

With all this busi-ness there is a good chance we'll forget what we're here for. But that doesn't seem to be the main concern of the BoG majority. 14/14