FOR INFORMATION
S.89..12
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
r
MEMORANDUM
TO: SENATE
FROM: Senate Committee on
Academic Planning
RE: CMNS review
DATE: 17
February, 1989
In 1984, Senate approved, as part of a set of proposals on University
organizational structure (S. 84-81), the placement of the Department of
CMNS in the newly established Faculty of Applied Sciences. However,
Senate specified that
"the Department ... be subject to a mandatory review by the
Senate Committee on Academic Planning in Fall, 1987 to
ascertain whether the Department has been successful in
reorienting its activities within the new faculty."
An external review of CMNS has now been completed and the report of
the external review committee is attached for the information of Senate.
SCAP unanimously voted to accept the report at its meeting of Feb. 15th,
1989 and, in accordance with past practice, has asked the Dean of
Applied Sciences to report back within six months regarding the specific
recommendations contained in the report.
At its meeting SCAP also unanimously approved the continued placement
of CMNS within the Faculty of Applied Science. A report from the
external reviewers on this issue is also attached for the information of
Senate.
CA P Fc—S
MEMORANDUM
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
To:
J.W. George Ivany
Vice-President, Academic
From:
Donald A. George
Dean, Applied Sciences
Date:
February 1,
1989
Subject:
Placement of CMNS in FAS
On
31 January, 1989, the Faculty Executive Committee (consisting of the
chairs and directors of Computing Science, Kinesiology, Engineering
Science, Communication and Resource Management, and the Dean) passed
unanimously the following resolution:
The Faculty of Applied Science wishes to go on
record as fully endorsing the continuing
placement of the Department of Communication
within the Faculty of Applied Sciences. During
the past three years, Communication has played an
integral role in all aspects of Faculty life,
including curriculum, management and research,
and the current arrangement has been both highly
productive and colleagial.,
I
DAG/sy
El
Memo to Don George, Dean of Applied Sciences
From: Liora Salter, Chairman, Communication
Re: Response to the External Review of the Department if Communication
Deate: January 31, 1989
(a) Introduction:
Attached you will find the English translations of the two reports of
the External Review Committee concerning (I) the Department of
Communication and (2) its placement in the Faculty of Applied Sciences. I
have also Included a copy of the Department's own Review Document.
The Department of Communication met in a• retreat to consider the
two reports of the external review committee on January 23, 1989. With
respect to the review of the Department, emphasis at the retreat was
given to implementing the 'recommendations of the external report. This
will include, among other things, liaison with the colleges about teaching
media production, and discussions with other departments at Simon Fraser
with respect to a new course in the history of technological form. The
Department is also now considering the mechanisms of applying enrolment
limitations, so that the demands upon it and its resources can be brought
into a better balance.
With respect to the second report by the external review committee
on Faculty placement, the members of the Department of Communication
concur with its recommendations. Based upon their three year experience
within the Faculty, they have unanimously endorsed the continuing
placement of the Department of Communication in the Faculty of Applied
Sciences.
This matter must now be reviewed by SOAP. On December 3, 1984, the
Senate passed the following motion:
It is understood that the Department of Communication in the
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/
Faculty of Applied Sciences be subject to a mandatory review by
the Senate Committee on Academic Planning in the fail of 1987 to
ascertain whether the Department has been successful in
reorienting Its activities within the new Faculty.
With reference to this review, then, the attention of SOAP members
is drawn to the Department of Communication Review Document, which
provides not only background Information on all aspects of the
Department's curriculum and research, but a detailed description of the
evolution of the Department within the Faculty of Applied Sciences. A
copy of the Review Document is available in Dr. Ivany's office, and the
Department of Communication invites members of SCAP to read it.
This memo will not attempt to summarize the lengthy documentation
offered in
.
the Review Document. Rather, this memo is intended to be a
report to SCAP upon the specific steps taken by the Department of
Communication that are directly a result of its evolution and placement in
the Faculty of Applied Sciences.
(b) Steps Taken within the Evolution of the Department of
Communication with respect to Its placement in the Faculty of
Applied Sciences:
The Department of Communication has undergone a major
reorganization in the past three years. Integral to this reorganization, a
number of steps have been taken which reflect the decision of the
Department to be located within the Faculty of Applied Sciences. The
Department has taken the following steps:
I. Created a tightly integrated curriculum, with three areas of
concentration. Fully 33% of the Senate-approved courses in the
current curriculum are new or have been substantially revised
so as to reflect the current orientation of the Department.
2. Eliminated two areas of concentration, which were seen to
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overlap with offerings by other units in the university and to be
Inconsistent with the current orientation of the Department.
The eliminated areas of concentration are Interpersonal
communication and organizational communication.
3.
Within the newly integrated curriculum, created a new area of
concentration (one third of the new curriculum) on technology.
Attention Is also drawn to a second third of the curriculum --
"policy" -- which deals with the laws, regulations and policies
for each of the communication technologies.
4.
Within the new area of concentration on technology, created
three new courses dealing expressly with science and
technology. Four other courses have been substantially revised
to ensure their
TM
fit" into the, technology concentration. As a
result, in the area of concentration on technology, courses are
now offered in the history of communication technologies, on
the new information technologies, on emergency
communications, on the diffusion of science and technology, on
science and technology policy, on acoustic communication and on
network theory.
5.
Within the past three years, produced five books or manuscripts
(and number of articles) related to technology and technology
policy, all of which are now published or in press.
6.
Have been the principal investigators in a study sponsored by
the Social Science Federation of Canada on the management of
technology.
7.
Created a. Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology,
with membership drawn from Kinesiology, NRM, and
Communications in the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Simon
Fraser, and from Business Administration and Commerce at
Simon Fraser and UBC. This Centre has been contracted for a
major workshop on risk assessment to be held in Ottawa in
.
4
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.
March, and is currently in discussions with CIDA and IDRC about
funding on for several major research projects on science and
technology policy. In conjunction with the Centre, as well, a
research group on risk studies has been formed, and a "special
topics" undergraduate course on risk assessment Is currently
being offered.
S. On the initiative of members of the Department of
Communication, Simon Fraser is a lead institution in an
application on the management of technology to the National
Network of Centres of Excellence program. This application
involves faculty at Simon Fraser from the School of Engineering
Science, the Faculty of Business Administration, the Natural
Resource Management Program as well as the Department of
Communication.
The Department of Communication is also participant in two other
university initiatives, the Centre for Publishing Studies and the Centre for
International Communication. In each of these cases, the Contribution of
the Department of Communication to the active partnerships of the
Faculties of Arts, Business and Applied Sciences Is a specific one. In the
case of Intern.tional Communication, the Department offers courses on
intercultural communication as it affects technology transfer. In the case
of the Publishing Centre, the Department's contribution Is Its policy
courses on publishing.
The new Initiatives described above are not the only ones taken by the
Department of Communication in the past three years, some involving
co-operation with other units in the university. Nor is it the intention of
the Department to allow Its placement In Faculty Applied Sciences to
interfere with other initiatives that faculty members might take. There
are, however, serious limits upon the resources of the Department of
Communication, and the activities listed above constitute the
Department's first priorities.
..... .
5
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The priorities of the Department (and the curriculum changes!,which
accompany them) are a direct reflection of its reorientation 1 . Its
placement in the Faculty of Applied Sciences has made them feasbIe by
supporting close working relationships between Communication and the
other applied sciences at Simon Fraser, and by lending credibility to the
difficult but important collaboration of technical and social -scienists in
an active research program.
It remains to be stated that the Department of Communication is
involved in all aspects of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. It has shared
course offerings with Natural Resource Management. Several
Communication faculty are members of the Centre for Systems Sience.
The technical research and teaching facilities within the Departmert have
been expanded significantly, two new technical laboratories have been
created, and laboratory components have been added t8 four
Communication courses. The four labs are scheduled for expanion in
1989-90, when space is
TM
freed up" because of the new Applied Sciences
building.
(C)
Conclusion:
The orderLy evolution of a Department in a new direction and of the
research interests of its faculty and graduate students are not matters
that can be declared by fiat, or imposed by others. They reflect
commitments that are fundamental to the individuals involved, and to the
way that these Individuals orient their teaching and research within their
own discipline. Nor can such changes be accomplished overnight.
That said, in the short space of three years, the placement of the
Department of Communication in the Faculty of Applied Sciences has been
highly beneficial for individual faculty members in their research and
research funding, for the Department of Communication and the success of
its teaching program, for the Faculty of Applied Sciences and for the
university as a whole. Given this success, and the positive response of
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the community and of the external reviewers, and the unanimous votes of
the Department and of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, we cannot imagine
any reason why It should not be allowed to continue.
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TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH LANGUAGE
Report of the External Zvaluation Comitt.e
on the Department of Coznmunicat ion
at Simon Fraser University
Presented to Vice-President I.W.G. Ivany
June 16th, 1988
Members of the Committee:
Dr. Gaetan Tremblay, UQAM, Chair
Dr. John Meisel, Queen's University
Dr. John Jackson, Concordia University
EM
FA
For purposes of its task, the Externl. Evaluation
Committee based its analysis on the
Review Document
prepared
by the Department of
Communication
at Simon Fraser (January
1988, 106
pp.),
on about fifteen meetings with several
professors, students and university administrators from May 24
to 26
1
1988 (Cf. attached list) and on a number of other
documents provided by the people who were met,
including
each
professor's curriculum vitae. This report
contains
the
conclusions
which the Committee reached unanimously at the end
of its discussions.
It is, of course, more pleasant for a committee to have
to evaluate a good department than a bad one. The Committee's
mandate was to evaluate the overall -quality of services
offered by the Department of
Communication.
Let us say at the
outset that
the Committee has become convinced that the
Department of Communication at Simon Fraser constitutes one of
the best in its field in Canada, with
regard
to research as
well as to teaching and community involvement.
But our
mandate, as we understood it, likewise consisted in closely
examining
the resources and activities of the Department with
the aim of suggesting priorities to be established and
improvements to be made. It is in this context of being
helpful to the Department and the University, as Vice-
President Ivany said, that we shall review the contours of the
Department's development, its teaching programs at the
undergraduate and graduate levels, its research activities as
well as a number of other dimensions of departmental life, and
take the liberty of making a few recommendations.
This dimension is difficult to evaluate precisely, but is -
none,
the less important.
The Committee was struck by the
excellent atmosphere which appears to prevail in the
Department of
Communication.
Throughout numerous meetings
which we attended, we detected no resentment whatsoever and no
troubling frustrations, neither among professors nor among
students. Quite to the contrary, spirits are high and
advantageous for working. Of course, departmental life is not
tree from problems, but the Department appears to have the
means to cope with them and to resolve them in a satisfactory
manner. In this regard we must emphasize the work
accomplished by the present department head, Professor Liora
Salter, and her predecessor, Professor William Leiss. Without
the positive attitude and tact which they have shown, the
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3
Department of Communication could well have experienced
gloomier days and its development would no doubt have been
affected by this.
2. Areas of Concentration
The history of the Department (Cf.
Review Document,
Chap.
2: The Evolution of the Department) recently led it to
restructure its activities into three areas of concentration:
media, policy and technology. The integrating core of these
three areas is produced by a common perspective which could be
called a critical analysis of the relationship between
technology and culture.
These areas inform teaching as much as research. Each
professor is successfully
integrating
his/her work
into
them
in
a coherent way; some are active in more than one area.
This is the result of an evolutionary process and the
difficult choices imposed by
constraints
on resources. That
is why the Department has abandoned some areas, such as
interpersonal communication and media production, in which it
was previously active.
The Committee believes that this rationalization of the
Department's activities is coherent, from the viewpoint of
both the Department's available resources and the evolution of
the field of communication.
The Department had to make
choices. Rather than covering a wide field superficially, it
opted for areas in which it excels. The fact that each
professor is able to situate, to his/her satisfaction, his/her
own work within one or the other area -- as the Committee
noticed during several meetings and from
examining
each
professor's curriculum vitae -- bears witness to the success
of the operation.
2.1 Relevance of the Areas of Concentration
There is no doubt about the relevance of these three
areas in the evolution of the field of communication.
Critical analysis of the media constitutes one of the major
currents of research in communication. It is a vast field and
'the Department's professors cannot be expected to cover it in
- its entirety. It seemed to us that the particular hue which
is given to it at Simon Fraser could be evoked by the
following key words: the study of popular culture, of daily
life (sports, popular music, etc,); the theoretical approach
influenced by the Birmingham "Cultural Studies" school; the
articulation of theoretical work with applied research; the
0
importance given to media-aided dissemination, .as well as to
the publication of written work.
S
The study of communication policy is socially important
field and one of the strengths of the
Canadian
communications
research tradition. In this area, Simon Fraser has had'a
prominent
position for a number of years. Some of its members
have played an eminent part in several government inquiries
and have published several works of critical analysis on the
subject.
As for the study of the relationships between technology,
culture and society, there is no need to comment at length on
its currency. The recent progress of communication technology
has placed it very high on the agenda, both in scientific and
governmental circles as well as amongst the general public, to
such an extent that we speak more and more of an "information
society", "computer revolution", "global village", etc. These
new developments, the consequences they entail, and the
discourse accompanying them, all justify the granting of
priority to research in this field, both at the level of
critical and theoretical analysis and that of applied studies.
Moreover, this field is also situated in the
continuation
of
the
Canadian
tradition. The works of Innis and McLuhan paved
the way a few decades ago.
2.2 Analysis of the Development of each Area
The Committee held meetings with the professors who are
active in each of the three areas. These discussions enabled
it to judge more precisely the field actually, covered, the
strengths andweaknesses, the problems and needs. We shall
review them briefly; in order of importance of the
recommendations which the Committee wishes to offer.
2.2.1 Policy Research
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-
The Committee met
,
with professors Liora Salter, Alison
Beale, Rowly Lorimer, Bob Hackett and Pete Anderson. The
group's activities cover a vast field: Broadcasting Policy,
Telecommunications Policy, Film Policy, Book Publishing,
Newspapers and Press Policy, at the national as'well as the
international level.
Added to this field is political
economy.
The courses which deal with one or the other of these
specializations of communication policy research can be
undertaken rather well by the existing staff, except as far as
4
5
the teaching of Telecommunications Policy is concerned. This
field is normally covered by Professor William Melody, but
• since he has been on leave from Simon Fraser for a few years,
there is no one in the Department to teach courses in this
field. In the Committee's opinion this is a major gap. A
meeting with students has furthermore confirmed this
judgement. The Department at present cannot meet its
commitments regarding research and teaching in the field of
Telecommunications Policy.
The Committee therefore recommends
that priority be given to solving this problem, either by
Professor Melody's return, or by hiring another professor
competent in the analysis of Telecommunications Policy, and
this without further delay.
The students' education cannot
suffer from this lack any longer.
2.2.2 Media Analysis
Professors Martin Laba, Rick Gruneau, Bob Hackett, Barry
Truax, Tony Wilden and (until quite recently) William Leiss
participate in. work in this area. We have tried to
characterize the research orientations of this group above.
Media analysis is at the heart of communication studies,
in Canada as well as elsewhere. When one thinks of
communication research, media research spontaneously comes to
. mind. It is not surprising to see a large number of students
in it. The situation is no different at Simon Fraser. The
members of the media group confirmed that this is the sector
in which students are most numerous and where the most courses
are requested. The consequence of this is that the
Department's professors must take on extra courses and call
upon several sessional instructors.
Despite the recent hiring of two new professors who can
give courses in this field, the situation remains difficult.
Especially since Professor William Leiss, too engaged in his
investment in the area of technology and culture, can no
longer undertake the courses on advertising which he used to
give. There is an important gap to be filled. These courses
are Very popular among students, and Simon Fraser has
established a solid reputation in this field, particularly
with the publishing of the book by W. Leiss, S. Jhally and S.
Kline. The Committee therefore recommends that the University
grant a new position to the Department of Communication in
order to meet its needs in the field of media studies, more
precisely in the analysis of advertising.
Since the
D
e p
artment of Communication abandoned teaching
in the sector of media production, its production equipment
has become quite depleted. The Department is very conscious
of the costs represented by education in this field . This is
why it has approached Capilano College with the aim of
reaching an agreement of co-operation which would offer a
minimum of services to its students.
The Committee encourages
the Department in this process. Co-operation with Capilano
Col-lege is certainly the most realistic way to envisage
providing students in mádia production with basic services.
Nevertheless, as far as research is concerned, the
Department has elementary needs which could not be met by such
an agreement. If Simon Fraser University recognizes media
analysis as an area of specialization in its Department of
Communication, it must supply it with adequate means to carry
on its work. Organizations subsidizing research, such as the
SSHRC, do not finance basic equipment. They regard such
funding
as the university's responsibility. Media analysis
requires basic equipment for the recording and treatment of
the corpus.
The Committee believes that the Department of
Communication'
.
s request concerning media-lab equipment is a
priority and represents the minimum needed for researchers to
carry on quality work in this field.
2.2.3 Technology Rsearch
The Department's investment in this sector is relatively
recent.
But the group brings together several senior
professors:
Liora Salter, William Leiss, Jan Walls, Bob
Anderson and
,
William •Richards. They cover the following
topics: riskcommunicátion, communication and science, impact
of technology, technology transfer and network analysis.
The perspective
1
developed by the group is clearly
communicational.
For example, the Committee interviewed the
people involved with the study of risks associated with
technological development. Their answers were clear.:
research conducted in the Department is not necessarily
limited to information technology, but the privileged angle of
approach is one of
communication.
Even in industries which do
not
belong
to the communication sector, one of the major
problems which arise at present concerning risk evaluation is
one of communication:, communication between experts and the
government, communication between the government and the
public,
communication,
between industry and the public, etc.
This is the field whièh the researchers in the Department of
6
7
Communication are endeavouring to advance, following closely
the pioneering work recently carried out in the United States.
The same perspective is adopted in the fields of Third
World development, technology transfer, analysis of the
scientific community and communication networks. The
analytical framework emphasizes language, cultural values and
communication problems.
The Committee observed that in the cdurse of the last
three years the group has concentrated its efforts on research
and teaching at the graduate level. This results in problems
linked to basic education in this field.
The Committee
believes that the Department should assure access to more
courses for undergraduate students in this sector. The
Department could, either by itself or in collaboration with
other departments, offer courses dealing with the following
topics:
history of technological form, technology and
society, technology and culture, information and society.
3. Teachin g
and Directing
of Students
We have already tackled a few questions regarding
teaching when we dealt with the areas of concentration.
Therefore we shall limit ourselves here to stressing that the
. students, during our formal
'and informal meetings with them,
have expressed strong satisfaction with the education they
receive in the Department of Communication at Simon Fraser.
This is true at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
The
Review
Document eloquently bears witness to the
Department's,.impressive teaching activity. The Committee has,
nevertheless; noted some specific questions which it would
like to bring to the Department's attention.
-
3.1 Undergraduate Studies
The Department is placed within the Faculty of Applied
Sciences and gives great importance to the study of media and
technological form. In this context, it would be desirable
for students to have some knowledge, even if only rudimentary,
of the forms they are using and studying. The
Committee
believes that the Faculty of Applied Sciences should offer the
students of the Department of
Communication
a course on
introduction to technological form.
During one meeting, Dean
Don George explained the difficulties posed by the preparation
and delivery of such a course.
Nevertheless, we remain
convinced of its importance for the students' education and
8
encourage the concerned parties to consider the possibility of
such a course..
The Committee noticed the theoretical coherence of the
Department of Communication at Simon Fraser. Notwithstanding
each professor's nuances of approach,. the students
characterize the general tendency as "critical analysis of
communication phenomena"'. They have no complaints about that.
And the Committee recognizes the advantages of' such coherence.
It facilitates the collaboration between professors, it
encourages a good working atmosphere, it contributes to the
Department's excellent reputation, it can even lead to the
creation-of a "school of thought". The Committee, considering
that the students must be made aware of the diversity of
approaches, nevertheless wondered if the
different
theoretical
approaches as a whole which are in'current use in the field of
communication
were covered in the basic courses. The answers
which emerged have been positive.
The Committee hopes that
the Department will continue to give particular attention to
the presentation of all the important theoretical approaches
in the science of communication in the basic courses offered
to undergraduate students.
3.2 Graduate Studies
The Committee recognizes the excellent work accomplished
by the Department in the supervision of Master's theses and
doctoral dissertations. The ratio of degrees granted in
relation to the number of students admitted is excellent.
Likewise, the positions held by those who have finished (cf.
Review Document)
demonstrate the calibre of education provided
and the quality of candidates selected. A few matters of
possible improvement have, however, caught the Committee
members' attention.
Considering the relative importance of its total
strength,' the Department enrols. and supervises an impressive
number of graduate students. The Committee has, however,
observed that this burden of supervision was very unevenly
distributed. ' Two professors alone supervise half the
students' theses and dissertations.
The Committee therefore
recommends
that the Department take the necessary measures to
ensure a better distribution of the workload of supervising'
graduate students.
The students welcomed by the Department at the level of
graduate studies come from varied backgrounds. That is
frequently the case in multi-disciplinary programs such as
9
communication.
The Committee members asked questions
regarding the candidates' basic education in communication.
.
It found that
most of them have already taken a major or minor
in communication. The Committee believes that the minority of
candidates with a weak background in the field of
communication should have the possibility of rapidly catching
up. For this purpose,
the Committee suggests that the
Department prepare a list of the fundamental works in
cciimunication for candidates in graduate studies who have not
previously studied in this field.
The Graduate Seminar represents an important moment in
the life of a graduate student. This is where he/she presents
the draft of his/her thesis or dissertation project and
subjects it to the critical and constructive comments of
his/her professors and student colleagues. It would be highly
desirable for the Department's professors to attend this
seminar regularly. But as each professor's workload is
already rather heavy, it is understandable that this is not
always possible.
Anxious to find a realistic formula which
would guarantee an acceptable minimum, the Committee suggests
that the Chair of graduate studies, in consultation with
his/her colleagues, establish a schedule
ensuring
the presence
of two or three professors at every session, according to each
one's field of competence.
The Committee believes that knowledge of elementary
quantitative methods constitutes a basic requirement for
Master's as well as for doctoral students. Graduate education
in communication should guarantee that those who have finished
can read, interpret and criticize the statistics which are
abundantly found in the literature. In several universities,
such a course is a prerequisite for proceeding to advanced
studies. The Department has just put to the test
a
new
formula for the course on quantitative methods.
The Committee
would like the Department to follow closely the results of
this new experiment and to envisage, if need be, alternative
solutions to guarantee a basic competence of its students in
this field.
4. Research
As far as research is concerned, the Department of
Communication at Simon Fraser is certainly
the best in Canada
in its field, in terms of quantity as well as quality.
It is
impressive to read the professors' curricula vitae. Several
of them have obtained grants from the SSHRC. The research
contracts,
although
calculated only approximately in the
Review Document,
amount to extremely
significant
sums. The
average number of books published per professor is 3.7, and
the average number of articles published in refereed journals
is close to 27. The Committee does not know any other
department of communication in Canada which does as well as
this.
As for quality, it can be appreciated by the reputation
of the publishers, and of the journals in
which
the professors
have published. This judgement is reinforced by the
references made in other universities to works published by
Simon Fraser's professors, and by asking the students what
attracted them to the Department of Communication at Simon
Fraser. Without having conducted a systematic investigation,
the Committee members can, from their previous knowledge and
the various statements received, attest to the excellent
reputation of the research work carried out in the Department
of Communication at Simon Fraser.
Notwithstanding this most positive evaluation, the
Committee shall take -'the liberty of expressing a few comments
and suggestions.
10
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4.1 Theoretiäal Research and Applied Research
The Committee clearly agrees with the importance
attributed by the Department of Communication to applied
research and to consulting work. It likewise recognizes that
the Department's professors have maintained over the years a
very good balance between theoretical research and applied
research, between publications in scientific journals and
consultants' reports.
The
Committee keenly wishes that this
balance be
maintained, despite the difficulties and pressures
it generates. It adds greatly to the Department's richness.
The potential pitfalls of emphasizing one type of research at
the expense of the other must
be
avoided.
4.2 Centres of Research: the "Special Initiatives"
The Committee is keen to underscore the dynamism which
infuses this Department with respect to research. Its sense
of initiative is exceptional. We have familiarized ourselves
with, among others, four major projects termed "Special
Initiatives": a Centre for International Communication, a
Publishing Research Centre, a Risk Communication Project, a
Technology Management Project. Each of these projects is made
up of a program of far-reaching activities and involves
11
significant amounts of money and staff resources.
The
Committee can only applaud such initiatives: no Publishing
• Research Centre exists elsewhere in Canada; the location of
Simon Fraser on the West Coast gives it a natural vocation in
relation to the Pacific Rim; Risk Communication constitutes an
emerging research field in which Simon Fraser has a good head
start; Technology Management is one of the priorities of
national research
organizations.
And the curricula vitae of
th' people involved speak well of the seriousness of these
projects.
However, faced with such remarkable development, the
Committee cannot help but feel overwhelmed. The fruition of
such projects would be fantastic for Simon Fraser's
reputation.
The Committee believe. , however, that for these
projects the University must provide support proportional to
the
benefits
it intends to reap from them.
The time and
energy required for such projects will not be without effect
on the teaching and supervising services offered by the
Department to its students. If such projects are to provide
the students with new learning opportunities, they will
likewise influence the availability of the professors
involved. Clearly, the realization of these Special
Initiatives which the Committee fully supports considering
. their importance and the quality of the people involved,
requires the allocation of additional resources to the
Department of Communication.
4.3 The Sonic Studio
The Department of Communication possesses a cultural
treasure of national importance. The work undertaken by
Murray Schaeffer and continued by Barry Truax on sound and the
environment is kept, in a state which seems precarious to us,
in the Sonic Studio. The preservation of these archives and
the pursuit of this research work go well beyond the
responsibilities of the Department of Communication.
The
latter is already
contributing
greatly to the preservation of
this cultural heritage and to the extension of this original
body of work. The Committee considers that the University
must find the funds internally, and solicit them externally
(from the Arts Council, from private enterprise, etc.), in
order to support the Sonic Studio even more. The Committee is
concerned to see that the pursuit of this work rests on only
one man's shoulders. it also considers that the requests for
-
equipment formulated in the
Review Document
must be complied
with urgently. Consequently,
the Committee recommends that
the University find the funds necessary to meet the crying
needs for equipment for the Sonic Studio, and to attract other
creators to this centre
The Committee had,: the opportunity to meet Mrs. Paulette
Johnston, responsible for Co-operative Education in the
Department of
Communication.
The Committee has come to
appreciate the benefit which this program offers for the
education and
integration
of students into the job market, as
well as the dynamism shown by the person responsible. It can
only encourage the Department to continue this promising
process of integration into the community.
6. A few Miscellaneous Questions—.:
The Committee has been made aware of a few other
questions which it would like to present here at random,
without the order of presentation necessarily reflecting their
relative importance.
6.1 Problems of Space
We were led to understand that the University as a whole
is suffering from lack of space. We ourselves have noticed
the problems of the Department of Communication. Discussions
with students led us to assume that the situation in
communication was worse than in comparable departments. The
imminent availability ,
of new premises for the Faculty of
Applied Sciences should be an
opportunity
'
to improve the
situation.
6.2 Co-operation
The Committee is keen to underscore the excellent co-
operation which the Department has been able to establish with
several people, departments, programs and faculties within the
University. The excellent relations it maintains with most of
the units and the people responsible bear witness to its very
good integration into the life of the University and to its
important contribution to the pursuit of its objectives.
6.3 Remuneration of Students
During one discussion, the Committee learned by chance
that graduate students are remunerated on different bases
according to whether they carry out the work of Teaching
Assistant or Research Assistant, the former being better paid
than the latter. It seems to us that this is a source of
12
13
needless frustration, and we bring the problem to the
Department's attention.
S
7.
Airing
priorities
The conclusions are clearly evident from our previous
analysis above. Considering that at present the proportion of
sessional instructors appears too high in the Department of
Communication, the Committee proposes the following
recommendation:
The University should urgently remedy the teaching
problem in the field of Telecommunications Policy, either by
Professor
Melody's
return or by hiring a new staff member.
The University should, as soon as possible, allot two new
Positions to the Department of Communication: the first to
assure teaching in the field of advertising; the second to
assure basic teaching in the field of relations between
technology and culture. The dazzling development of research
in the Department reinforces the needs already evident in
terms of teaching.
In closing, the Committee is keen to thank all those
people who have assisted it in the accomplishment of its task.
•
It sincerely hopes that the few recommendations which it has
formulated will help the Department of Communication and Simon
Fraser University in their pursuit of excellence.
(signature)
Gaetan Tremblay, Chair,
for the Extern1
T1..---
of
TRANSLATION FROM
THE FRENCH LANGUAGE
The Placement of the Department of Communication
in the Faculty of Applied Sciences
Report of the External Evaluation Committee
Presented to Vice-President I.W.G. Ivany
June 16th, 1988
Members of the Committee:
Dr. Gaetan Tremblay, UQAM, Chair
Dr. John Meisel, Queen's University
Dr. John Jackson, Concordia University
..
During its several meetings (with Dr I.W.G. Ivany, V.P.
Academic; Dr. E. Alderson, Acting Dean of Arts; Dr. D. George,
Dean of Applied Sciences; Prof. Liora Salter, Chair of the
Department of Communication; and several other professors and
students), the External Evaluation Committee was able to
acquaint itself with the. historical context which led to the
dismantling of the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies and
the relocation of the departments which it once included. The
Committee has likewise
'
heard the reasons which have led the
Department of
Communication
to choose the Faculty of Applied
Sciences and the objections of those opposed to such a move.
After having weighed the different arguments,. the
Committee (made up of a political scientist, Dr. John Meisel;
a sociologist, Dr. John Jackson; and a communications scholar,
Dr. Gaetan Tremblay) has come to the following conclusion:
the Department of Communication must remain within the Faculty
of Applied Sciences.
Both practical and theoretical
considerations have led to this judgement.
I. The present situation is yielding very good results. The
Department's performance, with regard to teaching as well as
to research and services to the community, is of excellent
quality. Its members are comfortable within the Faculty of
Applied Sciences which itself expresses great satisfaction
with the
integration
and the contribution of the Department of
Communication.
As they say in the world of sports, you do not
break up a winning
combination.
2.
The members of the Department of Communication have
unanimously "chosen to belong to the Faculty of Applied
Sciences.
The Committee believes that within a university
context, the expression of such a choice must be
taken
seriously and respected as much as possible.
Given
that the
Faculty of Applied ,Sciences has agreed to integrate the
Department of
Communication,
there are few obstacles to
acknowledging this
will.
3. '
Having the Department of Communication change faculties
would create more problems than it would solve. The
insecurity and frustration which would be provoked by such a
displacement, against the, will of the Department of
Communication, would negatively influence its performance --
not counting the problems of integration which would have
repercussions on the host environment.
3
4.
The science of communication is indebted to the
• contribution of
a large number of disciplines:
social
psychology, engineering, history, mathematics, philosophy,
sociology, linguistics, anthropology, political economy, etc.
From an analysis of its theoretical and methodological
foundations,
one could easily imagine several quite
justifiable and appropriate possibilities for the
administrative placement of a department of
communication.
Mcreover, the reality of academia, both
Canadian
and foreign,
bears witness to the diversity of solutions adopted (at UQAM,
the department of
communication
is placed within the "Famille
des Lettres" (Faculty of Arts), at the University of Montreal,
it is part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, etc.). The
placement of a department of communication in a raculty of
Applied Sciences is one of these several possibilities,
historically and theoretically quite as defensible as others.
5.
The Department of Communication bases its placement within
the Faculty of Applied Sciences on the importance which it
gives to the study of communication technology and to the
applied nature of its research. The
history of communication
science confirms these claims.
The development of this
discipline has indeed been considerably
,
marked by these two
• characteristics. One of its founding theories, the
statistical information theory, was elaborated by an engineer
(Shannon) confronted with a technical and economic problem,
that of defining the optimal quantity of information which a
channel can transmit, taking into account the level of noise
emitted. We know the repercussions which this theory has had
in the human
,
and social sciences as a whole. Cybernetics,
which is still inspiring numerous studies in communication
(cf. the pragmatics of the Palo Alto School) was created by
mathematicians and engineers. Mass media theory owes a great
deal to effects studies motivated by the fear of the dangers
of propaganda. Gabriel Tarde's theory of the public was built
from reflections on the consequences of the development of the
mass press. And so forth until the present, when the progress
of bi-directional technology is one of the sources of
inspiration
for recent reflections on interactivity.
And let us not forget the works of the two best
known Canadian
authors in the field of communication, Innis and McLuhan.
Their entire work investigates the role of communication
technologies in societies' development.
4
6.
The science of communication can greatly contribute to the
social and cultural evaluation of technology..
Its history, in
Canada and elsewhere, is marked by works which
evaluate
technology and the social experience of using this technology:
the use of satellites, for educational and medical purposes,
community media, etc.
7.
At a time when the necessary collaboration between the
State, business and universities is heavily insisted upon, in
order to ensure the development of research (Social Sciences
• and Hu
ma
nities Research Council, Science Council of Canada,
provincial Ministries of Education, Quebec Council of
Universities, etc.), -. the placement of Simon Traser's
Department of Communication within the Faculty of Applied
Sciences is one of the most advantageous and promising
initiatives. The
Department of Communication's members' long-
standing
sensitivity to the problems posed by technological
development, their experience with applied research, the
balance between theàretical and applied research to which
their curricula vitae bear witness, designated them as
partners in such
an experiment. And the Committee noticed
during its meetings that
the Faculty of Applied Sciences is
greatly open to, and unquestionably interested in, this
collaboration between engineers, computer scientists and
communication specialists.
S. Careful study of the curriculum offered by the Department
of
Communication
at Simon Fraser reveals very little basis for
charges concerning the unjustified duplication with the
curriculum of other disciplines. Of. course this does occur
with the great authors and the great currents of thought which
have contributed to the development of several disciplines,
but with an original perspective and with aims specific to the
science of communication.
-
The -creation and development of a new field of study and
research always involve problems of institutional recognition.
If the theoretical and methodological debates which they give
rise' to are usually stimulating for the evolution of
knowledge, the power struggles which inevitably accompany them
can become inhibitory.
The Committee believes that the
Department of Communication must be reassured as quickly as
possible about its administrative status. The confirmation of
its placement in the Faculty of Applied Sciences will only -
benefit its future development.
-
5
The Committee was in a position to notice the excellent
collaboration which the Department of Communication maintains
with other departments of the Faculty of Applied Sciences and
with the Faculty of Business Administration. It is keen to
congratulate it on this.
While recognizing that recent history has been
unfavourable to such a collaboration with the Faculty of Arts
and that this has left traces on both sides which cannot be
disregarded,
the Committee encourages all parties involved to
make the effort necessary to establish co-operation based on
mutual respect and reciprocity.
In the Committee's opinion,
the departments of the Faculty of Arts, as well as the
Department of Communication and the University as a whole,
would benefit from such an outcome.
(signature)
Gaetan Tremblay, Chair,
for the External Evaluation Committee
