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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Senate
SUBJECT: Enrolment Limits:
September 1988
FROM: J.W. George Ivany
Chair, Task Force
on University Size
DATE: ?
May
26, 1988
.
The Board of Governors
has approved the limit of 3,000 new admissions
for
the fall term based upon
resources
available now that our overall budget
is
known. ?
Attached you
will find
four memos which were tabled for
the
Board's information and
which summarize the activity of the Task Force
on
University Size.
?
The final memo,,
dated April 21, 1988 from the Task Force
on University Size to the President
was tabled at the last Senate meeting
for
information.
?
It
?
would
now be
appropriate
?
for
?
Senate
?
to ?
approve the
following motion:
"that the Registrar set a target of 3,000 new
/a
dmissions tor 88-3. Any resulting reductions will
be accomplished as described in the memo of April
21, 1988, referred to above.
L
.
Memorandum
?
from the
Vice-President, Academic Office
?
Smoni Fraser Urilvery
To: W.G. Saywell, President
?
From:
J.W. George Ivany
Vice-President, Academic
Re:
Task Force on University Size
?
Date:
May 8, 1988
In the fall of 1987, following several successive semesters of large
enrolment increase, the President set up the Task Force on University Size.
There was widespread feeling that a critical point had been passed in the
balancing of student accessibility and available resources. The quality of
instruction at Simon Fraser was said to have been impaired.
• The mandate of the Task Force, which has been meeting on a weekly
basis since October, was announced in the attached memo (88-10-6). We have
now addressed the first aspect of our mandate, namely the setting out of a crisis
response to control a predicted double-digit application rate for September
1988. This action is described in a memo to Senate (87-12-10) and is further
elaborated in my memo to the President (88-4-21).
These proposals, which will limit the number of new students admitted
next fall to 3000, selected on the basis of previous academic performance, are
enabled under long standing legislation empowering the registrar with authority
to limit student admissions based upon available resources.
Meanwhile the Task Force has begun to deal with the longer range issue
of appropriate university size. A call for briefs was issued in January which
generated a number of competing visions of the university. We have been
wrestling with issues ranging from the ideal (quality of campus life) to the very
pragmatic (scheduling of classroom space). We are considering admissions
and continuance policies, the mix of students, and matters of curriculum
structure. Each of these areas is under the control of various Senate
Committees to which appropriate recommendations will be addressed. We
hope to table a report before the end of the summer trimester.
Ii
?
1
J.\V. George Ivany
To the Board or information:
President
Memorandum?
from the
?
Vice-President, Academic
Simon Fraser University
To: Task Force on University Size
?
From:
J.W. George lvany
Subject: Mandate
? Date: 88-10-6
As I see it we have three different but related sets of objectives
to achieve.
1.
Description of the problem and definition of possible
crisis responses.
We shall analyse and discuss data and anecdotes related to the
perceived problems of student overload. This
will
involve data
relating to student counts, faculty-student ratios, ratios of
sessional to regular faculty and our turnaway" rate. Other
important data related to support services will be scrutinized. The
data will be compared across programs, Departments and Faculties
and across recent years.
Such "quick-fix" ideas as may suggest themselves may become
one-time, emergency bandaids to be imposed by administrative
action or may involve longer term changes. We should consider
enrolment caps on courses and programs, admission standards,
continuance standards, etc. We should consider administrative
support levels as well as faculty complement needs.
Deadline: November 30, 1987.
2.
Analysis of current capacity.
We shall attempt to define the current, optimum capacity of
the University given present resource levels in order that the
quality of our instructional and research programs be preserved.
We must examine certain of our beliefs about Simon Fraser, e.g.,
the accessibility mandate, or the tutorial concept, to name just
.
0
Deadline: ?
April 30, 1988.
S
.
two. This should be done across the entire spectrum of our
curriculum. The result should be a statement of preferred total
size, a profile of student distributions afforded among
Departments and Faculties, recommendations with respect to the
historic proportions of graduate to undergraduate students, part-
time to full-time students and high school entrants to college
transfers or mature entrants. In dealing fully with these issues
we shall have to consider admissions standards and policies,
curriculum and pedagogy, space and scheduling across the day, the
week and the year.
Our target is a set of recommendations which
will stimulate a
full Senate debate on these important issues of capacity, resources
and quality.
Deadline: April 30, 1988.
3.
A Proposal for Government incremental support for
growth at Simon Fraser University.
Using the data and analyses from 2 above and considering both
our historic niche in
the University system of British Columbia and
the demographics of population growth in our cachement region we
wish to table a concrete proposal for incremental growth for the
consideration of our Ministry.
A^L
Ivany
Memorandum?
from the?
Vice-President, Academic Office
Simon Fraser University
To: Senate Committee on
?
From:
J.W. George Ivany,
Academic Planning
?
Chairman, Task Force on
University Size
Re: Enrolment Limitations ?
Date: December 10, 1987
for 1988/89
As you are aware, the Task Force on University Size was struck as a
subcommittee of SCAP in the aftermath of a significant enrolment increase in
September. This increase of 8.7% follows successive increases over the past
several semesters (see table attached). Following on the heels of a long period
of restraint, from which we have barely begun to recover, this growth in the face
of reduced resources has finally created a sense of crisis on the campus. That
crisis has many aspects -- too few instructors, too large class sizes, too large
tutorials, insufficient classroom space, and a significant overload on support
services from parking to academic advice, from departmental assistance to
registration and financial aid. Many felt that the crisis had become unbearable
and that lack of action to cope would be tantamount to immoral action. The
President asked me as Vice-President, Academic, to inquire into the problem of
university size. Thus the Task Force was created.
Senate will recall that this problem was anticipated in 1982 by thie
'-u1 449
President's Committee on Enrolment Limitation (report attached). '-°
Unfortunately, the mechanisms proposed in that committee report were to be
triggered by an enrolment of 11,000 students. In retrospect, that number was
too high which is why the current crisis has befallen us.
The mandate of the new Task Force has three aspects as outlined in an
attached memo. This report to SCAP deals only with the first aspect, a
suggested response to the crisis for the short term while a more deliberate
analysis of the problem can proceed.
The full analysis must take more time than is available if we are to inform
potential students, schools and parents of any possible changes to admissions
in a timely manner. A careful study must consider special approaches to
government for incremental resources (which have already begun). It would
need to examine our scheduling, our pedagogy, our system of admission and
registration, the effects of course, program and Faculty level enrolment caps. In
effect, it must examine the very concept we hold of education at Simon Fraser.
S
S
2...
?
9
0 ?
SCAP
?
Page 2
?
December 10, 1987
In the meantime, we cannot sit still and do nothing about the immediate
deterioration. While placing before government a request for special consider-
ations we must prepare a contingency plan such that the situation can be
brought under control if no relief resources can be found.
Therefore, we propose a plan to implement the authority and responsi-
bility which is specified as follows in the SFU Calendar
(p.
15). "The University
reserves the right to limit enrolment when it deems the facilities and resources
available are not adequate to provide for additional students." We suggest a
mechanism which would enable curtailment of new student registration, based
upon competency (as measured by high school, and/or college grades) to limit
the overall undergraduate student numbers to an appropriate maximum based
upon current resources plus any special incremental resources which can be
made available in a useful manner.
"That the Registrar be empowered to limit the admission of new students
by year level, based on their admission G.P.A.s, so that the number of
.
?
students registered does not exceed a defined limit: that limit shall be
based on an analysis of resources, including any potential additional
funding."
?
I
,
/W. George lvany
I,
aft. (3)
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Memorandum ?
from the ?
Vice-President, Academic Office
Simon Fraser University
To: Dr. W.G. Saywell, President
?
From: J.W. George Ivany
Chair, Task Force on University Size
Re:
?
Date: April 21, 1988
Your budget model for the 1988-89 fiscal year projected a need for a reduction of the fall
1988 admissions to 3000 new students. As you know, Senate has already approved the use of
Grade Point Averages to effect such a reduction. In order to effect this decision the Task Force
recommends the following procedures:
1. Appropriate people, (new applicants, school and college personnel),
should be notified as soon as possible of the consequences of this
decision on admission procedures.
For the purposes of the registration process these procedures will have to be
implemented starting on about April 15th, 1988. Information should be sent out as soon
as possible.
.
2. The proposed cuts should be applied to
the different new student
categories In such a manner that the current, evolving proportions within
the total mix of the student population shall be maintained.
While some might argue that restrictions in opportunity should be applied differentially to
effect changes in Simon Fraser's student population, we would maintain that that decision
is part of the larger debate which will follow the final report of the Task Force. For the
moment, we wish only to efficiently control the fall intake rather than to join the larger
debate prematurely. By adopting this principle we are maintaining our historic role as an
"accessible" institution, being restricted only by a lack of resources which shall impact all
categories of students equitably, excepting for recommendation 3, following.
3. ?
That the conditions for readmission of failed students be more
stringently applied.
The underlying notion here is that restrictions should not deny new, qualified applicants a
place which would otherwise be filled by students who, having had a chance at Simon
Fraser, are unable to demonstrate catch-up or remedial progress subsequent to the time
of their involuntary withdrawal.
J.W. George lvany
cc. A. Heath
