Exclusionary and Extractive Campus Management: The University of British Columbia, Okanagan

Abstract

This paper analyzes the evolution of a “new” public university campus, UBCO, in the Interior of BC, situated in the city of Kelowna, with a focus onissues at with respect to shared academic governance and university management models. The paper is informed by the analysis of Acemoglu and Robinson (2012), applying the analysis in the context of the question of why universities might fail, rather than nations. The paper is divided into five sections. The first discusses the insights of Acemoglu and Robinson and how they can be applied to this case study. The second discusses incidents around total enrolment management that demonstrate the exclusionary nature of the campus management model. Issues of internationalization and indigenization strategy form the discussion of the third section. In a fourth section, issues of labour relations with respect to faculty are analyzed, and a final section discusses the workplace experience of faculty and staff. The paper ends with some concluding comments.