The All-Administrative Campus: University of British Columbia, Okanagan

Abstract

The focus of the paper is on internal governance and management at UBCO as it has evolved since 2005, in particular with respect to traditions of shared academic governance in university management. The paper is informed by the analysis of Ginsberg (2011), and is divided into four sections. The first discusses the insights of Ginsberg and how they can be applied in this case. The second discusses general issues of consultation, communication and commitment to shared academic governance by the senior administrators of the new campus. Third, budgetary management, accountability and transparency is discussed. Finally, strategic academic planning is analyzed, along with academic program review and performance. The paper ends with some concluding comments. To anticipate the results of the analysis, the paper tends to confirm the words attributed to Professor Henry Rosovsky, economic historian and past Acting President of Harvard University, that the quality of a university campus is likely “negatively correlated with the unrestrained power of administrators” (Ginsberg, 2011, p. 3). On this slope of correlation, UBCO is not an outlier.