The Evolution of Governance at the Toronto School of Theology, 1969–2014

Abstract

The Toronto School of Theology (TST), which is the name used for both a consortium of seven colleges founded in 1969 and a not-for-profit corporation established a year later, designed a governance for itself in 1970 that promoted the co-operation of the member institutions while safeguarding their autonomy. The TST’s bylaw—which entrenched conflicts of interest, confused corporation with consortium, loaded councils with both governance and administrative functions, assigned similar functions to different groups, and obscured lines of accountability—helped preserve the member colleges from unwelcome changes. Subsequently, however, two significant moments brought modifications to TST’s governance that may have been unavoidable but that subverted the consortium’s original controlling vision. These moments were TST’s first Memorandum of Agreement with the University of Toronto in 1979 and the university’s imposition of its new quality assurance regime in 2011. TST is now frequently caught between two masters: the member colleges that own it and the university that treats it, in many respects, as one of its academic units.