Report on Meeting with Robert Campbell- June 25 2010

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In attendance: Dennis Desroches, Gilles Allain, Robert Campbell (President), Ron Sutherland (Dir. HR)

1. Preamble

Our meeting with Campbell and Sutherland was very collegial, very energetic, and very informative. Campbell was demonstrably interested in making a connection with the FNBFA, and in learning more about our role in the landscape of NB PSE. The FNBFA has not had much of a presence, from his perspective, and there was agreement between he and Desroches that this has been a problem—hence, indeed, the reason for this meeting taking place in the first instance.

2. PSE Advisory Forum

As in other meetings, the FNBFA began by requesting some presence at the PSE Advisory Forum meetings. Campbell had an interesting response to this. On the one hand, the meetings of the presidents were not entirely coherent events. They existed as dinner meetings over which PSE was discussed, but, strictly speaking, they were not formal meetings. From his perspective, these meetings were not at all reflective of some common purpose among the administrations of the universities and the province, but rather a venue for informally discussing ideas arising out of the Action plan to be discussed. On the other hand, given that the FNBFA itself, in his view, had not coherently articulated itself on the PSE landscape, Campbell imagined that adding the FNBFA to an already informal, and far from coherent conversation, would not likely be productive.

Conclusion: What this PSE Advisory Forum is continues to become murkier. We need to monitor whether or not it develops any real power with respect to the government—at the moment, it may be something far less coherent than the amount of funding it gets suggests, but I doubt it will stay this way, and the FNBFA should persist as it, too, more clearly develops its priorities.

3. Common Fronts

As usual, I brought up the idea of a meeting of some kind between FAs and Presidents to discuss common ground, the purpose of which being to build a more coherent sector when dealing with government on specific issues. Campbell was not entirely against the idea, but believed such a meeting couldn’t, or shouldn’t, happen right away. His suggestion was that we continue to build relationships between the presidents and the FNBFA, perhaps having a meeting between the Fed and the Presidents to discuss common ground, before moving to a larger meeting.

I proposed the issue of multi-year funding arrangements as a possible starting place; unlike the other university Presidents, Campbell had significant trepidation over this. His fear, above all, was the “quid-pro-quo” that the province would require to secure the extra ½ or 1 % that such an agreement could achieve. For him, nothing less than the autonomy of the university was at stake in this, and he made it clear that he would rather get no funding at all than agree to a plan that eroded university autonomy. I did not manage to get around to pointing out that gov’t-appointed conciliation boards under the IRA have been supported by 2 university admins now, and are to date the most obvious examples of government intervention in the life and autonomy of the university that one can think of. Multi-year funding arrangements would likely lessen the probability of job action. But now I move beyond the confines of the meeting.

Conclusion: the “multi-year funding arrangement” issue is not as clear-cut as I had believed. It may represent a point of contention, rather than collusion, among some university presidents and the FNBFA. It is important to know this as we continue to evolve the organization.

3. Southeast NB Industry and Education Council

We learned from the Deputy Minister on June 17 that Campbell was chair of one of the regional advisory groups, and we sought to gain clearer insight into what these are. The one chaired by Campbell is the most active, and developed, in the province, but he made clear that its relation to PSE is really only tangential. By his description, it is a clearing-house for responding to community needs and ideas, and is related more to industry and market needs. Certainly, there are instances when what industry or the market desire can be found in the university, but this is the only real point of connection. It is private sector driven, but it’s the public sector individuals who show up to the meetings. Campbell offered to send us a binder of materials on the Council, which was very generous.

Conclusion: Continue to monitor. The possibility seems to exist that these councils, as they mature across the province, could have more impact on universities than they currently do.

4. A final point.

Robert Campbell, like his counterpart at UNB, was quite surprised to learn of the ministerial advisory committee to be struck this fall. This further highlights a certain disconnect that exists between the government and the PSE Advisory Forum, lending further credibility to the claim by Campbell that it is a very informal body.