As of Thursday, April 6th, Dr. Vianne Timmons officially stepped down as President of Memorial University.
Dr. Neil Bose has been appointed as President and Vice-Chancellor for a two-year term or until a new president is recruited.
The Muse recently had the opportunity to ask the newly appointed president about his primary focus and goals for the university moving forward, as well as his plans to address ongoing issues.
After a few difficult months, many things need to be addressed.
“It’s been a challenging time, and it’s a challenging time to take over,” Expressed Dr. Bose when asked how stepping into this new role has felt. “There are lots of things to do, and some of the things are reactive to the circumstances.”
Dr. Bose was unable to comment on the decision made for Dr. Timmons to step down, as it was made by the Board of Regents. However, when discussing his first few weeks as president, he stated that the first challenge tackled was “discussing the refunds on tuition as a result of the strike.”
In the past few months, our university has experienced a strike and a short-term switch in presidents that has now become permanent. Not so long ago, Dr. Bose was in the Provost role, working as the primary VP in charge of the collective bargaining and strike negotiations. Quite a bit has changed since then.
Change and openness
When asked about upcoming goals and the focus moving forward, Bose said that one of his priorities is to create more openness within the university’s processes.
“It’s a question of changing things in alignment with the way I would like to see things happen— I’m going to be in the role for a year or 18 months minimum because of the time it takes to do a presidential search.”
There are also numerous acting interim dean positions and senior exec positions that need to be filled. Bose highlighted the importance of accelerating the searches for these positions while simultaneously ensuring that those put in place are substantive. By accelerating these searches, there will be an additional need to limit them and, in some cases, to search internally.
However, all of this depends on the search committee. All of these decisions are theirs.
Bose affirmed it is equally important to consider that “we are also working through a challenging budget situation, as you can see from when the provincial budget was handed out.”
Will the presidential search be made public?
When the decision for former President Timmons to step down was first announced, MUNFA released a press statement calling on the Board of Regents to make the upcoming presidential search public.
While this decision is not up to Dr. Bose, he was able to give some insight into the potential route that could be taken based on what’s being done at other institutions.
Before a search can even get underway, extensive consultations must be had, Bose explained. “What’s being done for the Grenfell VP search is making the final step an open process where the selected candidates actually make a presentation to the academic units involved, and then feedback is obtained from that.”
Ultimately, it is a decision for the search committee, which will be led by the board.
“It is possible,” Bose emphasized, “it’s been done in other searches at other universities.”
An independent investigation on Indigenous Identity
As part of their press release, MUNFA also called on the Board to conduct an independent investigation led by an Indigenous identity expert.
President Bose explained that they are “working through a fairly difficult situation, which is a known difficult situation in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
It is important to identify where they want to go with the discussion about Indigenous identity and to emphasize what it means for the university, said Bose. On top of that, external input is an essential part of that process.
Indigenous students at Memorial
Following recent events, Indigenous students of the Juniper House stated in a CBC news article that they were not asked for their opinions amidst the ongoing situation surrounding Indigenous Identity.
There is also a question as to whether they will be asked to join the roundtable.
“There was a previous meeting with Indigenous students held by VP Indigenous for feedback,” said Bose. While the roundtable has yet to be formed, it is intended that when it is, Indigenous students at Memorial will be included.
Going forward, Bose said there is a particular interest in hearing from Indigenous students. There is a necessity for Indigenous student input, “it’s the Indigenous students particularly that we want to hear from but also in a way which isn’t overshadowed by an open student forum.”
Addressing the problem of those who falsely claim Indigenous Identity
The Innu Nation has stated there is a need for MUN to address the growing problem of people and groups falsely claiming indigenous identity and pointing out a need for MUN to take proactive steps in addressing the issue.
This is where the Indigenous roundtable comes in. The roundtable is a board-led initiative that, according to an update released by the MUN Gazette, is a vital opportunity to continue the process of Indigenization at MUNL.
President Bose explained that having gotten through the last few months, being proactive and taking steps to identify the best way to move forward is exactly what’s needed. It is through the Indigenous roundtable that these discussions can be had.
“How do we address, for example, who is Indigenous, who should be hired as Indigenous faculty, who is teaching courses about Indigenous communities and groups and what it means to be Indigenous and so on.”
It is equally important to learn from what is happening elsewhere, not just in Canada but internationally, stated Bose. There is a need to be careful with these situations as Canada and the world is changing.
Continued impact of the annual phase-out to the operating grant
The release of Budget 2023 reaffirmed the continued annual phase-out of the operating grant, a decision that has left many students worried about the ongoing tuition hikes.
“So there is essentially a change in the long-term budget,” said Bose. “There was a provincial government change brought in, and it was built into Memorial’s budget as well.”
As the government reduces the tuition offset grant, the fees will have to increase. When the phase-out was first introduced, an analysis was done, concluding that the fees would have to rise to the levels they did. He explained how even those levels only partially cover the complete reduction in the tuition offset grant.
“It’s challenging because the increase in revenue from the student increase in fees is not linear; it starts slow and builds up.”
President Bose said that when making the decision to increase tuition, it was important that Memorial not be more expensive than other universities in Atlantic Canada. Rather than being on the low end, Memorial is now on par with other institutions.
It is, however, also important to acknowledge the impact that this decision has had on students.
“The governments put in place various programs to assist students from low-income backgrounds,” said Bose. Adding that, they are now working on balancing the budget. Recent meetings have been focused on determining the best way that can be done.
International student services
The tuition hike has majorly impacted international students. Following Budget 2023, it was evident that the financial services and benefits provided to post-secondary students were limited to provincial students.
President Bose stated that “on an international basis, Memorials fees are still on the low side internationally, but they are at the high end in Atlantic Canada.” Moving forward, Memorial will be looking into various solutions to attract more students to the university.
One example is that of international student scholarships in year one. Currently, international students only have access to scholarships after completing a year at Memorial. Bose explained that they will be looking into the effects that changing this could have. Access to entrance scholarships would be a positive step in establishing more financial services for international students at Memorial.
“International students are important for revenue, but they’re important to the whole vibrancy of the university and not only the vibrancy of the university but of the province as well.”
With a focus on change and openness, Dr. Neil Bose’s two-year term as president has the intent of leading with transparency in university processes and making positive developments for the benefit of local and international students and faculty.
It is a challenging time to take on such an important role. Creating an open environment between the administration, students, and faculty, emphasizing inclusion in future decisions and conversations, has the potential to build a successful foundation for our university moving forward.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Dr. Neil Bose for taking the time to speak with the Muse.
