The universities of Regina and Saskatchewan have board of governors meetings steeped in mystery and sorcery.

Two months after the University of Regina Board of Governors voted to keep board meetings behind closed doors, the university’s student newspaper organized an unauthorized sit-in at a board meeting in a bid to refuel the debate.

On Feb. 7, editors of the Carillon, along with approximately a dozen other students, attempted to attend an early-morning board of governors meeting without the required approval. But, as expected, they were barred entrance by security and spent several hours protesting outside the doors.

As it stands, the U of R’s board policy states that only board members, top university officials and members of the public who have been invited to attend can be present at meetings. The minutes are subsequently available on the university’s website.

According to the Carillon’s editor-in-chief, John Cameron, allowing student press to attend university board meetings is simply a matter of keeping a publicly-funded institution “transparent and accountable.” Trying to understand the motives and tone of a meeting just by looking at the minutes, he says, is “borderline impossible.”

“They make decisions with an awful lot of money…. I think everybody who is a stakeholder in the [university] — meaning students and taxpayers — has a right to know what goes on with that money,” he said.

In addition, Cameron solicited letters of support from other student editors across the country — some from universities that allow them to attend board meetings — asking the U of R to rethink its decision. He handed them off to board chairperson Paul McLellan at the Feb. 7 meeting.

One letter from the managing editor of the University of British Columbia’s student newspaper, the Ubyssey, read: “The [board of governors] is the most important decision-making body at the university and if we didn’t have the ability to attend these meetings, we would be severely restricted in our ability to understand how important decisions are made.… We would not have been able to adequately report on a number of issues, including land use policy, tuition, transit policy and just about everything else that matters to students.”

Cameron said he is already scheduled to give a presentation to the board at the next meeting on the importance of granting student press access to the boardroom.

At the University of Saskatchewan, whose operations are almost identical to the U of R, the board of governors appoints administration and controls the university’s property and financial affairs. This allows them to, for instance, oversee presidential search committees and set tuition prices.

The U of S board consists of 11 members — including the president of the university and the students’ union president — and meets about six times a year. Currently, section 5.5 of the board of governors bylaw says, “Board meetings are open only to board members and resource officers.”

Board chair Nancy Hopkins, who has considerable background in governance that includes chairing the Saskatoon Police Commission, says from her experience, the best decisions are made by boards that meet in private sessions. She believes whenever a board is forced to make public decisions they “play to the crowd.”

She said that by opening up the boardroom to the public, governing bodies lose a certain “trust, confidence and respect” necessary to make responsible decisions.

“But you also then have to figure out how you deal with accountability.”

To foster accountability, Hopkins says the board publishes summaries from each meeting, briefs its members on what they can and cannot speak about and hosts annual accountability meetings on campus, where the public can question board members.

“Good decision-making and accountability, that is what [we] want. And I think the balance in our legislation is correct,” Hopkins said. “We should be accountable for the ultimate decision we make, not the personalities that go into the decision.”

The U of S Board of Governors holds one public meeting each year; the next one is scheduled for March 6 at Convocation Hall.

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Photo illustration: Brianna Whitmore and Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf