The University of Saskatchewan community is constantly changing, with added diversity and an increase in graduate student numbers by almost 70 per cent in the last two decades. To reflect these and other changes, the university has released an updated mission, vision and values document.

Revisions began in January 2016 and the final version was presented on Nov. 21, 23 years after the last document was approved in 1993. To kickstart the evaluation, university president Peter Stoicheff appointed an eight member committee to create an updated version of the document.

Brent Cotter, a professor in the College of Law and one of the eight committee members, outlined the approval process of the document.

“We met for a period of time beginning in January through to October to sort of consult, craft a draft, have the committee become comfortable with it, reimagine it in some ways, consult with the president and others around the campus with the work that we were doing and consult with the governing bodies of the university, the senate, the university council and the board of governors,” Cotter said.

After consultations, the document was presented to the three governing bodies of the university in October for approval. As part of the evaluation process, over 1,000 people were consulted, including members of the student body, with additional influence coming from two surveys and online interaction.

Liz Harrison, the associate dean and professor at the School of Physical Therapy, worked alongside Cotter on the new document.

“Part of it is timing to ensure that the university is able to and the president is able to articulate what the mission and vision of the university is — the mission being the purpose of this organization — and [for] the vision, we were asked to look over a 10 year horizon to think about our aspirations,” Harrison said.

In addition to these goals, Harrison states that the updated document will guide colleges and other branches of the university locally as they apply it to their fields.

“What we set out is renewal and I think in the process of that, lots of individuals reflected on what’s important at the university, [at] the institutional level, but also for them at their local level, and we heard lots of that in our conversations too,” Harrison said.

In addition to these benefits, the university will be able to present the updated document to the provincial government and to funding agencies in order to provide an accurate representation of what the U of S stands for and what it is working towards.

However, the formulation of this document did not come without its challenges, made all the more difficult by the two page restriction. For example, Cotter explains that some of those consulted wished to see social justice mentioned overtly in the document, but the committee, in order to increase inclusivity, chose instead to specify that the university is working towards the public good.

“There were some people who wanted the document to articulate the university’s commitment to social justice. I think it’s fair to say that [Harrison] and I are highly sympathetic to that but it is a kind of … a band of justice that was relevant to a certain community within the university but not as inclusive as we might achieve,” Cotter said.

Other challenges faced by the committee included respecting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and articulating the importance of Indigenous peoples at the university, a point which was only briefly mentioned in the 1993 document and now holds a designated place in the new vision statement.

The document serves clear administrational needs, but Cotter also believes it has a place in the lives of everyone on campus.

“Living the document is also important and I think that will percolate a bit through the university over the coming year — for some people more than others, but that’s also a valuable feature of it … how it belongs to each of us on the campus in our own small way.”

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Jack Thompson / Staff Writer

Graphic: Lesia Karalash / Graphics Editor