Posts tagged with chancellor.

Ditch the bishop as chancellor

Joey Coleman, January 22, 2010 at 3:19 PM

 

As reported by journalism students at University of King's College in Halifax, a very small group of students at St. Francis Xavier University have started a Facebook cause to petition their university to change its practice of automatically appointing the Roman Catholic bishop of Antigonish as chancellor of the university.

 

This follows the resignation in September of bishop Raymond Lahey after police say they found child pornography on his laptop. He is now awaiting trial on charges of child pornography.

 

The student union has started an unscientific poll on their website.

 

Normally, I don't pay much attention to a Facebook group of about 60 people (at the time of publication). Frankly, I find the obsession with small Facebook groups to be annoying; however, the Unews.ca story lends itself to an interesting discussion.

 

The automatic appointment of a senior member of the clergy is not unique to St. Francis Xavier; many university colleges appoint their local bishop or national leader of their church as chancellor. My home college at the University of Manitoba, St. John's College, has the Anglican bishop of Rupert's Land as chancellor.

 

The majority of Canadian universities were founded as Christian institutions and most of them continue to hold some remnant of this past in their institutional governance policies; be it allotted seats on their governing bodies to religious-based colleges, local diocesan official, a Christian based motto, the Christian cross in their Coats of Arms, or churches on their campuses.

 

It is one thing to pay homage to the past and recognize the Christian traditions following the Protestant Reformation that lead to the modern university; it's another thing for a secular university to continue to have an individual as their titular head by virtue of their religious office.

 

A faith-based chancellorship has no place in the modern secular public university. A faith-based college within a secular university can benefit the mission of the academy, so long as membership in that college is not required as a condition of admittance to an academic program.

 

The problem at St. Francis Xavier is not that Bishop Lahey was able to become chancellor; prior to the discovery of child pornography on his laptop he was seen as a reformer within the Roman Catholic Church. The problem is that Bishop Lahey became chancellor without any screening by the university itself.

 

The automatic appointment of the local Roman Catholic bishop robs St. FX of the opportunity to install a truly inspiring individual as titular head of the university. The chancellor should be the embodiment of the kind of person the university believes its graduates should inspire to be. Presently, the primary qualification for chancellor at St. FX is obedience to the Pope and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Considering that number of the high officials of this church have been implicated in covering up the sexual abuse of children, a scandal that was partially enabled by obedience to Canon Law over civil law, this is not a message any institution should be looking to spread.

 

St. FX should immediately begin the process of changing its governing legislation to create a competitive process to find the best individual to serve as chancellor. This process can be internal to the Board of Governors, or, better still, an elected chancellor as chosen by the alumni.

 

There are many great Roman Catholics in our societies who are engaged in setting a proper Catholic example. (I wrote a defence of Roman Catholicism last March in my McMaster Silhouette column.) If St. FX wishes to pay homage to its Roman Catholic roots, it can very easily find a more suited individual among the laity than among the tainted officials of the Church.

 

In tweets after the news about Bishop Lahey broke, many St. FX alumni expressed disappointment that their degrees have been tainted by the signature of a man who is standing trial on charges of possessing child pornography.

 

St. FX has the opportunity to correct this grievous mistake and show the world that it is a leading Catholic-founded institution by appointing a Roman Catholic who has a track record of good works and is not simply occupying a particular position in the church.  

Tagged with university, chancellor, faith, christian, fx, bishop, st. | Comments (2) |

High-school dropout named titular head of Canadian university

Joey Coleman, November 9, 2009 at 3:16 PM

 

Mount Allison University announced today that Peter Mansbridge will be the next Chancellor of the Sackville, N.B., school.

 

The appointment of Mansbridge, a well-known media personality, is generating a lot of attention for the small liberal arts university; exactly what a university is looking for when it appoints a new titular head.

 

A titular head who is well-known and well-connected serves the institution well. One who is connected in Toronto, a.k.a. the centre of the Canadian universe, is essential to a small institution located in the Maritimes. Mansbridge is the perfect ambassador for any organization.

 

In short, Mt. A has achieved a coup and succeeded in the public relations game. (There's nothing the media loves covering more than ourselves.)

 

Mansbridge is successful and achieved. A good dose of very hard work combined with a great dose of luck has propelled him to the top of the Canadian journalism food chain, but it had nothing to do with education.

 

He is a high school dropout. 

 

He does not hold a bachelor's degree and did not attend university. He famously received his chance at success because of his baritone voice. His is a story of success that  contradicts the message that one needs post-secondary education to succeed.

 

Forbes Magazine recently published a listing of billionaires by alma mater. Topping the list, not surprisingly - considering that most billionaires are born into some privilege - is Harvard, with 54 billionaires. Second place went to no university with 46 billionaires not holding any degree.

 

There will always be exceptions to the averages of society. The reality is a bachelor's degree or college diploma is the new high-school diploma; the common person cannot succeed without it.

 

The question I ask in all of this is not the value of the undergraduate degree; it is whether there should be academic requirements to sign and hand out degrees?

 

My answer: yes. The Chancellor should hold an earned degree. It is for this reason that Mansbridge is unqualified to be Chancellor of any university.

 

Poll: As a high school dropout, is the CBC's Peter Mansbridge qualified to become a university chancellor?

Tagged with high-school, chancellor, mount, allison, mansbridge, peter, dropout | Comments (63) |