Annual General Meeting

Each year, YURA holds an annual meeting of its members. While this is a constitutional requirement of our Association, the event has normally provided an opportunity for members to listen to a dynamic, sometimes provocative speaker; engage in a period of questions and answers with the speaker; enjoy a lunch with former York co-workers and colleagues; and participate in a business meeting of the Association.

The business of the AGM generally includes:

• Minutes of the previous year’s meeting
• Report of the Nominating Committee and affirmation of officers
• YURA finances
• York pension information
• Retiree benefits information
• Activities and events sponsored by YURA
• Student awards sponsored by YURA
• Other matters relevant to York University retirees

2024 YURA Annual General Meeting, Friday, November 1

The AGM on Friday, November 1^st was held in the Second Student Centre at the Keele campus.  These were the day’s proceedings:

10:30 am – In-person arrival. Coffee and tea served
10:45 am – Online log-in for the Zoom participants opened
11:00 am – Welcome and Land Acknowledgement – Diane Woody, YURA Co-President (academic)
11:05 am – Welcome Remarks, Laina Bay-Cheng, York University Vice-President, Equity, People & Culture
11:10 am – Introduction of Guest Speaker – Stan Shapson
11:10 am – Guest Speaker, Dr. Glen Jones, Professor of Higher Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE); Ontario Research Chair in Postsecondary Education Policy and Measurement; and Director of the Centre for the Study of Canadian and International Higher Education. The Challenges and Possibilities for Higher Education in Canada: “… the future is not what it used to be”
11:45 am – Questions and Answers
12:15 pm – Lunch Break (30 minutes) – a light lunch was served to those attending in-person
12:45 pm – AGM Business Meeting – moderator, Steve Dranitsaris, YURA Co-President (non-academic)
2:35 pm – Adjournment

Guest Speaker, Dr. Glen A. Jones

Summary of Dr. Jones’ address: The Challenges and Possibilities for Higher Education in Canada—the Future is not what it used to be.

Dr. Jones gave a sweeping yet detailed overview of higher education in Canada and speculated about possible future developments —all the while recognizing that predictions often miss the mark and might even limit our capacity to imagine a better future.  Using an engaging technique and wry wit, he invited YURA members to reflect on how, in the past, they used to imagine the future of higher education in Canada. With this, he set the stage for looking at how our vision of the future has shifted in the past three decades since the early 1990’s.  He then organized his talk around four key areas that present both challenges and opportunities in the coming years.

The first area, building on the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has become more central to discussions and actions in Higher Education, and has implications for teaching, research, social work, languages and cultures and law and justice. Dr. Jones noted the increase in the number of Indigenous institutions and the increasing number of partnerships with “traditional institutions”, and outlined the possibility that Indigenous approaches to self-governance might inspire a reconsideration of community relationships and engagement within universities.     

He then turned to the areas of education/teaching and research, the traditional “core functions” of universities.  With respect to the specific context of Ontario, he noted the high participation rates, the recurring funding crisis, and in recent years, a “blurring” of the distinctions between the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATS) and the Universities, with the CAATS, since the early 2000’s, starting to award applied degrees (rather than diplomas), to have an applied research function and to award applied master’s degrees.  With the university sector, he noted that research intensity and ranking exercises (both nationally and internationally) lead to increasing status differences and increasing quality differences among institutions. 

For the final area, that of internationalization, he used the classic definition provided by Jane Knight of internationalization as the process of integrating an intercultural, global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of higher education. He observed that very rapidly, in Canada we have moved from internationalizing the curriculum and promoting student mobility, to a heavy reliance on international students as a major source of revenue and as a domain for forming future citizens.

The ensuing discussion focused on the possible role of higher education in forming future citizens, the seeming increasing divergence between the CAATS and universities rather than partnerships, and the ethical questions that are inherent in each of the four areas discussed.  In sum, the presentation by Dr. Glen Jones was engaging, informative and thought-provoking. 

AGM BUSINESS MEETING – AGENDA, MINUTES AND REPORTS

POWERPOINT SLIDE DECK FROM THE AGM BUSINESS MEETING

Photos from the 2024 Annual General Meeting

Photos by Grace Chui and Steve Dranitsaris. Click here to see more photos.

REPORT ON THE 2023 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Click here for background reports and to view the slide show from the business meeting.

Recent AGM Guest Speakers