Fired FNUC Official Critical Of Board Structure

Fired FNUC Official Critical Of Board Structure

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 14:03

 

 

A former administrator at the First Nations University of Canada fears the institution is in its final days.

 

Wes Stevenson was Vice-President of Administration before he was fired almost exactly three years ago during a major upheaval at the FNUC.

 

Many faculty and administrators were either fired or left on their own because of what they called political interference.

 

Since then, the FNUC has been placed on probation by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada — and its membership is up for review on April 1st.

 

Stevenson says he and others who used to work there were hoping it would be renewed, but now have doubts following a report presented by Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Vice-Chief Lyle Whitefish at last week’s FSIN assembly.

 

Whitefish announced that the university’s board ratified and accepted the new First Nations University of Canada Act — including the most recent changes to the board structure.

 

Stevenson says the biggest problem is the proposed board of governors would have 27 members — with about half of them political appointees.

 

He says, at that size, the board would be much larger than that of larger institutions.

 

Plus, Stevenson says it goes against an FNUC-commissioned task force that recommended a 13-member board.