Dear members of the McGill Community,
It is our pleasure to provide you with an update on the recent activities of McGill’s Board of Governors. You can learn more about the Board’s mandate and membership on its website.
A special meeting of McGill’s Board of Governors was held on August 31, 2023. We would like to share with you the meeting’s important discussions, decisions, and developments.
Thank you for your interest in the work of the Board of Governors. If you have any questions, ideas, or comments, please write mcgill.principal [at] mcgill.ca.
Sincerely,
Deep Saini, Principal and Vice-Chancellor
Maryse Bertrand, Chair, McGill Board of Governors
Key Updates
Principal’s Priorities
The Principal consulted members of the Board on his priorities for the 2023-24 academic year. A visioning exercise, focusing on McGill’s ambitions for the future, will be undertaken with the community over the current academic year.
The Principal will share his priorities with Senate at the September 20, 2023 meeting, along with the anticipated changes to the senior administrative organizational chart, which aim to support institutional priorities.
Report of the Nominating, Governance, and Ethics (NGE) Committee
The Board of Governors, on the recommendation of the Nominating, Governance and Ethics (NGE) Committee, approved a series of implementation actions supporting the operationalization of the recommendations contained in the Report of the Special Project on Board Efficiency and Effectiveness.
As communicated this spring, the Board approved the recommendations contained in this Report, which aim to increase the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the Board’s governance functions and operations, at its meeting on May 18, 2023.
The implementation of these recommendations mainly involves the following actions:
- The expansion of the Executive Committee’s mandate to include strategic oversight of matters related to public affairs, external relations, strategic communications, and donor and advancement issues;
- The merger of the Building and Property Committee, Finance Committee, and Information Technology Committee into a new Board standing committee, the “Finance and Infrastructure Committee;”
- The merger of the Committee on Sustainability and the Committee to Advise on Matters Related to Social Responsibility into a new Board standing committee, the “Committee on Sustainability and Social Responsibility;”
- Housekeeping revisions to the Regulations of the Committees of the Board of Governors and to the Board Rules of Order and Procedure.