By Sara Hanson
After almost five-years of deflecting media criticisms, University of Calgary vice-president external Roman Cooney is nearing the end of his term.
Since chief development officer Gary Durbeniuk’s term is also due, U of C president Dr. Harvey Weingarten established an advisory committee, which includes administrative, faculty and student representatives, to review both Cooney and Durbeniuk’s performances.
Weingarten said a public request asking the U of C community for feedback on Cooney and Durbeniuk’s performances is the most important tool for the committee.
“The real issue here is to give the community an opportunity to have input,” said Weingarten. “The key is for the committee to educate itself based on that input and other analyses that we will do.”
The committee will review all feedback and Weingarten will make a recommendation to the U of C board of governors, the body responsible for the final decision.
Although the review committee was established, Weingarten stressed each VP is reviewed annually.
“Every year I do a serious evaluation of each of the VPs based on the performance objectives for the year,” he said. “And for each of those, we advertise that anyone who wants to write anything about this can do so.”
Students’ Union president Emily Wyatt sits on the committee, and while she appreciates that Weingarten has included students, she noted the process is not as formal as the presidential review.
“There is no procedure really put in place for reviewing VPs,” she said.
U of C Faculty Association president Anton Colijn, another member of the committee, also noted a difference between the presidential and VP review processes, noting the BoG did not invite faculty members to sit on the committee that recently reviewed Weingarten’s performance.
“There is a long-standing tradition that TUCFA gets nominated to sit on committees for VPs and deans,” he said. “But, the search for presidents is kind of different.”
Although Weingarten would not anticipate what the feedback might be as to Cooney’s performance, he noted he does not expect any surprises.
“The best predictor of what I’ll hear now is what I’ve been hearing for the past three or four years,” said Weingarten.
Wyatt was not as certain.
“I’m really interested to see the feedback from the greater community,” she said.