Thompson Rivers University
PA-3: Inclusive and Participatory Governance

Board of Governors:
Thompson Rivers University's 15-member Board of Governors comprises the Chancellor; the President; two faculty members elected by faculty; eight persons appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor (two of whom are appointed from among persons nominated by the alumni association); two students elected from students who are members of an undergraduate student society or a graduate student society; and one person elected by and from the employees of the university who are not faculty members. See Part 6 (Board of Governors), section 19 (Composition of board) of The University Act (for British Columbia) for details: https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96468_01#section27. The Governors' varied backgrounds provide valuable contributions during Board deliberations. Board members bring the views of various constituencies to the Board table, however there are no advocates for any one group. Decisions are made in the best interest of the University.
Students:
TRU Student Union
Thompson Rivers University students participate in TRU’s tricameral governance system by serving as student representatives on faculty councils, administrative advisory committees, committees of the TRU Senate, and various working groups. Support and resourcing for these volunteer student representatives comes from the Student Caucus, a program run by the TRU Students’ Union. Students are subsequently recruited, interviewed, selected, and oriented to their roles on various decision-making bodies. Beyond participating in their institutional committee role, student representatives in the Student Caucus are engaged and connected through regular presentations, information sessions, and invites to key university activities. There are currently seventy-one (71) student positions in the Student Caucus.
Student representatives serve a one (1) year term on a particular committee. For administrative advisory committees, faculty councils, and any additional working groups, students are appointed via Student Caucus recruitment for a term start date of October 1st each year. For committees of TRU’s Senate, students are nominated via Student Caucus recruitment, and those names go forward to the Steering Committee of Senate for approval, for a term start date of October 1st each year. There are two (2) student positions on the TRU Board of Governors and four (4) student seats on the TRU Senate that are not nominated/appointed by the Student Caucus, and are instead elected via TRU each spring.
Non-Academic Staff:
CUPE 4879 is the Union representing support (non-academic) staff at Thompson Rivers University. There is an opportunity to have one representative on the TRU Board of Governors and 2 representatives on the TRU Senate. Under the (BC) University Act, the criteria for the Board is that one person is elected by and from the employees of the University who are not faculty members, so this may mean administration staff or CUPE members are eligible to run for that position. Likewise, the Senate has two seats for non-academic support staff members and, as per the criteria, is an employee of the University other than a member of faculty, a member of the teaching staff of the Open Learning Division, the Deans, the President, the Vice-Presidents, the Chief Librarian or the Registrar (who is elected to the Senate). Currently the three seats are held by elected support staff representatives who come from the CUPE Bargaining Unit.
Some of the institutional committees appoint staff members who may be support staff from CUPE. Sometimes the Union will be requested to recommend members to committees such as the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the Employee Engagement Committee. The Union will generally have the CUPE members select and vote for the representative. There are committees in the collective agreement such as the Joint Job Evaluation Committee, Labour Management, Joint Health and Safety Committee all of which the CUPE membership elects the representatives.
Non-academic and support staff employees are invited to participate in town halls, surveys and other key university activities as part of an engagement initiatives by TRU.
Faculty:
Thompson Rivers University faculty participate in TRU’s tricameral governance system as members of faculty councils, Senate, governance committees and administrative advisory committees, as well as various working groups. Senate comprises 18 faculty seats (https://www.tru.ca/senate/membership.html); two representatives are elected by each of the 9 faculty units. The Board of Governors has 2 elected faculty seats (https://www.tru.ca/board/membership.html). Standing committees of Senate have variable faculty representation (https://www.tru.ca/senate/committees.html), but typically have a mix of senators and faculty at large. Faculty members belong to the Thompson Rivers University Faculty Association. From this collective, an executive runs day to day business, while the president and table officers belong to the Faculty Consultative Committee which brings Administration and Faculty leaders to discuss issues between bargaining. In bargaining years, a committee is created by TRUFA to conduct negotiations.

The Board of Governors
The Board of Governors has a legislated set of responsibilities for directing the affairs of the institution and setting policies in accordance with the Thompson Rivers University Act. The Board is responsible for the management, administration and control of the property, revenue, business, and affairs of the University. Board members represent the local government, educational organizations, private sector organizations and civil society. Board members include: Rick Heney – private sector, Heney is a partner with Fulton & Company LLP with a focus in corporate and business law, and a member and former president of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce; Jim Thompson – private sector, CEO of Plainsman Construction Ltd. local business; Michelle Stanford – private sector, lawyer at Kamloops firm Stanford + Co.; Marilyn Mclean – non-profit organization, lead volunteer for the Kamloops chapter of Special Olympics British Columbia; Barbara Berger – local government, City of Kamloops recreation, social development and culture manager; Sandra Blair – private sector, senior tax manager at Daley & Company Chartered Accountants; Katy Gottfriedson – local government, Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc Councillor; Guenter Weckerle – non-profit organization, Service Projects Director for Williams Lake Rotary Club;Nathan Matthew - educational organization representation, administrator at the Kamloops Residential School in 1975, served as a First Nations representative for provincial education committees and was a founding member of the Kamloops-Thompson school district’s First Nations Education.

Stakeholders include local government (including the municipal City of Kamloops, local MLAs, and the provincial government of British Columbia); educational organizations; local businesses; non-government organizations and non-profit organizations. All stakeholders are invited to participate in planning processes through town halls, public surveys, community meetings, visioning sessions, and social media outreach. These engagement processes are outlined in the Campus Master Plan, and the TRU Community Engagement Policy(attached above, reference 2d. Engagement Strategy): TRU is committed to inclusive consultative processes with First Nations and stakeholders in all levels of planning and development across the campus. The policy supports the Thompson Rivers University 2015 Master Plan, the vision and framework for future development and growth, as well as the 2014 Strategic Priorities Plan.
2.Principles
c. Stakeholders
i. Local government including the municipal City of Kamloops, local MLAs, and the provincial government of British Columbia.
ii. Educational organizations
iii. Local businesses
iv. Non-government organizations and non-profit organizations
d. Engagement Strategy
i. All Stakeholders are invited to participate in planning processes through Town Halls, public surveys, community meetings, visioning sessions, and social media outreach.
ii. The University will use technology for digital engagement. Social media is fundamental to engagement and will be utilized.
iii. The University commits to a process of continual improvement and best practices.

Senate: The TRU Senate consists of 40 members plus 4 student members. All students are visible minorities (2 are women). Out of the 40, 12 are women, 6 are visible minorities and 2 are Indigenous members. Therefore, out of the 44 Senate members, there are 14 women, 10 visible minorities and 2 Indigenous members for a total of 20 people from underrepresented groups. https://www.tru.ca/senate.html