Brown-John: Murder most foul! A fine Windsor theatre’s sad fate

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By: Lloyd Brown-John

In 1628, the Swedish warship Vasa (or Wasa) — newly constructed pride and power of a growing Swedish presence in the Baltic — set sail from Stockholm’s harbour.

It sailed roughly 1,300 metres into its maiden voyage before, on Aug. 10, 1628, this elaborately decorated and heavily armed warship flipped over and sank. Its recovered remains are housed today in a spectacular museum in Stockholm.

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Being top-heavy is dangerous in many physical situations. It can also be a major impediment to cost-effective management of organizations.

Take the University of Windsor.

The announcement that University Players — a live production unit within the University of Windsor’s School of Dramatic Art — would “cease operations” came in a strange release from the university’s Office of Public Affairs and Communications (PAC).

Strangely, the university’s president did not make the announcement, perhaps because his title would have enhanced the shame and embarrassment of the death sentence.

It’s ‘murder most foul’ of one of the finest amateur university-based theatrical production facilities in the country. It has been a program that has produced nationally prominent graduates such as Anthony Cimolino, head of the wonderful Stratford Festival.

What made the PAC announcement so bizarre was added information about “re-imagining” the university’s Entrepreneurship, Practice, and Innovation Centre.

The entire announcement offered no more explanation for slaying University Players than stating the University of Windsor’s financial problems.

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PAC’s statement noted: “To maintain a balanced budget, the University’s operating budget requires faculties and departments to work together to achieve budget savings in excess of $5.6 million. With escalating operating costs and several years of budget realignments, the University will continue to identify revenue opportunities, along with operational efficiencies and staffing adjustments to ensure that the University continues to fulfil its academic mission and safeguards the institution’s financial sustainability.”

So a program which has operated successfully for so many years has been sacrificed to the need for “budget realignments” and “operational efficiencies.”

University Players has provided a much-needed link between an often insular university and our community. Rarely appreciated by university faculty and staff is the reality that this is a publicly supported university.

Taxpayers keep university faculty and staff well-fed. In return, those faculty and staff should feel some obligation to reach out to the community which feeds them.

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University Players did that and it included alumni who are often expected to make supportive donations to the university.

I presume that somewhere in the midst of the array of offices and support offices at UWindsor there is an office that scours for funding through donations and sponsorships.

A former senior faculty member suggested to me, ‘Why doesn’t somebody approach Hal Jackman? He has his name on the theatre.’ That is how funds were obtained to build the theatre. Henry (Hal) Jackman was a Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and his brother Eric was UWindsor’s chancellor at one time. Jackman’s mother was a classmate of Paul Martin Sr.

I suggest, however, that the university look critically at its own internal operations and start trimming expensive peripherals. For example, the Public Affairs and Communications operation seems to support a number of persons. Surely that is top-heavy as those of us with years of media experience understand that it takes but one good writer to spell out good news.

Furthermore, it often has been a practise of some academics to find lucrative niches as add-on offices with add-on salaries.

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Can’t take classroom settings or research demands? Then find some administrative position with accompanying income additions. Windsor’s university appears to be overloaded with vice-presidents and offices for almost everything somebody has made sufficient noise to create.

Unlike the private sector, universities have very few measures of the cost-effectiveness of services rendered. That is the nature of public service and thus of public administration.

Hence, when squeaky wheels make noises universities often respond by creating a new ostensibly relevant offices for those squeaky wheels.

In my opinion, the University of Windsor is overloaded with marginal-value offices. Slash some of these and use the savings to achieve a significant community service — like restoration of University Players.

Lloyd Brown-John is a University of Windsor professor emeritus of political science and director of Canterbury ElderCollege. He can be reached at lbj@uwindsor.ca.

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