A professor from the School of Administrative Studies is speaking out on Schulich School of Business’ alleged history of stifling the growth of his department.
What the new Markham campus will mean for the SAS has yet to be determined.
Some speculate SAS will divide itself too thin by moving to Markham.
Chris Robinson, associate professor of finance in administrative studies, says Schulich’s refusal to be part of the Markham campus is, allegedly, because Schulich realizes such a split will reduce its quality and ability to work as a unit.
A letter was released to Excalibur from Robinson, claiming Schulich has been purposely stifling SAS over the past decade.
“What you see is a natural evolution of a problem that started when the university admitted so many students to SAS and expanded the faculty complement to more than triple its base,” says Robinson.
Once SAS wanted graduate students and new programmes like the BAS Honours Finance and the certificates and the Master of Financial Accountability, it posed a threat to Schulich and its dean, he adds.
Robinson claims Dean Dezsö Horváth does not approve of competition.
York administration should have realized the problems it created by accepting a huge influx of undergraduate business students, says Robinson. Perhaps at that time the two schools could have been merged.
“Now the water is so poisoned that even someone like me, who worked at SSB for 21 years, doesn’t want to be part of the elite corporate-culture of Schulich.”
“It is unfortunate. SSB is unquestionably a stronger academic operation than SAS, although SSB loses money and SAS earns large amounts of money to support the rest of LAPS.”
“The two together could have become an even more eminent business school,” he adds.
“Now, the university has ordered SAS to split itself in two and move part of its operations to Markham. SSB refuses to move anything to Markham because it realizes that such a split will reduce its quality and ability to work as a unit. SAS will decline further, and there is no guarantee that operating funding will be available to keep Markham viable.”
Human Resource Management recognized the threat from Schulich, and also knew how the game is played at York, adds Robinson.
“If you can get yourself named as a separate school, you get a lot more resources and power,” he claims.
Robinson says, SAS tried to create various degree programs which Schulich has consistently opposed, perchance Schulich might someday want to create the same degree programs.
Excalibur presented the letter to Schulich and received the following:
“The Schulich School of Business is proud to be part of the York University community and enjoys positive relations with all of the faculties at York,” says Dean Horváth.
“With respect to the development of new programs, each faculty at York has an established mandate created by the university and the Senate, which is responsible for the university’s academic policy, ultimately determines and approves programs in accordance with these mandates. Schulich continues to follow the mandate originally laid down by the university when the faculty was first established.”
Excalibur has been contacting faculty members for months, none of which were willing to speak “on the record.”
Nevertheless, Robinson spoke with Excalibur in great length about the history of both business schools and his personal perspective on the political landscape developing at York.
The full letter, which is Robinson’s words, is available here.
Ryan Moore
News Editor
