Committee on Student Affairs
In 1914, Dr J.M. McEachran, who had been appointed head of the Department of Philosophy and Physiology in 1909, became the University’s first Provost. The Provost acted as an ongoing liaison between the Senate and the student body. From the outset, McEachran supported the idea that students should have self-government and run their own extra-curricular affairs.
; "Student Body outside Queen Alexandra School")
As a collective, the Senate agreed that a spirit of self-government for students was important, and so, with the powers and responsibilities granted to it by the University Act of 1910, formed a Committee on Student Affairs in 1912. The purpose of the Committee, as relayed by R.K. Gordon, was for students and University officials to “exercise general supervision over matters affecting student welfare and discipline.”
Although a Students’ Union had already been assembled in 1908, with F. Stacey McCall acting as President, the 1910 University Act formalized student organization. The Act mandated that students appoint their own representative committee.
Some of the first members to join the Committee on Student Affairs included the President of the Students’ Union, the President of the Athletic Society, the President of the Literary Society, and the Editor-in-Chief of The Gateway.