egis St. Michael’s is a combined academic and administrative unit that reflects the commonality and distinctiveness of USMC and Regis, including the Jesuit/Ignatian and Basilian charisms. RSM is administered by a four-person Oversight Committee (the two presidents and the chairs of the USMC Collegium and the Regis Governing Council) and a Joint Academic Council. The Oversight Committee and the Joint Academic Council are accountable to their respective governance bodies at USMC and Regis.
While federation offers a broad range of potential collaboration models, the two partners elected to retain their distinct identities, charisms, missions, and governance structures as they advance RSM as a common project with integrated administration and budgeting, shared programming, coordinated educational resources, and rationalized services. RSM has a jointly appointed Dean, shared program administration and student services, a harmonized class schedule, and one overall faculty complement plan.
Each school retains bicameral governance for its civil programs and, in the case of Regis, its ecclesiastical faculty. USMC and Regis remain separate employers with their own hiring and human resource policies, and distinct and shared programming. While RSM is the federation’s most prominent joint venture, the partners also collaborate in establishing a Spirituality Institute, public outreach, and broader campus ministry apart from RSM itself.
RSM developed mission and vision statements, which were presented to the USMC Senate and the Regis Academic Council in January 2024. These statements are now guiding the development of a strategic plan for RSM, which will be coordinated with the strategic plan currently underway at Regis College. In its strategic planning, Regis will identify the specific mission-focused resources and programming directions it wishes to promote in its contributions to RSM, such as the hiring of women scholars and specialists in Ignatian studies and the integrative teaching required for Ignatian Core courses. Regis will continue to develop public outreach programming and take a special interest in accompanying Indigenous communities in the Great Lakes North Region and beyond.
Implementing the Regis USMC collaboration occurs in a University of Toronto institutional environment familiar with and well-resourced to support the federation model.
The Regis St. Michael’s Federation is a bold and creative venture. The federation’s Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology has been recognized internationally for its innovation and excellence in the challenging and rapidly changing global environment of higher education. For more information, contact the Regis President’s Office at regis.presidentsoffice@utoronto.ca.
