Hall Commission

This is the name applied to the 1973 provincial Royal Commission on University Organization and Structure. Regina College, established in 1911, had been affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan since the 1920s. The great expansion in enrolments and the growing costs of post-secondary Education that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s led to the appointment in May 1973 of a commission to report on the organization and structure of university education. Headed by former provincial chief justice Emmett Hall, the commission held meetings throughout the province during June, July and August. After a prolonged debate on the future status of the University of Saskatchewan, the commission submitted its report to premier Allan Blakeney on December 22, 1973.

Citing the need for university education in the southern part of the province and the fact that the Regina Campus had a complete academic structure that could be easily developed into a new university, the report suggested that the one-university, two-campus system then in existence in Saskatchewan be replaced by two independent universities. Further recommendations called for the creation of a Universities Commission to co-ordinate funding and to act as a buffer between the universities and government. The Hall Commission also included recommendations on the structure of university governance and the re-establishment of a degree program in engineering at Regina which had been curtailed some years before. The report became the basis of the University of Regina Act that was passed by the Legislature in the spring of 1974 and officially established the University of Regina on July 1, 1974.

Mark Vajcner