Academic Planning Services was established in September 1990 with the appointment of Alison Watt as the unit's first Director, reporting to the Vice-President, Academic (VPA). Academic Planning Services' main functions were to coordinate academic planning at the senior staff level, provide secretariat services to the Senate Committee on Academic Planning (SCAP), coordinate the process for external reviews of academic departments, oversee use of endowment funds to support academic programs, and maintain the university's policies and procedures manual. In March 1996, Watt became Director, Secretariat Services, moving from the VPA's to the Registrar's portfolio and transferring a number of responsibilities with her. In subsequent years, academic planning support services have been variously organized through the VPA's Office. Kathy Heinrich was appointed Special Assistant to the VPA, Academic Planning in 1996 to assist academic restructuring processes; Heinrich left the university in the summer of 1999. A directorship for Academic Planning Services was re-established from 2000 to 2004 with the appointment of Sue Roppel (2000-2001), then Laurie Summers (2002-2004). In 2004, academic planning was reorganized with the creation of the Academic Planning and Budgeting Office, headed by Glynn Nichols as Director. This unit has a dual reporting relationship to both the VP Academic and the VP Finance and Administration through their respective Associate VPs.