Archive for February, 2010
U de M lecturers go on strike
20 per cent of classes have been affected
It is strike season in Canada’s post-secondary sector. Although strikes have been avoided at Ontario’s colleges, and, so far, the semester looks safe at the University of New Brunswick, 2,400 lecturers at the Université de Montréal officially walked off the job earlier this week. Approximately 20 per cent of classes at U de M classes have been canceled, predominantly in the science and education faculties. Mid-term exams have also been put on hold.
At the beginning of February, 71 per cent of lecturers agreed, in a vote, to use pressure tactics on the university. Until now, pressure has been limited to half-day walk outs. The lecturers have been without a contract since August, and the union has had at least 20 negotiations with university management. A government mediator has also been involved. The next meeting is to negotiations meeting is to be held March 8.
International students flock to Canada
As belts tighten on campus, post-secondary institutions are increasingly keen to tap into the international students revenue stream
Lise de Montbrun was a teenager in Trinidad when Canadian university recruiters descended on her high school. Armed with pamphlets and descriptions of Canadian campus life, they wooed de Montbrun and others to come study up north. “I didn’t need much convincing,” said de Montbrun, now a 22-year-old architecture student at Toronto’s Ryerson University. It seems more young people around the world are thinking the same way.
Related: The sneaky way universities are privatizing teaching
Lucrative international students are flocking to Canada in record numbers–almost doubling in the last decade–as universities woo them to bolster their shrinking budgets. The number of international students in Canada has ballooned from 97,300 in 1999 to just over 178,000 in 2008. One-quarter of those students are in Ontario while the majority settle in large cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Canada drew de Montbrun from the very beginning. Since Trinidad didn’t offer architecture programs, de Montbrun knew she would have to study abroad. Now, she said she’s earning a degree which is internationally valued, all the while being exposed to a different country and culture. But, she’s paying for it. Since most provinces deregulated tuition fees, post-secondary institutions can charge international students more than three times the fees Canadian students pay. In de Montbrun’s first year, she was paying $14,000 in tuition. Now, her annual bill is closer to $17,000.
“Every year, it increases,” she said. “The university can increase it at any rate they want.”
As belts tighten on campus, post-secondary institutions are increasingly keen to tap into the international students revenue stream. Robert White, senior policy analyst for international affairs with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, said there are more international students looking for education away from home. He said universities are increasingly competing for the best and the brightest, recognizing that those students don’t always have a Canadian passport.
“(With) the ease of travel and, greater prosperity across the world, the potential for going and studying outside of their home country has just grown,” he said. “We’ve benefited from that.” But the increasing reliance on students like de Montbrun has many concerned. While some say international students are just a Band-Aid solution to chronic underfunding, others worry the growing population could cause universities to lower their academic standards.
David Robinson, associate executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, said relying on such “cash cows” brings its own set of challenges. Some have difficulty with English or basic academic skills like essay writing. And given the desperately needed cash the students provide, Robinson said there have been cases where the administration is reluctant to uphold academic standards by expelling or failing such lucrative students.
“To expel those students means you are essentially cutting off a potential supply of revenue,” said Robinson, pointing to Australia where about one-quarter of students come from outside the country. “If we end up in a situation where we’re going to become more dependent upon the revenue streams international students provide, it does create potentials for conflict of interest where academic values may conflict with commercial values.”
Others worry Canada is limiting education to all but the wealthiest of international students while relying on them as a stop-gap measure. Katherine Giroux-Bougard, chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, said international students can bring much-needed diversity to Canadian campuses but the increasingly steep tuition is putting that experience out of reach for all but a few. Universities are also quick to bring international students here but don’t provide them with much financial assistance once they arrive, she said.
“The fundamental problem is . . . a lack of funding for institutions in Canada since the 1990s,” she said. “Trying to attract international students and charging higher fees, is really a Band-Aid solution to a much greater problem.”
The Canadian Press
College strike officially averted
OPSEU says ‘fear’ was the primary motivator for faculty to accept the college’s final offer
The Ontario college semester is no longer under threat after official results confirm that faculty have accepted management’s final offer. The Ontario Labour Relations Board announced Wednesday that just over 51 per cent of faculty voted Feb 10 to accept the proposal from the College Compensation and Appointments Board. The deal will serve as the collective agreement for the next three years.
Negotiations initially broke down in November and tensions remained high as nearly 500,000 students were left uncertain if they would be able to complete the winter semester. The drama culminated after faculty voted to give the union bargaining team a strike mandate on Jan 13. In late January, management produced its final offer which was rejected by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, who declined to bring the offer to members for a vote.
OPSEU then imposed a strike deadline, arguing that it would encourage the college’s to make further concessions. The colleges answered by bringing their final offer directly to faculty themselves, under the auspices of the Labour B0ard. Due to the narrow margin of the vote, and a disproportionate number of yet to be counted mail-in ballots, there was some uncertainty as to whether faculty had actually accepted the offer. Those uncertainties have now been laid to rest.
Rachel Donovan, chair of the college’s bargaining team expressed relief at the official results, “We will now have a collective agreement in place and we have avoided a strike. This result is good news for our students, our faculty and our communities.”
OPSEU, however, does not have a rosy view of the results and says it is “fear” of a strike, instilled by management, that led faculty to vote in favour of the offer. “We did not want a labour disruption, and had a plan to avoid one, but the employer took the stance with our members that it was either accept the offer or be forced out on strike,” said Ted Montgomery, chair of the union bargaining team.
Students accused of home invasion
Brock University called to investigate
St. Catharines city councilors are calling on Brock University to investigate an off-campus incident involving students alleged to be responsible for a home invasion last Thursday. According to the St. Catharines Standard, the so far unidentified culprits were having a snowball fight in the street after a house party. A local area resident shouted at the students to keep it down when he got up for work at 4:30am.
The man’s wife told the Standard what happened next:
The woman said after they were told to be quiet, the students began swearing and threatening the man, and then ran across their lawn to the house. She and her 14-year-old daughter slammed the front door shut, but before they could lock it, the students had shoved the door open and four young men were in their living room, swearing and throwing punches.
All three of the family members were knocked to the floor, and one of the men began pummelling her husband, she said.
Their daughter was screaming and crying and the woman tried to call police, but the phone was knocked out of her hand.
The incident occurred in an area where large numbers of Brock students are known to live, but the exact location has not been released to the public.
Although police are investigating the incident, city councilors say it is Brock University’s responsibility to also look into the home invasion. Speaking with Maclean’s, Brock spokesman, Kevin Cavanagh says the administration is “not sure” what the city councilors mean, emphasizing that the incident took place off campus. However, Cavanagh said that the university would be “eager” to assist the police with their investigation. Brock is also encouraging students with any knowledge of the incident to come forward. “We have strong links to the local police services,” Cavanagh said.
Brock has also indicated that it will consider disciplining any students found to have been involved in the home invasion.
Forget student referenda!
Using a student vote to increase fees has more to do with politics than services
Student union elections have become a pretext for yearly ancillary fee increases by way of referendum. Whether proposed increases are sought by the administration, the student union executive, or some wayward student club, students can count on the fact that student referenda, and accompanying fee increases, have become a normal part of university governance.
While superficially epitomizing the idea of university democracy, the practice is a wanton exercise in the abrogation of responsibility. Referenda insulate those tasked with making decisions, or with representing students, from doing their job. Having a new ancillary fee, or an increase to an existing one, approved by students allows those who proposed it to deny culpability, or to justify their actions, by simply pointing to the referendum. No other argument is needed. When everyone is responsible, no one is.
Ancillary fees are typically attached to specific services unrelated to academics. Academics are, of course, supposed to be funded through a university’s regular operating budget and financed partially by regular tuition fees. Referenda, usually held during student elections, are used to propose funding for initiatives like a university athletics centre or a universal bus pass, as well as for more ridiculous ideas.
Further, as anyone who has campaigned in a referendum, or watched one closely, certainly knows, it doesn’t take much to get a fee passed. Twenty per cent turnout for student elections is considered quite high, meaning as long as core supporters get out to the polls many initiatives can easily pass, regardless of whether the fee is useful or not. Similarly the failure of an initiative also has little bearing on the practicality of the proposal.
If ancillary fees cannot be accommodated through traditional governance practices, and thus easily revoked if proven ineffective, or otherwise useless, than they should be avoided. In the case of student unions, there should exist the flexibility to respond to student disapproval of an initiative attached to the new fee.
The notion that student approval equals legitimacy simply because students have been asked is patently false. The university population turns over every few years, and, so, the legitimacy of a student vote quickly vanishes.
Unfortunately, there is no easy fix to the scourge of using student referenda to advance pet projects, supplement university coffers, and to otherwise subvert the decision making process. The practice is abetted, depending on the province, by a sometimes complicated web of legislation, conventions, and regulations.
Since 1994, the Ontario government has required that before new ancillary fees—those fees applying to services other than academics—can be levied, students must be consulted. While student support can be technically demonstrated through the wishes of student union representatives, the convention has been established that all ancillary fees, including student union fees, be subject to a student vote.
In British Columbia, government legislation explicitly requires that student societies poll their members before imposing any new fees. No such stipulation is placed on the university administration.
In Manitoba, the process for raising ancillary fees is legally left to an institution’s board of governors, but student votes are still used by both university administrations, and student unions, to raise fees, though the practice is not used as widely as in Ontario. Although student referenda in Manitoba are generally ad hoc, a peculiar practice has evolved over the past decade where regular tuition fees have been permitted to increase after a student plebiscite, despite the existence of a tuition freeze. In Ontario, using a referendum to increase regular tuition would not be permitted.
It is quite obvious why governments would support such a process. They can publicly proclaim that they believe student costs should be kept to a minimum, while permitting universities, and student unions to raise fees as they please.
If universities were private entities, they would have to conform to market realities and learn to keep costs low, while maintaining quality, lest they lose students to competitors. I’ll never understand why those who believe students should have greater control over their education, are also the same people who fly into hysterics whenever the words “private” and “university” are joined.
In any event, under our system of government-supported universities, student fees are treated like a tax, to be imposed in ways more related to the internal politics of the university than to the services actually provided.
Bouchard to Quebec–raise tuition!
Universities at ‘critical stage’ in under-financing
A prominent group of Quebecers says the province needs to hike tuition fees. The group includes former premier Lucien Bouchard–whose Parti Quebecois government froze tuition a decade-and-a-half ago at the lowest rates in Canada. But now Bouchard says universities are in trouble.
He and a group of other prominent Quebecers signed a declaration Tuesday calling for an increase in university tuition. “Quebec universities are dangerously under-funded compared with those in Canada and North America,” Bouchard told a news conference. “These precarious finances have now reached a critical stage. If nothing is done, it’s students themselves who will suffer first. “And surely, inevitably, so will all of Quebec society.”
Other signatories included former Liberal finance ministers Michel Audet and Monique Jerome-Forget.
Any hint of tuition hikes has, in the past, triggered a vigorous backlash and had Quebec students out in the streets protesting. But the debate has now been relaunched as Quebec, like almost every other jurisdiction in the world, struggles with a considerable dilemma: how to balance its budget without decimating services, or hiking taxes.
Some see a bump in user fees as the only solution.
Quebec undergraduates pay roughly $1,700 a year in tuition – barely one-third what students pay in other provinces. Several universities–including Montreal’s McGill–have repeatedly called it a lousy public policy that leads to worse schools and forces poorer students to subsidize education for richer ones.
But its defenders call higher education a right and note that some jurisdictions have actually scrapped tuition altogether.
The current economic climate could place Quebec’s longstanding no-hike policy under unprecedented attack. Not only were two former finance ministers in the Charest government present at Tuesday’s event; the current finance minister, Raymond Bachand, has hinted broadly at increased user fees in a variety of areas. In a speech this week, Bachand called for what he described as a “cultural revolution” in the way Quebecers pay for services.
He used the example of motorcyclists–who pay more than drivers for a licence because, per capita, they use more health services than motorists and cost the treasury more.
Quebecers also pay less for electricity and have $7-a-day day care. But the province also has the highest personal-income taxes in Canada, and will be looking for ways to trim $3.9 billion in spending without hiking taxes.
The Canadian Press
How do you challenge an unfair mark?
When a professor holds your marks hostage
During my first semester of university, I met with one of my professors to discuss a mark. It wasn’t anything official. The midterm had been handed back to the class, and I was surprised and disappointed by my mark.
The last page of the test had been an open-ended, essay kind of question. I’d expected my answer to earn a higher mark, and I wanted to understand where I went wrong.
After re-reading my answer, the professor explained where I should have elaborated more. The meeting was very short, and my mark didn’t change in the end, but I thanked the professor for taking the time to meet with me. I now knew how I could do better on the final exam.
What I didn’t know at the time: I was lucky to leave that meeting with my marks unscathed.
It was only after the fact that I suddenly remembered that section in the course syllabus. The part that explains how, if a student asks for a mark to be reconsidered, the professor reserves the right to assign an even lower grade than the one you started with.
I’m not just talking about a university’s formal appeal procedure, where a student requests (through a department chair or a dean) a review of their grade. Many of the classes I’ve taken include an individual course policy, something along the lines of, “If you request for a paper or test to be re-graded, you can end up with an even lower grade than you started with.” Right. So in other words, “Buzz off.”
It just seems wrong. If someone believes they’ve been assigned an unfair mark, and they ask for their paper to get a second look, why should the professor be sneakily taking hostages?
I’m sure that most of the time, the professor can give a perfectly fair, logical defense for the mark they assigned. But what if they made a mistake? What if they’re wrong? What if you deserve a higher mark? If someone thinks their paper deserves a better mark, why should their marks be held at gunpoint?
If I tell a cashier in a store that I think they accidentally charged me too much, and then I turn out to be wrong, should they have a license to then punish me for being wrong? You know, grab my wallet and take a couple bucks?
After all, if the cashier turns out to be wrong, I don’t get to penalize them for their mistake. I don’t get an extra five dollars back in change.
Maybe some students aren’t reasonable when they challenge a mark. Or maybe the fear is that without the threat of a negative consequence for burdening the professor and/or TA with having to take a second look, there would be a flood of second-guessers.
But why create a policy that treats every student as a potential time-wasting cry ass?
Concordia ‘floaties’ welcomed home
Shipwrecked students survived on rainwater—and Disney songs
Carrying a fluffy pink blanket and wearing a gigantic smile, Shelley Piller was up long before dawn, waiting on an empty concourse at Toronto’s Pearson airport for her daughter Elysha to return home.
“I’m going to cover her in this blanket and I’m going to take her home, and give her a bath and feed her as much as I can possibly feed her.”
Elysha was one of 48 students on the S.V. Concordia, a sailing ship that doubled as a travelling high school and university. A microburst, a sudden massive gust of wind, toppled the three-masted boat off the coast of Brazil late last Thursday evening. It sank in minutes, leaving every soul on board to fight for survival in leaky life rafts for two days and nights.
“We’re just so happy that they’re all okay. It’s a miracle,” says Piller.
After pulling each other from flooded classrooms and cutting the life rafts free, the students and crew were forced to bail constantly to keep shin-deep water from sinking their small boats. As they fought to collect rainwater and survive on rations, many became sick from dehydration, but they managed to keep their spirits high by singing Disney songs.
“There were low points and high points,” says Mark Sinker, the ship’s history and English teacher. “When there was water in the rafts and people were shivering, morale was very low. But overall I think people kept their spirits up.”
Piller, her husband Tony, and three sons, Lucas, Sam and Trevor, stood waiting, wearing their scarves and winter coats, with sleepy grins and hands in their pockets. A few other families were scattered around the airport, holding coffee and sitting at shops with metal gates still drawn shut.
Brent Tripp waited for his brother Jamie, a world traveller who was working as a crewman on the Concordia. Early Friday morning Brent got a call from his mother—at first all he could make out was the word “sink.” He was always afraid something would happen to Jamie, and thought the worst might have finally happened. Eventually his mother told him everything was okay, and his brother called Sunday morning.
“I pick up the phone and there was a quick delay, then ‘hey brother’ came across” says Tripp, his voice quivering slightly. “Both of us had a huge little breakdown.” He added that although he knew his brother was safe physically, it was worrisome to think what psychological toll the accident might have taken. “The next thing we went into was Olympic men’s hockey. So it was kind of nice to know that my brother, the guy that I love so much, he was still there.”
He said he plans to take it easy once they’re reunited.
“I would just like nothing more then to cram in the back seat of our little four door car and just take him to a little restaurant, buy him some lunch and have a beer.”
As the minutes ticked by the concourse started to become a hub of activity. Alumni from previous voyages arrived, holding bristol board signs declaring “Welcome Home Floaties” and “S.V. Concordia Forever.” Dozens of reporters began rushing back and forth. The families were ushered into a secure area, and a mob of camera’s surrounded the door. Cheering could be heard from inside. Emboldened with the spirit their travelling school was meant to instill, the alumni sat in front of reporters, forcing them to back up about 10 steps so they would have room to greet their friends.
In the end, the parents and children decided not to meet with the media, and went out through side gates. But Nigel McCarthy, CEO of the Class Afloat program, did eventually address the crowd.
“Today is a day of celebration,” he said. “There’s been lots of tears and there’s been lots of joy. There have been children jumping up into their parents’ arms. It’s a beautiful day.”
Why do women still deserve special scholarships?
To claim that women are at a disadvantage in school is absurd
My friend Sarah Berman bought me a beer recently. She had come into $1,200 unexpectedly. “Just for having a vagina,” she told me with a smirk. She’s a journalism student in my class at the University of British Columbia and a recipient of a Gwyn and Aileen Gunn Bursary. The awards are only available for female students.
The bequest was made five years ago in honour of the late Gwynyth Gunn, a CBC reporter who had succeeded in journalism at a time when it was still dominated by men. It’s easy to sympathize with Gunn’s estate for wanting to donate her money to young women who face the same disadvantages that Ms. Gunn had to overcome.
While awards like these may be sexist, they’re still allowed as long as women are “underepresented in the faculty,” says UBC’s associate director of enrolment services, Barbara Crocker. The problem is, women aren’t under-represented in the faculty of journalism–or almost any faculty anymore. So why are they still getting special awards?
In my journalism class there are four women for every man. A tally of genders among the smiling graduates in the class of 2000′s photo confirms that it’s been that way from the very beginning. In that very first graduating class men were already the minority. I called up my friend Karon Liu who graduated from Ryerson’s journalism school last spring. The numbers from his graduating class were closer to five women per man, he says after a quick count.
These affirmative action scholarships may seem harmless, but they have a negative impact on men’s self-esteem. I’ve felt it. The other men in my class have felt it. Favouritism towards women may even be contributing to the shrinking population of males on university campuses.
Darren Fleet, a colleague of mine at the School of Journalism has worked for daily newspapers, produced mini-documentaries and trained journalists in Zambia. But despite his stellar resume, he says he felt discouraged from applying for a recent scholarship after reading the words “equal opportunity” on the form. “What would be the point in applying?” says Fleet. “Even if I had invented the cure for cancer and saved a busload of children from a burning building I wouldn’t get it. I am too white, too male and too straight.”
While some women still cling to the “glass ceiling” argument to justify these scholarships, other women have long since broken through. Just take my school for example. The founding director was a woman. The school’s current director is a woman. There is certainly no dearth of female instructors, or female role models to meet during our internships. When we went on a class trip to the Vancouver Sun newsroom, both the executive editor and editor-in-chief who toured us around were women.
It’s true that many newsrooms are still slightly more male than female, but they certainly won’t be for much longer. In the past decade, broadcasters have hired more women and promoted women at a faster rate than men. In 2006, nearly two-thirds of all jobs at the CBC went to women. I’m certainly not complaining about the fact that many more women were hired. Considering how much women outnumber men in journalism schools, they almost certainly earned their higher share of recent hires. It is only to claim that women are at a disadvantage in schools that is absurd.
Perhaps the fair thing to do would be to encourage scholarships that only young men can apply to. But the idea of men-only scholarships for programs where they’re outnumbered would be ridiculous, considering men are outnumbered in just about every program but math and engineering. Are we going to give scholarships to women who want to be engineers and mathematicians, and men money so long as they want to study anything else?
Plus, according to Ms. Crocker, a scholarship program aimed at men-only would be “illegal” and “probably never accepted.” (I know I’d laugh.) Perhaps the real solution is for universities to stop accepting scholarship programs that are sexist toward men. No one should feel discouraged from getting an education just because of what they have between their legs.
Josh Dehaas is journalism student at the University of British Columbia, and a former On Campus blogger.
Sweeping changes coming for First Nations University
New report recommends governing board should be depoliticized.
A new report says the troubled First Nations University of Canada (FNUC) should become openly financially accountable and be run by people who are not in a conflict of interest. The report by consultants Manley Begay and Associates warns that without such changes the Regina-based school will not get the federal and provincial grants it needs and will have to sell its Saskatoon campus and other assets.
In response to ongoing governance troubles, earlier this month the provincial and federal governments both revoked funding for the university. Grants from the two levels of government have accounted for $12 million, or roughly have of the institution’s budget.
A working group was established last Tuesday, and given two-weeks to make recommendations regarding the future of First Nations University. It is likely that the working group will recommend that government funding for FNUC go through the University of Regina, as the province has indicated it will no longer provide direct transfers to FNUC. First Nations University is already heavily integrated with the U of R. All FNUC graduates are officially granted University of Regina degrees, though the aboriginal institution is legally distinct and governed independently.
The Begay report, released late last week, recommends that members of FNUC’s governing board should not be paid and that clear rules should be spelled out for people who are involved with the school. “Establish First Nations University of Canada internal definitions, policies and procedures for violations of infractions including malfeasance, misappropriation, fraud and other white collar crimes,” says one of the recommendations in the 208-page report. “It is pertinent that the university’s new board of governors be cleared of any perceived conflict of interest and … establish policies and procedures ensuring full financial and governance transparency.”
The report says the school has been facing allegations of financial mismanagement for years, but it doesn’t provide much detail. It says on Dec. 9, a judge ruled there is enough evidence to try Wes Stevenson, the former vice-president of the university, on a charge laid in 2008 of fraud over $5,000.
The report also said in November a financial consultant working with the school made other allegations of financial mismanagement, but doesn’t go into details.
Earlier this month the Saskatchewan government said the school will be run by the University of Regina in the interim. Leaders of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, which controls First Nations University, are to meet to discuss the report at a special meeting on March 8 in Saskatoon.
Federation leaders say the chiefs will be asked to ratify the report in the hope the move will free up $2 million for the university that it says has been withheld by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. “Once the chiefs ratify the report, a new level of stability will be achieved,” federation Chief Guy Lonechild said in a release.
The Canadian Press
UNB strike dodged–for now
Conciliation board appointed by government to bring an end to collective bargaining gridlock.
University of New Brunswick students were given some hope Thursday, after the province appointed a conciliation board to bring an end to a collective bargaining stalemate that has, until now, made a faculty strike seem all but a foregone conclusion.
After negotiations broke down between the university and the Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers (AUNBT) at the beginning of February, things were looking grim and the possibility of a strike loomed.
Previously, both parties had been working with a conciliation officer, a neutral representative who could make suggestions during negotiations. These talks concluded on Feb. 3 with several issues still undecided, and the parties entered into a waiting period before potentially going to a strike or a lockout.
To break the deadlock, Donald Arseneault, minister for post-secondary education in New Brunswick, announced the formation of a conciliation board to look into the remaining issues on the table between the two parties.
The formation of the board is a rare move in labour negotiations, but the appointment of the conciliation board prevents the possibility of a strike or lockout until after the board has filed its non-binding report. According to a document on the AUNBT website, this can take at least a month. AUNBT also stated that although they are surprised by the minister’s decision, they will work with the conciliation board in good faith.
In a joint press release, the administration and the union stated that “Both AUNBT and the UNB administration continue to share the goal of supporting the communities around us and of making UNB a better place to study and work.”
Both sides have agreed to a media blackout and said that “All communication with the media regarding negotiations will be by way of joint statements at this time.”
However, the Daily Gleaner reported Friday that it had obtained a faculty union “internal bargaining bulletin” that outlined AUNBT’s position. According to the Gleaner, the union says it is rejecting the university’s salary proposal that would see wages frozen for the first two years of a contract, and increase by two per cent during the final two years.
“This moves average salaries at UNB drastically downwards relative to other universities so that the average assistant professor at UNB will be earning 15 per cent less than if they were working at St. Thomas University, 12 per cent less than at Mount Allison or 35 per cent less than Queen’s University,” the internal document reads.
Jon O’Kane, president of the UNB Student Union, feels that the appointment of the conciliation board is a positive decision that will help settle the discussion.
“Negotiations are going to happen in a more thorough, rigorous way, before we get to that position of a possible strike or lockout,” he said. “Those fears . . . are there, and they’re still there, except now we know that people are still going to be at the table for sure for a little while longer.”
The UNB Student Union is not choosing a side as it does not want to interfere with deliberations. “We don’t want to use students as emotional pawns,” said O’Kane.
AUNBT represents 600 academic staff. Approximately 12,000 students would be affected by a strike.
The sneaky way universities are privatizing teaching
UWindsor rejects deal with for-profit company to teach international students; UManitoba criticized for similar program.
Thousands of students from all over the world come to Canada every year to pursue a coveted western credential and the accompanying promise of economic success. Yet, for every student who makes it to a Canadian university, there are many who don’t qualify because their grades aren’t up to snuff or their English skills are lacking. Some of these students instead enroll in the countless ESL schools that cater to international students, some of which offer high quality English training and others, well, not so much.
Recently, however, some Canadian universities have begun offering a new option for these students: the private prep college that offers a year of intensive studies with the chance to get into the real university in second year. The catch is that the colleges are run by for-profit companies, and that is attracting the ire of university professors who see the move as privatizing the public system.
Fraser International College, which is affiliated with Simon Fraser University, was the first college of its kind. Run by the Australian company Navitas, it offers first year courses in business, computing science, arts and social sciences that are designed for international students who need extra support; the program boasts class sizes under 40 students, additional learning and language support and longer classes. Students who earn the requisite GPA in these courses progress to second year as a regular international student at SFU.
While programs like FIC may sound like a dream come true for bright students with borderline English abilities and marks, faculty associations at universities across the country are raising concerns. They say that the practice of bringing in a for-profit company to teach international students equates to “outsourcing” and they have questions about the quality of education these students are receiving.
“It’s a form of contracting out jobs,” explained Brad McKenzie, president of the faculty association at the University of Manitoba, where Navitas opened its second Canadian location in 2008. He worries that Navitas instructors, who are hired by the company and are not employees of the university, aren’t given the same academic freedom, fair pay or benefits to which UManitoba faculty are entitled.
These concerns were echoed by Brian E. Brown, president of the faculty association at the University of Windsor, where a similar company is facing opposition. “Our main concern is the quality of education,” he said. “What are faculty to do with these students if they get into second year and aren’t prepared?”
Last week, the UWindsor senate voted against contracting a company called Study Group International (SGI) to set up a program to prepare international students for its business programs. The decision represents a major blow to SGI’s Canadian expansion plans; SGI claims to be “the largest single provider of international students into the U.K” and has similar programs in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A.—UWindsor would have been its first Canadian foothold.
The terror of intuition
A frightening alternative to thinking ahead.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a growing trend of “early-life crises” that I’ve been witnessing in myself and my peers. I concluded that serious self-examination was the best way to figure out what really makes you happy now in order to avoid suffering later. My views on this were reinforced when I read Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze’s “Bay Street Lawyer Blues,” a great article warning law school hopefuls of the harsh reality of lawyering at a prestigious firm. Unfortunately, as much as I can preach the virtues of thinking ahead and of exploring your own beliefs, goals, and values, I have to admit that progress is slow. Questioning every belief, thought, or idea that passes through your head is not fun, and I’m beginning to question the wisdom of the approach in the first place.
Indeed, many people claim, as I am often tempted to, that you just “know” what’s good. At first glance, this appears to be nothing more than a convenient escape from explanation, a sophisticated I-don’t-know. Upon closer examination, however, I think that this inexplicable knowledge is unavoidable. Whatever definition of good you arrive at, whether you simply equate happiness with goodness, or define it as something less utilitarian, there comes a point in the reasoning process where you cannot reduce the argument any further. Indeed, after you’ve worked your way through your prejudices, socially motivated contentions, and other external forms of motivation and meaning, it seems inevitable that you arrive at some “bottom,” that requires no further explanation because none is possible. The sophisticated I-don’t-know becomes an unsophisticated I-know-but-can’t-explain-it, and perhaps this is the best one can hope for.
Where this “bottom” occurs, however, is still within our control, and I think that exercising this control is very important. For instance, I am currently presented with two contrasting options for tentative summer plans. I can either ride my bike across Canada, or intern with the Government of Ontario. While the bike trip appeals to me more on the surface, I also think that the internship would be more conducive to a career in politics, which I think I might value. Rather than accept my interest in politics as the bottom of my reasoning, however, I pursue a deeper meaning, seeking to understand the roots of that interest, to find a more solid bottom.
The deeper I dig, however, the murkier things get. Something seems to appeal to me about joining the “elite” of Canadian society, but why? The money is appealing, but even that is no bottom. Money for what? I don’t know. I don’t think power is something I’m inherently interested in, so I rule that out as the bottom. A year ago I would’ve said I want to help improve the world, but now I’m not even sure about that. Why would I want the burden of governing millions of uninterested, unengaged, apathetic, spoiled Canadians? That doesn’t sound fun. Perhaps it’s an issue of egoism: a desire to have my ideas and intelligence validated and recognized. If so, that’s an awful reason to go into politics and I should be stopped at all costs. But the truth is, I can’t find the bottom. Maybe I should listen to what I “just know,” although accepting inexplicable motivation does imply a frightening sacrifice of control. Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not you believe the unexamined life is worth living.
What to do when the Games prorogue your semester
In search of educational opportunities in Vancouver.
The Winter Olympics have begun in Vancouver and Maclean’s OnCampus has, at great expense and undergoing no small amount of bureaucratic hassle, parachuted your favourite advice columnists (us) to the west coast and installed us at a luxuriously appointed Olympic headquarters in beautiful East Vancouver.
But why would they send education advice columnists to the Olympics?
Good question. For days now, we’ve been wondering why we’re here — not in the existential sense, (we’re much too shallow for that) but in the very real, practical, work-related sense.
Upon visiting all of our favourite Vancouver haunts, like the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, The Cambie Pub and even Capilano College University (we were getting desperate), we discovered that all of Vancouver’s post-secondary institutions have closed their doors for the duration of the Games. Under the flimsy pretext of not wanting to add to the Games’ traffic problems, (we suspect it’s actually because they wanted time off to go to beer gardens) university administrators have shut tens of thousands of students out of their laboratories and lecture theaters, leaving them with nothing to learn for two whole weeks!
Clearly, we’ve been sent on a mission of mercy, to find educational opportunities for these poor students. For four days now, we have visited every bar, beer garden and free concert we had the patience to get through the lineup of, in search of learning experiences we could pass on to you, our readers. We came away with little more than a headache and a nagging suspicion that we had been robbed. For what it’s worth, here’s what we discovered:
Downtown (Sociology, Anthropology)
You don’t have to go to any organized events to learn something about human behaviour here in Vancouver. The streets downtown are packed with visitors and there are endless opportunities for making ethno-anthropological observations. People from all over the world can be observed in their native dress, enacting their cultures’ own peculiar rituals.
For example, we learned that Norwegians traditionally paint Norwegian flags on their faces and sing to each other from across the street. Dutch people wear orange hats shaped like chicken carcasses and they don’t dismount their bicycles when riding through places crowded with pedestrians. Americans paint the letters “S”, “A” and “U” on their naked chests in white, blue or red paint, and then sometimes stand in the wrong order.
Getting downtown might be a daunting prospect with all of the road closures and the pressures placed on parking by all of the beer gardens foreigners have built in parking lots, but we’ll let you in on a secret: take your bike. If you don’t have a bike, buy one; if you can’t afford a bike, steal one. (Editor’s note: Maclean’s OnCampus does not endorse bicycle theft.)
Cycling is the fastest and most convenient way to get around downtown. Cars are no longer permitted on half of the roads, but to our amazement, we found that bicycles are allowed everywhere. While crowds of pedestrians are shuffling down the sidewalk to get a glimpse of the Olympic flame, you can ride your bike down the closed and totally empty street and take a good long look, until a very nice security person comes to tell you you’re not allowed to stop on the street.
Deutsches Haus (Foreign Relations, German)
That Deutsches Haus means “German House” in German is just one of the lessons you’ll learn in this parking lot that the Germans have turned into an oasis of beer and sausage. The lineup may look forbiddingly long, but it moves relatively quickly. This is largely because they charge $8.25 for a beer and $7.00 for a sausage, so most people can’t afford to stay very long.
Inside, you’ll find a very large TV and long tables lined with people drinking beer and watching the Olympics. If you look carefully, you may even find a German in the crowd who you can practice your pluperfect indicative conjugation on (ich hatte ein bier getrunken; du hattest ein bier getrunken).
In our experience, Deutsche Haus is an excellent place to watch Alexandre Bilodeau win Canada’s first gold medal last Sunday. If you can make it there in time, we highly recommend it.
Holland House (Political Science)
The first lesson at Holland House in Richmond is that there are two separate entrances, one for Dutch citizens and one for everyone else. The second lesson is that the Dutch people who go to the Dutch entrance can walk right into Holland House, and that the lineup for everyone else takes about two and a half hours to get through.
The third thing we learned was how to get back to Vancouver, because we weren’t willing to wait that long for overpriced Heineken.
Prof charged in Uni shooting said to be odd
Students issued at least three complaints against accused campus killer
Students said they signed a petition and complained to no avail about the classroom conduct of a University of Alabama professor accused of killing three colleagues and wounding three others in a shooting rampage at a faculty meeting.
Related: Shooting rampage in Alabama
The students upset with biology professor Amy Bishop told The Associated Press they went to administrators at the University of Alabama in Huntsville at least three times a year ago, complaining that she was ineffective in the classroom and had odd, unsettling ways. The students said Bishop never made eye contact during conversations, taught by reading out of a textbook and made frequent references to Harvard University, her beloved alma mater. “We could tell something was off, that she was not like other teachers,” said nursing student Caitlin Phillips.
Bishop is charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder in the shootings Friday in a campus conference room where members of the biology department were meeting. She is being held without bond and does not yet have an attorney. Police have not revealed a motive, but colleagues say she was vocal in her displeasure about being denied tenure in March of last year. Her appeal was denied in November.
There have been revelations since the shooting that she killed her brother with a shotgun in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1986 but was never charged because police said it was an accident, and that she and her husband were scrutinized in 1993 after someone sent pipe bombs to a Harvard professor she worked with. The bombs did not go off and no one was ever charged in that case either.
Bishop’s students said they first wrote a letter to biology department chairman Gopi K. Podila–one of the victims of Friday’s shooting–then met with him and finally submitted a petition that dozens of them had signed. “Podila just sort of blew us off,” said Phillips, who was among a group of five students who met with him in fall 2008 or early 2009 to air their concerns.
After students met privately with Podila, Phillips said, Bishop seemingly made a point in class to use some of the same phrases they had so they would know she knew about it. “It was like she was parroting what we had said,” Phillips said.
University President David B. Williams said Tuesday that student evaluations were one of many factors in the tenure evaluation process, but he was unaware of any student petition against Bishop. While other tenured professors in the department made the decision not to grant her what would have amounted to a job for life, Williams said the votes of the tenure committee are not made public. Podila was supportive of her, Williams noted.
Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, said Wednesday the “vast majority” of students were happy with her. He said his wife taught the “cut course” for nursing students, who would either go on toward a degree or quit the program based on how they did in her class. “If they didn’t make it through, they didn’t make it,” he said. “So it’s natural for some to be unhappy.” He said classroom performance was not an issue in her tenure file, which has not been made public.
The Canadian Press.
Tell ‘em They’re Your 1st Choice (Even if They’re Not)
Need some help finding work after law school? Students from University of Windsor law have some advice for getting through your On Campus Interview. Courtesy of Andrew Black.
Need some help finding work after law school? Students from University of Windsor law have some advice for getting through your On Campus Interview. Courtesy of Andrew Black.
s-e-r-v-i-c-e
From meetings to spelling bees, there’s more to academia than teaching and research.
Everyone knows that university professors teach, and many people are aware, if only vaguely, that they conduct research. But I suspect that not everyone realizes that there is an important third aspect of university professorships. You see, like others who are guilty of minor offenses, professors are required to do community service.
Service to the community can take many forms, including sitting on any of the seemingly infinite committees that exist on campus. One might also do service to the scholarly community in general, serving as an officer of a scholarly association, for instance. Finally, there is the service to the larger community outside of academia. In some disciplines, this external service is an obvious extension of one’s discipline. A nursing professor might find plenty of ways to contribute in the area of public health; a political scientist might frequently be called upon by the media to comment on the news of the day. I know a biologist who gets up early on Saturday mornings to be the bird expert on a radio show.
If your area is English, however, the opportunities for external service are not quite so obvious, though they can be intriguing. Occasionally, I have been called on by the media to comment on the issue of plagiarism when cheating scandals (the less salacious kind) break. Once, I was interviewed by a reporter who was doing a story on whether or not people pronounce the “r” in February. For a while I reviewed poetry and fiction for a local literary journal; I swear it wasn’t my fault the thing went under.
One of my favourite bits of external service is my work with the Canspell National Spelling Bee. This event sees kids from across the country competing in regional bees, hoping to win a chance to get to the national stage. And these are serious spellers, by the way. The winning word at nationals last year was heresimach. My spell checker can’t even spell that.
I serve as a pronouncer at several regional bees and as a judge at nationals. I enjoy it because it gives me hope for the future: the spellers work hard and are almost always good sports. As you might imagine, the parents are not always so pleasant. One year a parent came to the judges’ table claiming that someone else’s child had spelled a word wrong and should be eliminated (you can appeal your own child’s elimination, by the way, but you cannot petition to have someone else ousted). Never mind that three different judges disagreed; she was a professor of medicine, she explained, as though that had any relevance. But even when parents get a little crazy, it is usually out of love for their kids. At one bee, a boy stopped half way through his word, and after a long pause asked if he could continue from where he had stopped. Of course, I said. He continued and spelled the word incorrectly. His mother objected on the grounds that we had not let him start over (which is allowed), and only after the bee did she figure out (because her son cheerfully told her) that he hadn’t asked to start over and that the only problem was that he spelled the word wrong. But in her desire to see her son do well, she misunderstood what was happening right in front of her. This is motherhood, I guess.
So if The Hour Hand — another of my favourite service contributions– seems a bit sparse for the next couple of weeks, please forgive me. I’m busy these days. Busy as — well, you know.
2010 Student Surveys: Complete results
In two major surveys, students get the chance to grade their own universities.
There are many ways by which a university can measure its performance, including asking those on the receiving end of an education—the students—what they think. In recent years, a growing number of universities have been doing exactly that. The following pages contain results from two major student surveys: the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Canadian University Survey Consortium—NSSE and CUSC for short. Between them, these surveys examine how involved students are in various academic and extracurricular activities, how satisfied they are with their university and its faculty, and how connected they feel to their school.
Want to know what universities are doing to improve the student experience? Click here.
The findings show that while students are generally happy with their university education, there are key areas of discontent. In particular, a significant number of students feel they don’t fit in at their university, more often in the larger schools than the smaller ones.
Commissioned by the universities, the surveys ask more than 150 questions about the undergraduate experience—inside the classroom and beyond. The answers help each university assess the quality of its programs and services, which in turn can aid in the design and implementation of strategies to improve areas as indicated.
Recognizing that this data can also be useful for prospective students trying to decide which university is right for them, Maclean’s has been publishing CUSC and NSSE results each year since 2006. They provide direct feedback from students on the quality of their education and their general level of satisfaction.
The U.S.-based NSSE began in 1999 and is distributed to first- and senior-year students. Administered by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, NSSE is not primarily a student satisfaction survey. Rather, it is a study of best educational practices and an assessment of the degree to which each university follows those practices. The survey pinpoints what students are doing while they are in school and on campus.
Research has shown that various forms of engagement are likely to lead to more learning and greater student success. And this link exists not only in the more obvious areas of academic endeavour, such as the number of books read and papers written, but also in curricular extras such as conducting research with a faculty member, community service, internships and studying abroad, as well as in extracurricular involvement with other students.
UVic student union revokes club status of pro-life club
Latest move to silence abortion debate at UVic will likely lead to legal showdown
The University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS) cranked up their fight against the pro-life student club Youth Protecting Youth (YPY) last week by revoking the club’s status. Previous efforts to silence the club’s controversial message only went so far as to deny the club funding. This latest move denies the very existence of the group, upping the stakes significantly in a conflict that is sure to end up in court.
The spat began in October 2008 when the university’s students’ society refused to give YPY the same meagre funding all UVic student clubs receive. Clubs approved by a committee are entitled to $232 each year in addition to such perks as banner supplies and free room bookings. Upon review in 2009, the committee approved funding for YPY. But the students’ society board stepped in and once again revoked the funding, yet still permitted it to operate on campus.
In an October 2009 meeting, the society’s directors accused YPY of “harassing” female students with anti-abortion posters. Those opposed to YPY have also complained about a YPY sponsored event that featured the controversial pro-life activist Stephanie Gray debate distinguished medical ethicist Eike-Henner Kluge. Director Tracey Ho summed up the society’s position by saying, “No one should debate my rights over my own body.”
YPY fought back by contacting the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), in hopes the organization would defend its right to freedom of speech. BCCLA agreed and in late 2009 threatened to launch a lawsuit on behalf of YPY if the UVSS didn’t reinstate the club’s funding. The UVSS brushed the BCCLA off. (Read our previous coverage here.)
In a UVSS meeting that stretched past 11pm last Monday night, the student society decided to revoke the club’s status for one year, meaning that in addition to losing funding, YPY can no longer rent rooms or access other perks available to clubs. YPY may be able to regain status if it complies to certain restrictions. The catch is that the UVSS hasn’t yet determined what those restriction are, so YPY’s status won’t change until the restrictions are written at some unspecified time in the future.
The decision was in part a response to a complaint filed by the UVSS Women’s Centre. “Reproductive rights are elemental in women’s collective and individual potential for equity in all realms of social life,” the complaint letter states. “Access to abortion free from harassment is one of these reproductive rights that YPY continually undermine through the proliferation of inaccurate information and the creation of hostile environments.”
“YPY’s identity and actions as a pro-life organization inherently discriminates against women. Through intimidation tactics and moralist evangelizing, YPY limits the ability of women on campus to access accurate information about abortion free from harassment.”
John Dixon, president of BCCLA, finds this argument illogical. “It is worthwhile to consider, for a moment, what this really means,” he wrote in an email. “It means that the very civil, moderate pro-life YPY club at UVic doesn’t even have to get out of bed in the morning to discriminate against women; it means that no matter how mild, moderate, and circumscribed its advocacy, it discriminates against women. There is no appeal to reason here, but a weird evocation of a kind of secular flavour of sacrilege.”
In a Thursday email to UVSS chairperson Veronica Harrison, YPY president Anastasia Pearse asked the UVSS to call a special general meeting to reconsider their status. “We are unaware of any policy or bylaw that gives the Board discretion to withhold club status indefinitely based upon a yet-to-be-developed policy,” Pearse wrote. “We refuse to participate.”
Harrison has maintained that the UVSS has every right to deny funding to YPY. “Freedom of speech of course can happen, but not when it’s harassing or oppressing other people,” she said in December.
UVSS Director Nathan Warner was one of the minority who voted against revoking YPY’s status. “I’m pro-choice but I’m also pro-debate,” he told Maclean’s. “Abortion is not an easy topic for anyone and I believe that no matter what you ask it will likely offend someone. I don’t think that is reason enough to merit banning a club from campus.”
Warner concedes that YPY is asking tough questions in its anti-abortion campaign. But, as he points out, YPY’s posters don’t include graphic images that have been associated with other pro-life campus activism. “This attack on freedom of expression is unfounded and needs to be stopped,” he said.
It seems unlikely that the BCCLA will back off either. According to Dixon: “At the University of Victoria, the values of freedom of conscience, opinion, religion, and expression are decried as quaint residues of an irrelevant past. The Board of the Student Society has drunk deeply at the well of post-modernist ideology, and they are determined to drive the very moderate and civil student pro-life club from the campus. What certainly seems separate from this university is the faintest memory of the very idea of a ‘university’ as a place dedicated to the preference of dialogue over force.”
Related: Closed for debate. Also see, Uvic’s pro-choicers up the ante against pro-life club
- With files from David Foster
Applying knowledge
A student survey helps universities target areas for improvement.
Anne Celine Hansen, a fourth-year bachelor of management student at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, used to find herself stuck between classes killing time. “I wouldn’t really know what to do with myself,” she says. Hansen, who lives about a 20-minute walk from campus, could study at the library or sit in the cafeteria, but it was hard to connect with other people. Like many students living off-campus, she felt disconnected from the pulse of her university. “Students would take the bus up to campus, go to class and then take the bus back home,” says Hansen.
In 2006, UBC started administering the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), a U.S.-based survey that indirectly measures educational quality by analyzing what students do with their time on campus. NSSE measures a university’s performance based on five key benchmarks—including student-faculty interaction, level of academic challenge and supportive campus environment—providing data for comparison across time and between institutions. Research has shown that higher levels of engagement can lead to greater student success. UBC’s results pointed to the disengagement that Hansen and others at Okanagan were feeling, so in 2008, the school decided to correct the problem. “We wanted to make sure that our commuter students had exactly the same campus life experience as the residence students, the same level of TLC,” says Ian Cull, associate vice-president of students at the Okanagan campus.
The school set up what it calls “collegia”—on-campus lounges providing space for commuter students to sit and do homework, talk, or just watch TV. They’re staffed by senior students, called collegia assistants, who answer questions, provide information about the university and set up social events. Hansen has been working as a collegia assistant since the program started. Students “are always coming in and talking to people, meeting people,” she says. “It becomes a big group.”
The issue of student engagement is becoming increasingly important for universities, especially since NSSE arrived at 11 Canadian schools in 2004. The survey has now been conducted at 64 institutions across Canada, with 11 more universities and one college set to participate for the first time this year. And as the years of data accumulate, schools are using the insight NSSE provides to create programs tailored to improving the quality of their students’ education.
Administrators at the University of New Brunswick had little cash to spend on new programs, but they didn’t want to waste their NSSE data. So Tony Secco, UNB’s vice-president, academic, had the information broken down by faculty and distributed to the deans. Deciding to concentrate primarily on one benchmark—student-faculty interaction—they pooled ideas and came up with several low-cost ways to better connect professors with their pupils. The administration hosted student-faculty mixers, held faculty workshops on student engagement, asked professors to spend more time mentoring after class, and converted unused space on campus into common and student services rooms where faculty and students can meet. While there are no hard data yet on how well the initiatives are working, the response from students and teachers has been positive. “Engagement in any exercise is very strongly linked to the fulfillment that is sensed by the individual,” says Secco. For his part, UNB president Eddy Campbell observes: “NSSE is a good instrument for measuring that engagement. And it allows us a good look at the places where we need to do better.”
But NSSE isn’t just supposed to be used internally. Its results are meant to be shared across schools, and are most effective when broken down into faculties and student groups. Unfortunately, this isn’t an easy process. “There’s no formal mechanism for sharing information across institutions,” says Chris Conway, principal investigator for the NSSE intervention project—a group, funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, that examines NSSE’s effectiveness. He says Canada needs “a more systematic data sharing and analysis exercise” that breaks down information by school and then by faculty, making cross-institutional comparisons easy. Conway and a committee of educators from around the country are working to create a national data-sharing initiative that will do exactly that. So far, 44 universities have signed on to the project, and Conway is hoping to release preliminary results within four months.
Conway is cautious, however, not to draw conclusions prematurely, noting that although NSSE has built a good foundation of knowledge in Canada, the programs it’s helped to create are still in their infancy, and universities won’t know how effective they are without a few more years of data. “I don’t think we’re at the point now where we can say a given type of experience gives you the best bang for your buck in terms of quality improvement,” he says.
Still, Jillian Kinzie, the NSSE institute’s associate director, is optimistic, pointing out that Canadian schools are continually improving their scores and bettering their educational programs. “The thing that impresses me the most is the commitment to action,” she says. “Digging in and really spending time thinking about what these results tell us about the quality of students’ educational experiences, that’s the most important part—converting the results into some sort of action to improve the educational experience.”
