Jun 01 2009

The Casualization of Academic Labour at York

Category: Post-strike Discussion (2009),Research — Bob Hanke @ 11:11 am

The York University Faculty Association (YUFA) subcommitee has released the Casualization of Academic Labour at York University— a 10-page, 4.43 MB discussion paper prepared for the YUFA membership by the YUFA subcommittee on casualization.

This paper places CUPE 3903’s recent labour negotiations as well as YUFA’s upcoming negotiations into the broader context of budget cuts,  the reduction of tenure-stream positions, and the increasing reliance on contingent academic labour. As the recent CAUT conference on contract faculty underscored, the erosion of tenure limits full access to good academic jobs and collegiality. The casualization of academic labour is a double threat to academic freedom and faculty governance within the public university. If the public university is to remain a center of critical inquiry, knowledge production and dissemination–where research and teaching are connected–then proposals to address contingent inequity should be prioritized within the YUFA collective bargaining process.

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Apr 06 2009

New OCUFA Survey in Sync with Strike Issues

Category: Post-strike Discussion (2009),Research — Bob Hanke @ 8:48 pm

OCUFA has sounded the warning over declining quality again, but are the full-time university president and the part-time Board of Governors listening?

In Profs blast lazy first-year students, Toronto Star education reporter Kristin Rushowy writes:

The question on student preparedness was part of a larger survey of professors completed in February and March that asked about all aspects of campus life. More than 60 per cent of professors said they were teaching larger classes than three years ago, and that not only has hiring slowed down, but so has the creation of full-time tenured positions – which was an issue in the recent strike by teaching assistants and contract faculty at York University.

To read the whole April 6, 2009 front-page story, click here.

To download the key findings of this online province-wide survey, click on the OCUFA 2009 Questionnaire.

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Jan 24 2009

Emergency Unit 2 Meeting called by CUPE Executive and Bargaining Team Members!

Category: Research — jonnyj @ 3:23 pm

When:  Sunday, January 25, 4 to 6pm (after 12pm Rally at Queen’s Park for Liberals’ Back to Work Legislation introduction)

Where: Concord Cafe, 937 Bloor St. West (near Ossington subway station)

Food will be available and time will be counted as alternative duty/ strike pay.

ALL UNIT 2 MEMBERS ARE WELCOME.

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Top Journal Article:  “Listening to Labour: Mainstream Media, Talk Radio, and the 2005 B.C. Teachers Strike,” by Shane Gunster (excerpted from the Canadian Journal of Communication 33(4): 661-683).

In October 2005, B.C. public school teachers conducted a two-and-a- half-week illegal strike that attracted widespread support from the public. This article conducts a comparative content and discourse analysis of the news coverage provided by the leading provincial outlets in three media types: The Vancouver Sun (newspaper), the News Hour on Global (television), and The Bill Good Show (political talk radio). The Bill Good Show’s open-ended, participatory format, coupled with the host’s commitment to journalistic norms of objectivity and diversity, allowed teachers to play an active and significant role in shaping discussion and debate about the strike.

To read the complete study, click here.

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Jan 04 2009

Quality at Risk: An Assessment of the Ontario Government’s Plans for Graduate Education

Category: Policy Reports — Bob Hanke @ 2:04 pm

March 12, 2007

The government’s plan to expand graduate education by an additional 14,000 students by 2010, although laudable, has put the quality of graduate education at risk. Ontario universities are not hiring enough faculty to ensure graduate students a quality education. Ontario universities need to hire 2,205 additional faculty to reach 1995-96 graduate student-faculty ratios. The government is not providing enough operating funding, not enough graduate-student financial assistance support, and not enough funding to address overdue repairs and expand space requirements. The report demonstrates that failing to involve faculty in the expansion planning leads to oversights.

Keywords: graduate; enrolments; faculty; hiring; hires; funding; maintenance; space; expansion

To read the full report, click here.

Jan 04 2009

Quality in the Balance: Undergraduate Education in Ontario at Risk

Category: Policy Reports — Bob Hanke @ 1:53 pm

May 14, 2007

The quality of undergraduate education in Ontario remains at risk despite the government’s five-year, $6.2-billion Reaching Higher plan, which pledged enough funds to hire more professors. There has been no improvement in student-faculty ratios, however, because inflation-adjusted, per-student funding is still well below the 1990s. Faculty hiring has not kept pace with enrolment increases, so in 2003-04 Ontario had a student-faculty ratio of 27 students to each full-time professor, while American peer institutions had a 15 to one ratio. Ontario needs 11,000 more professors by the end of the decade and needs to make a commitment to recruit full-time, tenure-stream faculty.

Keywords: Reaching Higher; student-faculty ratio; ratio; per student funding; funding; faculty; hiring

To read the full report, click here.

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