Category Archives: Faculty

CUFA BC on Liberals Budget: Cuts Will Hurt Students, Grant Program a Gimmick say Profs

Posted on February 20, 2013 by | Comments Off on CUFA BC on Liberals Budget: Cuts Will Hurt Students, Grant Program a Gimmick say Profs

CUFA BC, Robert Clift, February 19, 2013 — The 2013/14 provincial budget shortchanges students and their families according to the organization representing professors and other academic staff at BC’s public research universities.

“The provincial government perpetuates the myth that its cuts to the operating grants for universities, colleges and institutes will have no effect on students,” said Robert Clift, Executive Director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC (CUFA BC).

“Students have already lost support services and learning opportunities due to inadequate funding and these new cuts will shortchange students even further.”

“By 2015, per student operating grants to universities, colleges and institutes will have dropped 20% in real terms since the Liberals formed government,” Clift added.

The creation of the BC Training and Education Savings Grant will do little to help students and their families, say the professors.

“The BC Training and Education Savings Grant is a cynical gimmick”, Clift said. “The value of the government’s contribution will not even cover the increase in tuition fees by the time a child reaches age 18.”

“Using the government’s numbers, the value of the government’s contribution will fall $466 short of the tuition fee increase. Using more realistic calculations, the gap is $819,” Clift added. “This is on top of tuition fees that have already increased 99% under the Liberals.”

The government’s Skills and Training Plan also falls far short of what is needed, according to the professors.

“The investments announced by the government are one time and will not add a single new student space”, Clift said. “Moreover, the plan ignores the fact that 2/3 of job openings over the next decade will require a college or university credential other than trades certification.”

“The government’s training plan turns back the clock 40 years, treating British Columbians as hewers of wood and compressors of gas,” Clift added. “It practically ignores the growing impact of the value-added and knowledge economies.”

The Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC represents 4,600 professors, librarians, instructors, lecturers and other academic staff at BC’s five public research universities – UBC (Vancouver and Kelowna), SFU (Burnaby, Surrey, Vancouver), UVic (Victoria), UNBC (Prince George, Quesnel, Terrace, Fort St. John) and Royal Roads (Victoria and international)

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Posted in Advocacy, BC Education, Budgets & Funding, Faculty, Government, Student Movement, Students

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Questioning the independence of UBC’s Equity office

Posted on January 28, 2013 by | Comments Off on Questioning the independence of UBC’s Equity office

This open letter by UBC Professor Jennifer Chan, published today by the Ubyssey, appeals for changes to UBC’s consultations concerning its Equity Office. The Jennifer Chan v UBC and others [Beth Haverkamp, David Farrar, Jon Shapiro, Rob Tierney] racial discrimination case was heard by the BC Supreme Court on November 13, 2012. The case involves the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education selection process in Fall 2009. See the Ubyssey’s feature article for background to the case.

Letter: Equity office revamp needs an independent perspective

The Ubyssey, January 28, 2013 — In December 2012, UBC called for a consultation to “seek input and advice from the UBC community on what organizational changes are needed to build inclusion into the structure of the university so inclusion at all levels and in all forms becomes the norm.”

One of the two co-chairs of the consultation, Ms. Nitya Iyer, who is a practicing lawyer and a former faculty in the UBC Faculty of Law, had been involved in at least two UBC equity complaint investigations. Former Associate Vice-President Equity, Tom Patch, who retired at the end of December 2012, had hired Ms. Iyer as an external investigator for these cases, both of which she dismissed.

Patch and Iyer were former colleagues at the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. By all appearances, this posed conflict of interest for the investigations. Now, asking Ms. Iyer to co-chair a university-wide consultation on organizational structures that she has been involved in also raises issues of impartiality and vested interest.

She is asked, among other things, to review the UBC Equity Office for which she worked as an investigator. Further, former and/or current equity complainants may be unwilling to come forward in the consultation due to the fact that the person who headed and dismissed their investigation is now co-chairing that process.

Similarly, Dr. Gurdeep Prahar, who is the current acting head of the UBC Equity Office, was asked by Tom Patch to be a member of an investigative panel in at least one equity complaint proceeding.

For the consultation process to be credible and seen as independent and fair, a new co-chair who has never worked with/for UBC equity organizations is preferable. Otherwise, it risks being seen as compromised.

—Jennifer Chan
Associate Professor
Faculty of Education

Read More: The Ubyssey 

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Posted in BC Education, Chan Case, Equity, Faculty, Human Rights, Working conditions

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From Kindergarten Cop to The Garrison School and Society

Posted on January 22, 2013 by | Comments Off on From Kindergarten Cop to The Garrison School and Society

In the midst of a debate and impending action on gun control in the US, sparked by the senseless killing of 20 children and 6 adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on 14 December, “hundreds of law enforcement personnel descended on Lone Star College-North Harris today.” Yet another campus shooting left four injured while two suspects were rushed from the campus in handcuffs.

In the meantime, as Emily Richmond reported in The Atlantic today, some states are forging ahead with plans to arm teachers. “Utah teachers are far from the only ones expressing increased interest in concealed weapons. There has also been a jump in inquiries at gun training clinics in Florida, according to the Palm Beach Post, even though the state bans nearly all weapons at public schools…. In Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, said she wouldn’t support allowing principals to carry weapons, as proposed by the state’s superintendent of public instruction. A bill to arm teachers in the Evergreen State faces an uphill battle as Democrats have the supermajority, Colorado Public Radio reports. But in Tennessee, where the Republicans control both houses of the state legislature, talk of arming teachers is more likely to gain momentum.”

This idea of gun-toting teachers has been gaining momentum, with the US National Rifle Association’s in your face ad released last week (Obama’s kids get armed guards, yours don’t), a month after gun expert and university professor John Lott said to Newsmax that gun-free zones in schools are “a magnet” for killers. Lott’s solution: arm teachers— “Simply telling them to behave passively turns out to be pretty bad advice . . . By far the safest course of action for people to take, when they are confronting a criminal, is to have a gun. This is particularly true for the people in our society who are the most vulnerable.”

What seems like an idea of fiction or Hollywood has some politicians pumped. For example, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul commented on 17 January that “if my kids were at that school [Sandy Hook Elementary], I would have preferred that the teacher had concealed-carry and had a gun in her desk… Is it perfect? No. Would they always get the killer? No. Would an accident sometimes happen in a melee? Maybe… but nobody (at the Connecticut school) had any defense, and he just kept shooting until he was tired and he decided to shoot himself.”

Republican and ex-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, like other actors and directors, maintains a boundary between movies and life: “one has to keep (the two) separate,” he said. What he does in movies such as the Raw Deal is “entertainment and the other thing [Sandy Hook massacre] is a tragedy beyond belief. It’s really serious and it’s the real deal.” He is at least up for taking a look at “how we deal with mental illness, how we deal with gun laws, how we deal with parenting.”

Of course, if the Kindergarten Cop was filmed today, John Kimble, the undercover cop come teacher, would be packing heat. Unlike the 1990 version, he wouldn’t have to be rescued by a pet ferret and another teacher with a baseball bat. In fact, the old movie makes ya kinda wonder why he wasn’t packin a 45.

When John Dewey wrote his influential The School and Society in 1900, he anticipated arming teachers with new ideas. Silly. He should have known what the NRA was up to in his day. By the late 1910s, forty years into its existence, the NRA had “succeeded in making it possible for any group of ten persons to get free rifles from the Government and free ammunition. That has added, of course, a bit to our sense of security,” it was claiming. For Dewey, the school and society were interconnected, as he saw it: the “New Education” reflected “larger changes in society.” “Can we connect this ‘New Education’ with the general march of events?,” he asked (p. 4). Indeed, todays edition of the classic text will have to be retitled The Garrison School and Society. And that first chapter will have to be rewritten to reflect the times– nowadays, we “Arm Teachers with New Guns, Not New Ideas.”

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Posted in Campus Life, Crime, Faculty, Safety & Security, Students, Violence

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UBC President’s Salary raises questions

Posted on November 6, 2012 by | Comments Off on UBC President’s Salary raises questions

Ok. There have been questions raised concerning a post on administrative salaries and increases over the past 6-7 years at the University of British Columbia. The UBC President’s Office had the Faculty Association retracting a component of a CUPE 2278 letter forwarded to faculty members, which ended in a public apology by FAUBC President Nancy Langton for not fact-checking the Union’s summary of UBC President Toope’s salary increases. So here are some facts…

One question concerns a net increase in administrators or managers in the University and average 5% annual increases in their salaries while the BC Liberal government has designated most public employees as net zero workers. At a national level over the past 3 years, BC employees have received the lowest average increases in the country, averaging just a bit over 0.3% per year. Are administrators’ salaries at UBC increasing, or how can they be, at an average of 5% per year? And why are these same administrators intent on suppressing already excessively low wages, against inflation, raising tuition and costs, etc., of Teaching Assistants?

As GTA wages at UBC have been stagnant (i.e., 0%), administrative salaries have skyrocketed. UBC President Toope’s salary was for 2010-11 depending on which UBC report is used, $528,504 (UBC’s Financial Information Act Report for Year Ended March 31, 2011) or $378,000 + $50,000 Incentive Plan + $58,408 Housing perks + others = $580,978 (UBC’s Public Sector Executive Compensation Report, 2011/12) (For comparative information across Canada, see How Much Does Your University President Make?). Using UBC’s Financial Information Act Report, from 2005, the year UBC began to basically roll over CUPE 2278 contracts, to 2011, the last year of accessible data, the President’s salary rose from $434,567 to $528,504 (22% increase). The Provost’s salary increased from $230,887 to $321,023, a whopping 39% increase! These two are comparison’s between 2005 and 2011 in the differential of salaries for the positions (e.g., President Piper’s outgoing salary and President Toope’s ongoing salary, which is a fair comparison and similar to the way initial appointment salaries are handled). The new Concordia University President’s salary ($357,000) raised eyebrows recently in Quebec on the heels of the largest and most sustained student strike in Canadian history.

Comparatively, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s salary was for 2011, $317,574 (inc. car perk) + benefits + house perk 24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa). US President Barack Obama’s salary was for 2011, $400,000 + $50,000 expense account + $100,000 travel account + $19,000 entertainment account = $569,000). Of course, these salaries pale next to private sector University President and corporate Chief salaries. The four top Executives of UBC Properties Trust enjoy a combined $1.3m in salaries, including perks for cars.

The salary of VP Human Resources, who manages bargaining for the University, jumped between 2005 and 2011 from $191,793 to $230,704 (20% increase). The Director of Faculty Relations’ salary rocketed from $119,615 to $198,209 (41% increase). And so on. Deans have made certain that there is similar progress with their salaries. For example, the Business Dean’s salary bounced from $334,196 to $422,304 (26% increase) while the Education Dean’s salary leaped from $216,519 to $261,732 (21% increase). Through 2010, the Arts Dean’s salary quickly grew from $191,408 to $249,816 (30% in 6 years). It is no mystery why the ranks of managers at UBC have swelled in numbers over the past few years. The transition of Associate Deans and others to management via the 2010-12 Collective Agreement merely instrumented trends and ambitions.

Another question raised is why are these same administrators intent on exploiting Sessional faculty members at UBC and suppressing their already pitifully low wages? For example, the Masters of Education Technology revenue generating program at UBC, which has basically bailed the Faculty of Education out of a dire financial crisis (e.g., 130% or  $1,893,015 over budget for its 270 Sessional faculty appointments in 2008-09), uses Sessionals to teach about 85% of its courses and pays them a piecemeal $242.28 per student wage. Denied office space, the Sessionals often work below the minimum wage ($10.25 / hour) after gross hours in and net wages out are calculated.

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Posted in Accountability, Administration, Budgets & Funding, Corporate University, Employment rights, Faculty, Salary/Economic Benefits, Solidarity, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Student Movement, Students, Unions, Working conditions

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Open letter from SFU faculty in support of striking workers

Posted on November 6, 2012 by | Comments Off on Open letter from SFU faculty in support of striking workers

Open Letter on the SFU labour dispute:

We, the undersigned SFU faculty members, are in solidarity with the TSSU and CUPE in their struggle for better working conditions.

The workers represented by TSSU and CUPE deserve a better deal — they deserve better working conditions, they deserve a better wage, and they deserve more respect from their employer for the work they do.

And they deserve a real contract, having been without one for two years now.The campus unions’ struggle, however, goes beyond their immediate bargaining demands. The primary mission of this public university — to teach its students well — is not accomplished only in the classroom. It is also accomplished by the example the university sets.

The university should be an engaging and engaged intellectual environment, and a good and fair and decent place to work. But working conditions at SFU have been worsening for years. Wages have been frozen while workloads have risen.

The educational system is under increasing stress, from reduced faculty numbers to larger classes, from rapidly rising fees to streamlined academic programs.

Students are paying more for reduced programs, and graduate student workers are being paid less for doing more work. Everyone is told to “do more with less.” But that is another word for austerity at SFU and in the university sector in BC at large.

The university administration is passing on the burden of austerity to its workers. While administrators raise their salaries at a rate faster than faculty and staff salaries, while resources are diverted to areas of the university that are not of direct benefit to its education mission, SFU’s most vulnerable employees — TAs, sessionals, contingent faculty and staff — are being hit the hardest.

The TSSU and CUPE struggle is a struggle against this austerity. It is more than a demand for better wages for the unions’ members; its aim is more than better working conditions.

Its aim is for a better university, a university worthy of being called a place of higher education. It is a demand for a university that is truly engaged in the world and that is a truly engaging place to work and teach and learn.

In other words, TSSU and CUPE’s struggle is a struggle that concerns every member of the SFU community and we should all, wholeheartedly, support and engage in this struggle.

Signed,

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Posted in Advocacy, Employment rights, Faculty, Organizing, Solidarity, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Student Movement, Students, Unions, Working conditions

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Concordia University president’s salary raises eyebrows

Posted on November 1, 2012 by | 2 comments

Photo by Phil Carpenter, Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL (11 October 2012) — Many on the Concordia University campus are singing the praises of new president Alan Shepard — but news of his generous compensation package on Thursday still sparked some controversy.

With a base salary of $357,000 a year plus plenty of perks* — including eligibility for a performance bonus of up 20 per cent of the annual salary, a housing allowance of $4,200 a month, a monthly car allowance of $1,200 and French classes for him and his family — Shepard’s compensation once again underscores the issue that universities crying for money nevertheless seem to find the resources for highly paid administrators.

“Administrators are paid quite a bit in institutions that are struggling for money,” said Erik Chevrier, a graduate student representative on Concordia’s board of governors.

“This is a problem throughout Canada,” said Lex Gill, another board of governors representative.

Universities say they need to pay market value for good administrators.

McGill University principal Heather Munroe-Blum earned $369,250 in 2011 plus an extra $120,481 in compensation.

But university fiscal mismanagement has been a growing concern; last March, former education minister Line Beauchamp fined Concordia $2 million for unwieldy fiscal management.

Read more:
Montreal Gazette 

*Comparatively, UBC President Toope’s salary was for 2010-11 depending on which UBC report is used, $528,504 (UBC’s Financial Information Act Report for Year Ended March 31, 2011) or $378,000 +   $50,000 Incentive Plan + $58,408 Housing perks + others = $580,978 (UBC’s Public Sector Executive Compensation Report, 2011/12). For access to information across Canada, see How Much Does Your University President Make?

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Posted in Accountability, Administration, Budgets & Funding, Corporate University, Employment rights, Equity, Faculty, Organizing, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students, Unions, Working conditions

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Chan v UBC Hearing Scheduled at BC Supreme Court

Posted on October 30, 2012 by | Comments Off on Chan v UBC Hearing Scheduled at BC Supreme Court

The BC Supreme Court has scheduled a Hearing date for the Jennifer Chan v UBC and others [Beth Haverkamp, David Farrar, Jon Shapiro, Rob Tierney] racial discrimination case for Tuesday 13 November 2012 at 10am.  In January this year, BC Human Rights Tribunal decided to move the case to Hearing. In March, UBC petitioned to the BC Supreme Court for a judicial review to challenge the BCHRT’s decision. The Hearing is now in front of the BC Supreme Court and open to the public:

The Supreme Court is located at 800 Smithe Street (between Hornby and Howe).

The case involves the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education selection process in Fall 2009. Please see the Ubyssey’s (UBC student newspaper) feature article for background to the case.

Two new, similar complaints were accepted for filing by the BCHRT:
1) by an aboriginal Law Professor at UBC alleging denial of Tenure and Promotion on the basis of race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, family status and sex.

2) by an anonymous Professor in BC alleging denial of Tenure and Promotion on a basis of her ancestry and place of origin.

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Posted in Accountability, Administration, Advocacy, BC Education, Chan Case, Equity, Ethics, Faculty, Legal issues, Working conditions

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FAUBC Encourages Members to Support TA Strike

Posted on October 29, 2012 by | Comments Off on FAUBC Encourages Members to Support TA Strike

Message from Nancy Langton, President, Faculty Association of UBC

The Faculty Association Executive strongly supports CUPE 2278 and the job action that it will begin this week… show your support for them in whatever ways you can doing their job action. Fair wages and fair tuition increases are the hallmark of great universities.

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Posted in Employment rights, Faculty, Organizing, Solidarity, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Student Movement, Students, Unions, Working conditions

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Workplace Issue #19 Launched

Posted on May 16, 2012 by | Comments Off on Workplace Issue #19 Launched

The Institute for Critical Education Studies is pleased to announce the launch of Workplace Issue #19, “Belonging and Non-Belonging: Costs and Consequences in Academic Lives.”  The new issue is accessible at Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor.

This special issue represents powerful narrative analyses of academic lives– narratives that are sophisticated and sensitive, gut-wrenching and heart-rendering. “Belonging and Non-Belonging” was guest edited by Michelle McGinn and features a rich array of collaborative articles by Michelle, Nancy E. Fenton, Annabelle L. Grundy, Michael Manley-Casimira, and Carmen Shields.

Thank you for the continuing interest in Workplace

Institute for Critical Education Studies
https://blogs.ubc.ca/ices/

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Posted in Academic freedom, Equity, Faculty, Organizing, Working conditions

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Petrina named Expert Witness for Chan v UBC Racial Discrimination Case

Posted on March 31, 2012 by | Comments Off on Petrina named Expert Witness for Chan v UBC Racial Discrimination Case

Stephen Petrina has been named as an Expert Witness for Jennifer Chan in her racial discimination case against the University of British Columbia at the BC Human Rights Tribunal.  The BCHRT decided on 23 January 2012 to hear the Chan v UBC and others [Beth Haverkamp, David Farrar, Jon Shapiro, Rob Tierney] case and the Hearing is scheduled for: June 11 to 15, 25 to 29, and July 3 to 6 and 9 to 13, 2012

BC Human Rights Tribunal
1170 – 605 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

Chan initially filed her complaint on 10 May 2010 against the University of British Columbia, Beth Havercamp, David Farrar, Jon Shapiro, and Robert Tierney. A background to the case was recently published by the UBC student newspaper, Ubyssey, in a feature article.

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Posted in Administration, Chan Case, Employment rights, Equity, Ethics, Faculty, Human Rights

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AAUP Unit Slams U. of Colorado Over Firings of 2 Controversial Faculty Members

Posted on November 9, 2011 by | Comments Off on AAUP Unit Slams U. of Colorado Over Firings of 2 Controversial Faculty Members

The Chronicle: AAUP Unit Slams U. of Colorado Over Firings of 2 Controversial Faculty Members

The University of Colorado has been accused by that state’s affiliate of the American Association of University Professors of numerous violations of academic freedom and due process in its dismissals of two faculty members: Ward Churchill, a leftist ethnic-studies professor fired for alleged academic misconduct in the midst of a media firestorm over remarks he had made about the September 11 terrorist attacks; and Phil Mitchell, an adjunct history instructor whose contract was not renewed after he complained that his academic department was trying to oust him for his conservative views.

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4 Former Professors Sue Bethune-Cookman U. Over Their Dismissal

Posted on June 16, 2011 by | Comments Off on 4 Former Professors Sue Bethune-Cookman U. Over Their Dismissal

Orlando Sentinel: 4 Former Professors Sue Bethune-Cookman U. Over Their Dismissal

Four former professors are suing Bethune-Cookman University, claiming they were fired because they confronted the college president about a host of problems on campus, including embezzlement.

They say university president Trudie Kibbe Reed didn’t want them to embarrass her or undermine her authority so she began a course of retaliation that ended with their dismissal.

Reed, however, said the lawsuit is an effort to divert attention away from the real reason the men were let go in 2009 — allegations of sexual misconduct with students.

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Ex-Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit U Michigan Professor

Posted on June 16, 2011 by | Comments Off on Ex-Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit U Michigan Professor

The New York Times: Ex-Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit Critic

A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him.

Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war.

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Protesters occupy building on Sacramento campus

Posted on April 14, 2011 by | Comments Off on Protesters occupy building on Sacramento campus

San Diego Union-Tribune: Protesters occupy building on Sacramento campus

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than 100 faculty members, students and staff have occupied a building at California State University, Sacramento as part of a statewide mobilization against pending cuts to higher education.

An early afternoon rally on Wednesday began with more than 600 protesters, who blamed CSU Chancellor Charles Reed for not doing enough to oppose cuts California lawmakers are using to close the state’s $26.6 billion budget deficit.

Gov. Jerry Brown already signed into law a $1 billion reduction to higher education, but that number could grow if taxes are not increased, as the Democratic governor wants.

The protestors marched from the school’s library quad to an administrative building to present a set of petitions. Law enforcement officials were inside, but it is unclear whether university administrators were prepared for the occupation.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Faculty, Protests, Students

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Human Rights Watch Calls on New York U. to Condemn Arrest of Academic in the United Arab Emirates

Posted on April 14, 2011 by | Comments Off on Human Rights Watch Calls on New York U. to Condemn Arrest of Academic in the United Arab Emirates

The Chronicle: Human Rights Watch Calls on New York U. to Condemn Arrest of Academic in the United Arab Emirates

Human Rights Watch is calling on New York University, the Louvre, the Guggenheim Museum, and other institutions that are building branches in the United Arab Emirates to condemn the arrest of an economics lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of the Sorbonne. Nasser bin Ghaith, an economics lecturer at the Sorbonne who has been critical of governments in the Gulf region for not making more aggressive political reforms, was detained on Sunday, soon after two other political activists were also arrested.

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After Iraq’s Day of Rage, a Crackdown on Intellectuals

Posted on February 28, 2011 by | Comments Off on After Iraq’s Day of Rage, a Crackdown on Intellectuals

Washington Post: After Iraq’s Day of Rage, a Crackdown on Intellectuals

Iraqi security forces detained about 300 people, including prominent journalists, artists and lawyers who took part in nationwide demonstrations Friday, in what some of them described as an operation to intimidate Baghdad intellectuals who hold sway over popular opinion.

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David Noble, academic and activist, dies at 65

Posted on January 6, 2011 by | Comments Off on David Noble, academic and activist, dies at 65

Globe and Mail: David Noble, academic and activist, dies at 65

David Noble, one of North America’s most prominent critics of the corporatization of academia and a groundbreaking researcher on the influence of technology on society, died Monday evening at age 65. He passed away in hospital unexpectedly of natural causes with his family at his side, friends said.

Prof. Noble rose to prominence for his critiques of technological automation, which he argued had been a method of depriving workers of power. He worked at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology and later at York University in Toronto, where he quickly became known for his political activism.

In 2001, he was denied an appointment to the J.S. Woodsworth research chair at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University, despite the backing of faculty, which he blamed on his activism against corporatization. Seven years later, he settled out of court with the university, which acknowledged that it had made mistakes.

A Jew and an opponent of Zionism, Prof. Noble garnered an angry reaction from York in 2004 when he published a pamphlet accusing a school fundraising body of being “biased by the presence and influence of staunch pro-Israeli lobbyists, activities and fundraising agencies,” and proceeded to name members of the group who had ties to Jewish organizations. After York condemned his actions, he sued the school for defamation, a case that was due to go to trial next year.

Two years later, he launched a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission against York’s practice of cancelling classes on some Jewish holidays, maintaining that it constituted discrimination against non-Jewish students. The university changed its policies before the case was heard.

“He was very vehement, vibrant, intense,” said Denis Rancourt, a former University of Ottawa professor and a close friend of Prof. Noble’s. “He was very energetic and exciting to be around in terms of all the ideas.”

Mr. Rancourt credited Prof. Noble with motivating his students’ activism and described his intense passion.

“One time he called me after an opera performance to express that the singer was so powerful that he was convinced we would all live forever,” he said.

He had planned to retire from classroom teaching this summer, he said.

“He was very courageous in his ability to unwaveringly speak truth to power,” said Yavar Hameed, his lawyer. “He was unafraid to speak up against the corporatization of education.”

The Canadian Arab Federation issued a statement on his death: “Canada lost a truly noble person, both in name and in the essence of his character.”

Prof. Noble is survived by his wife, three children and two brothers.

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SO YOU WANT TO GET A PHD IN THE HUMANITIES

Posted on October 27, 2010 by | Comments Off on SO YOU WANT TO GET A PHD IN THE HUMANITIES

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Faculty makeover at U of Scranton

Posted on October 26, 2010 by | Comments Off on Faculty makeover at U of Scranton

The Chronicle: Fitting In: U. of Scranton Revamps One-Third of Its Faculty

A wave of early retirements and the creation of new positions for fast-growing programs had, in large part, given Scranton the chance to revamp a major proportion of its faculty.

But hiring what turned out to be 82 professors in a five-year period—about one-third of the institution’s tenured or tenure-track faculty—was not without its own risks. It had the potential to trigger generational conflict, compromise the university’s Jesuit identity, and water down its commitment to undergraduate teaching. Faculty members right out of graduate school “might be more passionate about their research agenda rather than teaching,” says Father Pilarz.

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Academic Freedom and Tenure: Bethune Cookman

Posted on October 25, 2010 by | Comments Off on Academic Freedom and Tenure: Bethune Cookman

AAUP Academic Freedom and Tenure: Bethune Cookman

An Association investigating committee report on Bethune-Cookman University in Florida deals with the 2009 dismissal of four professors and the termination of the services of three additional faculty members. The stated reasons for these actions ranged from charges of sexual harassment of students to claims of insufficient academic credentials to the purported need to reduce the size of the faculty for financial reasons. The report concludes that, in each case, the professors were denied virtually all AAUP-supported protections of academic due process. It further concludes that the administration’s reliance in the dismissals on outside investigators, consultants, and attorneys to deal with matters for which the faculty should have responsibility speaks poorly for the climate of shared governance at the institution.

Read the report (.pdf).

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Posted in Academic freedom, Faculty, Tenure & Promotion, Unions, Working conditions

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