governance

There has been much recent discussion on and off the YUForum discussion list about anti-democratic principles and process in the recent elections to Stewards Council. This posting by Stanley Jeffers on YUForm on April 6 was a response to Michael Mazurkewich on that list. It is posted here as an introduction to this question.

Deborah Brock

My experience in social movements has taught me that work is best shared, and change is best made, by maintaining open, democratic and participatory structures and processes. For YUFA, these structures and processes must be consistent with Section 1.3 of the Constitution.

The YUFA Democracy Caucus

These minutes were initially withheld as a gesture of good will -to see if the presence of witnesses would lead to greater openness, transparency, and accountability in the transactions of YUFA Executive. The minutes are now being posted.

David Noble

For years York University has kept its liability insurance policy confidential, preventing faculty, staff, and students from knowing that they are covered. Thanks to the interventions of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario the policy has now been made public.

David Noble

York University's appointment of Martin Singer as first Dean of the new, merged Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies signals the institution's de facto abandonment of scholarly achievement as a criterion of evaluation.

The YUFA Democracy Caucus

Once again, YUFA observers were excluded from much of the meeting, an action not mentioned in the Constitution.

On behalf of the York Democratic Forum

Paul Baxter, Jody Berland, Malcolm Blincow, Ricardo Grinspun, Nick Lary, Marcia Macaulay, Arun Mukherjee, Ester Reiter, Nicola Short

In his address to Senate on 26 February –available at http://www.yorku.ca/mediar/archive/Release.php?Release=1623 –President Shoukri delivered his first speech after provincial back-to-work legislation led to a long-delayed return to class and a chaotic end-of-term schedule for students and faculty.

The YUFA Democracy Caucus

The YUFA Democracy Caucus summarizes the highlights of the poisonous YUFA Executive meeting on Feb. 23.

Linda Briskin

I have just learned that TAs and contract faculty will only be getting 90% of their Fall salary. Although it is the case that there are two less weeks in the year (22 rather than 24 weeks), TAs and faculty are facing a lot of extra work to sort out remediation and the winter semester which include revised schedules and assignments, setting up make up exams and deferrals, and dealing with student concerns. If the York President wants to heal the wounds of the strike, as he claims, cutting back the salary of TAs and contract faculty is not the route to go.

Linda Briskin

Today [Feb. 25]in the Globe and Mail I was shocked to find a 62 page glossy magazine promoting York's 50th anniversary. I would imagine that the cost of this magazine would far exceed the cost of the demands that the contract faculty and graduate students had on the table during the strike. Combine this with the cost of the external anti-union lawyer to front the negotiations for three months, the branded wine, the cost of President Shoukri's mortgage...

Nick Lary

In March 2005 the Canadian Association of University Teachers set up a Committee of Inquiry in direct response to the actions of the York Administration and the Toronto police in suppressing a student demonstration in Vari Hall on January 20 2005. There was widespread dismay at York and in the wider academic community and beyond over the actions of the Administration. The Committee of Inquiry was set up at the request of YUFA Executive.

Ricardo Grinspun

The Canadian Association of University Teachers appointed the "CAUT Ad Hoc Investigatory Committee into governance and academic freedom at York University" in 2005: (1) To determine whether there were threats to, or breaches of, right of free expression and academic freedom at York University; (2) To determine whether there were inappropriate governance practices; and (3) To make any appropriate recommendations. The committee members were Rebecca Coulter, Associate Professor of Education, The University of Western Ontario, and Kenneth Field, Head, Access Services, Bata Library, Trent University.

Across the Great Divide: Tenure benefits those who have it and also those who don't.

An article from AAUP

Cary Nelson, AAUP

The current CUPE 3903 strike is linked to and attempts to address an increasing trend towards casualization of labour throughout the economy, among universities, and at York. Casualization is driven by a “bottom line” mentality that emphasizes cost reduction and conceals the broader social and economic costs and impacts of job insecurity and precarious employment.

David Noble

In a Globe and Mail profile published just after his first week in office, York University's new president Mandouh Shoukri revealed his bold plans to "renovate" the university by focusing upon commercialized research in science, engineering, and medicine. "That is what my mandate is all about," Shoukri explained, "the direction is set."…

At York , of course, it will be an easy sell, as it always is in an autocratic environment... And some will see in the coming renovation a career or organizational opportunity. Already Arthur Hilliker, the president of the faculty association, has publicly echoed Shoukri in his enthusiastic and self-serving –he is chairman of the biology department –endorsement of the mandate.