YUFA
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Conference Report
CAUT Women’s Conference: Mobilizing in an Era of Restructuring
16-18 October 2008, Ottawa, ON
by Narda Razack, School of Social Work, York University
5 Nov 08 – The conference began with a keynote address by Rosemary Deem from the University of Bristol, UK. She explored the rise of ‘new managerialism’ and the outcomes of restructuring in our institutions of higher education. She also explored how this moment is different from previous ones and identified some of the current challenges we face.
The conference was structured to enhance dialogue with presenters providing keynotes of interest to be explored in smaller discussion groups.
The guest speakers on the first panel David Robinson, CAUT and Pat Armstrong from York University explored the theme “Working in a time of scarcity.’ Robinson posed the question “is it really a time of scarcity?” Governments are demanding more accountability and therefore there is increased pressure for faculty performance. He outlined three areas: 1. Political and economic pressure – the globalization of post secondary education as a service to be traded. The government is steering this movement leading to assessment of learning outcomes, commercialization of research, and privatization of financing. 2. Restructuring academic work: our work as faculty has intensified and is production-driven so it is not “what we do but how much we do.” There are also increased demands for academics to be entrepreneurial and to secure funding and make contacts. 3. Do you measure up? Robinson spoke of a culture of assessments and the danger of assessing higher education learning outcomes. We must defend the integrity of academic work and he left us with some questions: how and why is our work being restructured? What it the impact on academic values and equity goals? What is our vision and how can it be achieved? What role is there for individuals, your unions and CAUT ?
Pat Armstrong’s presentation focused on decision making and prioritizing research funding. She questioned the decision making process for choosing CRCs as SSHRC is moving to a model whereby the governing body will consist of managers and not researchers. She shared her views on what counts in the review process and noted for example the difficulty in partnering with community groups who are stretched for time to effectively participate in the research process. She advocates for full disclosure in the CRC process and ended with some critical questions:
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How can we support curiosity-driven research without financial support for students?
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How to ensure adequate student funding on their own?
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How to conduct research and not shift the burden of teaching?
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How to promote truly interdisciplinary research without dominant paradigms?
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How to ensure equity in the above questions?
The small group session allowed individual faculty members to discuss some of their own personal struggles with the administration and also the union. We discussed the lack of diversity in the union and agreed that more outreach is needed. Members focused on how our work had intensified including the downloading of administrative work unto faculty. We talked about the barriers for new faculty to participate in union activity because of tenure and promotion and felt that they should be encouraged on the benefits of union work as a service.
Lunch Speaker – Penni Stewart. The Federal Political Landscape and our Legislative Priorities
Penni cautioned that we should make education more accessible to under-privileged groups, the need to educate for equity, educate the next generation of educators; not allow teaching to suffer due to research; be concerned about the casualization of labour which is becoming a global trend.
The Unsustainable Job
One panelist discussed the nature and context for change in our work and what gets in the way of doing our job. He felt that we were moving from a collegial to a corporate model of governance and there is a ‘rebranding exercise’ taking place. He cautioned that students were working long hours to pay tuition and therefore accumulating more debt. Another panelist described how she either had to ‘risk being alive or learn how to live and be an academic’ by using her knowledge as a gestalt therapist to recognize the importance of value, being yourself, helping others to take risks and recognizing that if your values are rigid, you will be unable to learn new facts. The third speaker illustrated how our workloads have increased, causing enormous pressures on women. Some of these changes include: heavy work demands 49 hour weeks for 52 weeks; heavy family / domestic responsibilities and up or out tenure models.
The last session focused on ‘Building inclusive academic staff associations.” Three speakers approached the topic from different perspectives. The first speaker used her own narrative to highlight her personal struggles in seeking assistance from the administration and the union on an assault complaint. Her challenges were heightened for her as a lesbian woman and noted that controversial work always produces controversy. Carl James introduced the topic of race and wondered how race gets implemented in training. He focused on the narrative of the university as democratic but access for minorities is still problematic. He felt that we are complicit in perpetuating these narratives. Equity issues within unions continue to produce mixed reactions. It was noted that panels on equity should be put first on the agenda so delegates can then seek to question equity throughout the rest of the discussion. When we discuss race issues and whiteness and power are not addressed and these are glaring matters to attend to within our unions.
Other YUFA Delegates from this Conference:
Lorna Erwin
Mitzi Mitchell
Janice Newton