To put it in perspective: the last time I had class, Stéphane Dion was still the leader of the federal Liberals, Barack Obama had been president-elect for a grand total of one day, nobody had heard of the word “prorogue”, and Freddie Hubbard and John Updike were still alive. Your Halloween candy was only a week old, and 2008 still had almost two months to go.

And now here we are.

As a result of the mammoth “academic disruption,” some changes have been made to the calendar; fall semester will end February 19 and winter semester will begin March 4, with the days in between allotted for fall exams (no buffer days). Classes will end May 21 and exams on June 2 (also no buffer days). Considering the year usually ends the first week of April and exams are done before May, this is a serious inconvenience to most, especially those graduating. I’m going to try not to complain too loudly, though — school is back, so the worst is over.

In other news, most of the lineup for Canadian Music Week has been announced. Here are some highlights.

First, the CHART showcases at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern — and believe me, it’s pretty legendary. Thursday night is probably the best lineup, featuring $100, Women, Chad VanGaalen, Gentleman Reg and The Lovely Feathers. Saturday’s is nothing to sneeze at either, with the bill including the Golden Dogs, Hexes and Ohs and Two Hours Traffic. Check out the full showcase details here.

Equally delicious, and arguably the most hard-hitting showcase lineup of the festival, is Saturday night at the also legendary Lee’s Palace. Start to finish, it boasts Jon-Rae Fletcher, Herman Dune, Basia Bulat, Elliott Brood and Cuff the Duke. I know where I’ll be that night!

Other highlights include Friday night’s Eye Weekly showcase at the Gladstone Hotel (Castlemusic, Angela Desveaux & The Mighty Ship, The Week That Was, Slim Twig and the Rural Alberta Advantage); Priestess at Sneaky Dee’s (Friday); Sloan at the Mod Club (Thursday); Malajube at the El Mocambo (Thursday) and, for those who make connections, Laura Borealis at the Central (Saturday).

I’ve applied for a press pass with this blog, but won’t know for another three weeks whether it was deemed worthy or not. Either way, you’ll be seeing some CMW content — there’s no way I can pass up lineups like this! And finally, a chance to see Elliott Brood and Cuff the Duke.

If any of you are headed for the festival as well, let me know what you’re looking forward to and where you’ll be! For the curious, check out the CMW site here.

There have been countless media releases and discussions on the strike, and many of them are ill-informed or incredibly biased. The university’s press releases have been inexcusably biased and lie directly to the 50,000 undergraduates who are waiting around for this dispute to end, but CUPE 3903’s have not been all that virtuous either; third party media often fail to get the full picture, and instead stir up panic because of presumptuous statements (such as mentioning a forfeit year when the strike was three weeks old).

As you can imagine, it’s difficult to get the idea of what’s happening here. The more it is discussed, though, the easier it is to formulate one’s own opinion. Here are some starting links, though:

CUPE local 3903 official website
CUPE 3903 strike microsite
York University FAQs on labour disruption
York University: Academic remediation
York Strike 2008 — a blog by a disgruntled student
And of course, there’s always Google.

After constant complaining from uninformed students and members of the public, bickering between sides, and general spreading of misinformation, one York faculty member has resolved to set the record straight, at least from their side. Gerard Naddaf, a philosophy professor, recently released an open letter, and in his own words, it is “is meant for York students, parents and the general public. It was written to promote serious consideration and dialogue both about the validity and implications of the present strike. Hopefully this piece will do its part to help both sides to reach an acceptable agreement and get our students back into class where they belong.”

I remain neutral on this issue, but there have been few chances for educated dialogue that isn’t union- or establishment-bashing and I am glad someone from York has finally taken the plunge. As such, I’m reproducing Professor Naddaf’s letter here for anyone who’s interested in reading it. It’s long, but it touches on quite a few important issues related to the dispute, such as how professors are chosen, the difference between contract and tenured faculty, and what the professor’s role really is. If you’re interested, feel free to read ahead (after the jump if you’re reading on the main page or an RSS).

ABCs of the York University strike for the general public

It is probably fair to say that the general public knows very little about what professors actually do and what it takes to become one, which could only deepen one’s confusion about the terrible strike that has strangled York for weeks. Those who have followed the fiasco know it involves contract faculty and teaching assistants (CUPE local 3903). The former have usually completed their doctorate but not secured a full-time position at a university; the latter tend to be working toward their doctorate. As a tenured professor who has worked at the university for more than 20 years, I am deeply concerned that the demands of the contract faculty threaten to relegate both teaching positions and tenure appointments to a union procedure rather than a free competition for the best candidate. I am also concerned that teaching assistants see themselves less as graduate students and more as private sector workers.

Some may think that a professor’s primary role is to teach. However, when one applies for a permanent or tenure-stream position, the hiring committee is more concerned, at least initially, with the original research of the candidates. Depending on the position available, there could be more than 200 applicants with doctorates from universities around the globe. From this pool, three or four candidates are selected (sometimes a wish list, given the considerable competition for talent), who must then undergo a lengthy interview process on their past, current and future research.

Whoever succeeds is then faced with spending roughly four or five years demonstrating that he/she can achieve the tenure expectations of the department and university, and is appraised in three categories: professional contribution and standing, teaching, and service. The first category entails, among other things, an appraisal of the candidate’s publications by nationally and internationally respected scholars in the candidate’s field. The second category, teaching, is obviously also very important. The candidate is appraised, for the most part, according to teaching evaluations, solicited student letters and collegial in-class evaluations. The third category, service, is generally the least important since the department does not want to burden the candidate with onerous duties that would take away from his/her research and teaching. But demonstrated competence is necessary since the numerous university committees are fundamental to the functioning of the institution. The candidate’s application for tenure must past through several university committees before it reaches the president. I do not wish to imply here that the tenure process is faultless or again that every candidate is worthy of tenure. But it is important to have some idea of the difference between tenured (or tenure-stream) faculty and contract faculty in the context of the present strike.

My understanding at the moment is that the primary demand of contract faculty (I will try to contextualize the demands of the teaching assistant further on), and thus the primary motivation to continue the strike, is job security.

I empathize with the contract faculty in the context of what it takes to obtain a doctorate. In the university world, a doctorate is an impressive accomplishment, but is still only a ticket to apply for a job. While the number of those completing a doctoral program in arts or science is astonishingly low, so is the number of tenure-stream positions. Contract teachers are increasingly being hired on a part-time basis to fill in the gaps where there are not enough tenured faculty to meet the needs of growing student populations.

It is often said that contract faculty teach at least 50% of the courses at York. I do not know if this is the case, but I do know that it is not the case in philosophy in the Faculty of Arts. More important, the number of courses taught by this group varies from year to year depending on how many tenured faculty take sabbaticals and other leaves related to administration, illness, maternity, research awards, and so on. In the past, sabbatical leaves were often replaced with contractually limited appointments. In this case, the department would advertise for a one year appointment to replace the tenured professor on leave. The appointment would be open to competition and could still receive a hundred applications. Otherwise, each spring, the department determines how many courses will need to be filled by contract teachers in the following year. Positions are open to CUPE members first, and this is where things get complicated — things that are never mentioned in the media and rarely surface in CUPE or University announcements.

If philosophy has, say, 10 open courses, there may be 20 or more contract applicants. Priority goes to CUPE members with the most seniority, that is, those who have taught a similar course in the past. It does not matter if the CUPE member has had poor evaluations, the accent is on seniority, not quality. Moreover, it is often the case that the most senior CUPE members (sometimes only the top three or four) have a claim on all of the available classes. Only if a course were never taught by a CUPE member before or no member has demonstrated competence in the area, can it be offered to a non-union member.

I do not wish to imply that CUPE members are not competent teachers — they are some of York’s very best — but only that job security is a complicated issue. How does one promise job security to a large pool of applicants when there is a limited, and changing, number of course offerings? There is nonetheless a certain irony in the fact that those with the most seniority already have a form of job security (they often receive three courses or more) to the detriment of the other members. But what they are demanding are Special Renewal Contracts (SRCs) as a guarantee without any type of competition, with near-automatic renewal to retirement, and with the same benefits as professorial tenure stream faculty. Of course, they do not want to have any research responsibilities for this involves competition!

The university has recognized that long-serving CUPE faculty should have the opportunity to compete, but only with each other, for special positions called “conversion appointments.” This would allow CUPE members who have a long service to the university and who have taught a large number of courses over a four year period to automatically apply for conversion to a tenure-stream appointment, without having to go through the regular, highly competitive hiring process. Granted, the full-time faculty’s own union (YUFA) has publicly supported these appointments, but few tenured faculty would agree with this move. YUFA has around 1,300 members and I have little doubt that less than 20% of faculty are in support. Of course, the issue is never put to a vote allowing every member to participate for electronic voting is conveniently not included in the YUFA constitution. In fact, a few weeks ago, a petition was circulated requesting signatures of faculty who supported CUPE conversions. At the time, I saw only a handful of signatures, all of which belonged to YUFA members who had themselves been converted in the past. Indeed, conversions are seen as an imposition and as undermining the vision and quality of a department. But at least in this case those appointed to conversion appointments have to compete (albeit only with themselves) and they have to go through the tenure and promotion process. So there are evaluative dimensions to the process, which is not the case with SRCs. It is not surprising that no other university in North America has anything like these two programs.

There is nothing, of course, to prevent CUPE members from applying for tenure-stream openings at any university. The sad reality, though, is that if one has not landed a tenured position within several years of completing a doctorate, the chances are quite slim that it will ever happen. However, there are obviously many options outside of academia available to doctorates.

This brings me to the teaching assistants who are also on strike. Teaching assistants are graduate students who are working toward their doctorate. They are not professional teachers contrary to what is posted on the CUPE website. In fact, many have only recently completed their undergraduate degree. There is also a certain irony in the fact that contract faculty and teaching assistants belong to the same union. When graduate students finally complete their doctorates, it is very important to have some teaching experience should they wish to pursue an academic career. In most universities, doctoral candidates are therefore permitted to teach at least one course toward the end of their studies. However, at York, very few graduate students are given this opportunity because of the CUPE contract faculty’s virtual monopoly in this area through their greater seniority.

Naturally, there is also the monetary side. In my view, the offer from the university administration is fair in light of the disastrous economic situation at the moment and the fact that York’s contract faculty are already one of the highest paid in the country. As for the Teaching and Graduate Assistants, the monetary problem essentially affects those who have not received scholarships in addition to compensation for teaching or research duties. Some universities have such rich endowments that they can offer all of their graduate students substantial scholarships. No graduate student wants to be burdened with a large debt on graduation. On the other hand, we enter graduate school because we have a passion to pursue the subject of our choice at a high level. Yes, it can be hard to focus when living on a meager salary, but the salary is meant to be a subsidy by the state and/or university to enable the students to pursue their studies. The graduate students, for their part, appear to be expecting the teaching assistantship (which consists of 10 hours of work a week at $45 per hour at the “current” rate) to be the equivalent of a private sector job and thus that it should keep them, that is, those without scholarships, above the poverty level.

Finally, unions are a mixed blessing. The most depressing reality is that when it comes to a strike vote so few of the union members actually vote. Crucial decisions are most often made at assemblies, which are often attended by the more ardent elements. In the case of the current CUPE strike, the number of demands were as ludicrous as they were unrealistic. CUPE should have jumped on the university offer of binding arbitration and let a professional and unbiased mediator resolve the situation.

Meanwhile the strike continues at a university which has a teaching semester that is already almost 25% shorter than in the US (terms in Canada tend to be 12 or 13 weeks as opposed to 15 or 16 in the US). The implications for students are nothing short of dramatic. Making up for lost time, to say nothing of financial worries and lost opportunities, will be extraordinarily difficult. I can well imagine some legal challenges and the finger would point toward those who did not have their priorities straight before entering negotiations. To think that York University on the eve of its 50th anniversary was willing to pick a public fight is ridiculous. Indeed, the long standing Dean of Arts, Robert Drummond, was chosen as one of the lead negotiators for the university and I cannot imagine a more pro union academic. As for the current York president, the recently chosen Mamdouh Shoukri, it is equally naïve to believe that he would start his tenure with a long and destructive strike unless the state of the university finances were truly dire. On the other hand, I agree with CUPE that senior members of the administration should show some restraint in their own compensation packages even if they may fall short of those of their counterparts in similar institutions. Whatever the position of CUPE or the university administration, and I am confident that the vast majority of my colleagues would agree, Queen’s Park should have imposed binding arbitration when it was clear that the term for 50,000 -plus students would be lost, which now appears to be the case.

Gerard Naddaf
Professor of Philosophy
York University