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March
for justice (November 2004) | Mount Royal
Justice program threatened
The Academy
Liberal arts cuts anger
profs
Darren Bernhardt, The StarPhoenix, January 12,
2005
Several University of Saskatchewan
professors protesting cuts to liberal arts blasted their administration
Tuesday, saying students should seek a "regime change"
if that's what it takes to meet their demands.
The professors encouraged students
to raise a ruckus and lobby administrators during an afternoon
rally in Lower Place Riel that drew almost 200 people.
"Speak out for a change
in current priorities, if not for regime change at the top. Go
get them," said English Prof. Len Findlay. "Students
have not been nearly vocal enough about their concerns but they
are more stressed than I have ever known them to be -- trying
to manage debt loads by working long hours. Exhaustion discourages
engagement and dissent so many students are understandably willing
to live with the current triple whammy: pay more, get less, shut
up."
Faculty have not been nearly
vocal enough about the "policies and priorities designed
to divide and rule them," he added.
While tuition is increasing,
the university is cutting positions during the next 11/2 years
that many believe will lead to the demise of a number of programs,
particularly in liberal arts. It is part of administration's
plan to move toward becoming a major research institution.
There is a constant whining
noise on campus from administration's "Central Vac sucking
up resources from across campus to support a pet project (Canadian
Light Source synchrotron) whose benefits for the average undergraduate
are as hard to pin down as sub-atomic particles," said Findlay.
Liberal arts programs don't
bring in enough research dollars at a time when the university
has "reduced the notion of academic and educational values
to the simplistic question: How big is your research grant?"
he added.
While science grants look good
on paper, liberal arts are important "simply because they
make you a better person," as intellectual and literate
critical thinkers, said history Prof. Frank Klaassen.
"The university doesn't
see us as people, it sees us as revenue streams," said students'
union president Gavin Gardiner.
The push to develop policy
is based on what's going to benefit the university in Maclean's
magazine's national rankings, not what's going to benefit students,
he suggested.
The university has announced
five colleges will have their budgets cut 10 to 40 per cent during
the next three years while a hiring plan identified 42 faculty
positions in arts as becoming vacant -- 29 in 2005, nine in 2006
and four in 2007. Eighteen of those positions will not be filled.
The hardest hit is the language and linguistics department.
"To have losses in a department
such as this not only hinders our chances to become diverse individuals,
but also hinders efforts to become more international and aware
of the world around us," said Janyce Yuzbasheva, co-president
of SOLD (Students Opposed to Liberal Arts Decline), which organized
the rally.
The university says the plans
are moving forward in full consultation with faculty, but "that
is absolute nonsense," said Prof. John McCannon of the history
department.
All five professors who spoke
Tuesday said staff are being left in the dark.
Economics Prof. Glen Beck,
who sits on the planning committee of the university council,
says the group has not had a clear explanation as to why the
university is slashing the liberal arts.
Judith Rice Henderson, associate
dean of humanities and fine arts, said the claims of cuts are
"a mistake" made by those misreading the recommendations
of the administration's plan. Rather than cuts, the university
is just not going to replace retiring staff.
"These are not cuts. There
is a slight delay in the hiring in the tenure track. I don't
honestly think students are going to see much difference in the
programs or the classes offered next year," she said.
"Not everybody's going
to be happy with every change when you change the planning process
but I think it's been widely consultative."
Another rally is set for Jan.
18 in Lower Place Riel from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Mitchell's suspends tuition freeze protester
Janet French, The
StarPhoenix, February 15, 2005
A man who appeared in a front-page
StarPhoenix photograph marching at a university tuition freeze
protest last Wednesday has been suspended from his job at a meat
processing plant.
Jeff Pingue, who is not a student
at the University of Saskatchewan, attended the rally to support
his friends, saying he would like to study computer science but
doesn't know if he will be able to afford tuition.
Marv LeNabat, human resources
manager at Mitchell's Gourmet Foods Inc., said Pingue works in
the pork cut department at the plant and had called in sick that
day. When they heard he was going to the rally instead, the company
suspended him, LeNabat said.
"If you owned a business
. . . and one of your employees phoned in sick and you saw him
or her on the front page of the paper the day he or she is supposed
to be at your place of employment, what would you think?"
LeNabat said.
His failure to appear at work
that day was not the only reason Pingue was suspended, LeNabat
said, though he would not elaborate for privacy reasons.
"It wasn't and never will
be because of him participating in that rally that he was suspended.
It was through a progressive disciplinary procedure we've got
internally here," he said. "His union will take up
his cause, too."
In Thursday's StarPhoenix picture,
Pingue is wearing only sunglasses, boxer shorts, boots and a
sandwich board reading: "I sold my clothes to pay tuition."
He is holding a sign reading "Freeze tuition fees. Education
is a right."
Pingue did not return telephone
calls on Monday.
LeNabat said Mitchell's has
no policy prohibiting employees from appearing at political events
on their own time.
"We just want people to
show up for work," he said.
Maurice Werezak, president
of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 248P, which represents
Mitchell's employees, says the union is aware of the case.
"Unfortunately, I have
no legal authority from Jeff to release any information,"
Werezak said. "All I can tell you is that the local is pursuing
all avenues."
The union will be meeting with
the company to determine how long Pingue will be suspended, LeNabat
said.
"It would be nice if people
who are scheduled to come to work, come to work," LeNabat
said.
"If people are sick they
should be staying at home and getting themselves better to return
to work and provide a life for their family."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
