April 2009

FQPPU Bulletin - vol. 4, no 2

• NO TO THE COURCHESNE LEGISLATION

o Have you signed the petition ?
o Mobilizing the profs

• RESEARCH

o Scandalous attack by Harper government
o Sciences and democracy : first World Forum

• WOMEN FACULTY AND THE SCIENCES : A PRE-COLLOQUIUM SURVEY

o Appeal to women professors
o Colloquium May 14 in Ottawa

• EDUCATION IN OUTLYING REGIONS : A COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY - CSE

• PUTTING THE PIECES BACK TOGETHER – to be shown this spring on Canal Savoir

• COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS BY MEMBER UNIONS

• A NEW COMITÉ EXÉCUTIF TAKES OFFICE JUNE 1

o And a very big thank you to outgoing executive members

NO TO THE COURCHESNE LEGISLATION

Have you signed the petition ?

The Minister for Éducation, Leisure and Sport, Michelle Courchesne, confirmed in a meeting with the Executive Committee of FQPPU in March that this spring she will reintroduce a bill on university governance. FQPPU, firmly convinced along with its member associations that piecemeal intervention is not what Quebec universities need, has launched a petition to reject any legislation and to reaffirm the need to hold an Estates General as soon as possible.

Yes to an Estates General on Quebec universities because, faced with numerous abuses (real estate and otherwise) which threaten their survival, it is urgent that members of the institutional, political and civil society sectors meet together to put a halt to the deterioration and to decide jointly what kind of university we want to have in Québec.

If you have not already done so, we hope you will add your name to those who have signed the petition. In order for our voices to be heard, we must all speak up loud and clear.

Mobilizing the profs

Since the end of February, large numbers of faculty have responded to appeals from their associations to actively oppose any legislation on university governance. In some regions, media and MNAs have been alerted to the harmful consequences of legislation which would cement private sector control of the university, by giving external members a majority vote in decision-making bodies and reducing the voting power of academic representatives.

The lapel button above, designed by the faculty union at Université de Sherbrooke, has been adopted by all FQPPU member associations as their official emblem signifying the professoriate’s opposition to the legislation. For more details on all initiatives taken on this issue, please consult the section « Actions by member associations ». 

RESEARCH

Scandalous attack by Harper government

In its last budget, the Canadian government showed its total failure to comprehend the importance of research as a cornerstone of society’s growth. By drastic cuts to budget allocations for granting agencies, and by directives to target funding to commercial projects, the government dealt a severe blow to universities, professors and researchers. FQQPU considers this situation more than worrying, as does the Canadian Association of University Teachers in its March Bulletin. FQPPU contacted the members of SSHRC’s Governing Council directly to protest their diligent application of the new criteria. « Targeting – where will it end – a new form of censorship by obligation ? » was the message’s heading. Our Vice-president of External Affairs, Pierre Hébert, also deals with this issue in his latest open letter which we invite you to read.

We also invite you to take notice of a highly relevant and timely book on these issues, written by Professor Andrée Lajoie, newly published by Liber and launched at our February Conseil fédéral : Vive la recherche libre ! In it Professor Lajoie traces the evolution of public funding for research in the humanities and social sciences, and shows how the portion of funds allocated for independent research has steadily dwindled over the years, while that devoted to targeted and team research has burgeoned. It is a strong protest against the current research funding process and a plea to restore freedom and creativity in university work. 

Sciences and democracy: first World Forum

FQPPU went international with its ongoing fight against the plight of university research, increasingly subject to funding policies which discourage independent research. Apart from publishing texts and speaking out in public debates, FQPPU helped set up an international network called Sciences and Democracy, which aims to bring together a nucleus of organizations and scientists concerned by the erosion of funding for public research and the private sector’s appropriation of research findings. An inaugural Sciences and Democracy World Forum was held at the end of January in Belém, as part of the World Social Forum. The President of FQPPU, Cécile Sabourin, gave a presentation there. She has prepared a summary of the discussions she took part in and which led to a Declaration.

WOMEN FACULTY AND THE SCIENCES : A PRE-COLLOQUIUM SURVEY

Appeal to women professors

As part of preparations for its colloquium during the Acfas Congrès, FQPPU will send out a survey appeal to all women professors in mid-April, looking to research more fully their particular issues. Following the exhaustive survey last spring addressed to all university professors in Québec, this survey is a short questionnaire designed to get feedback from women professors on issues such as hiring and promotion of women, motherhood, the work-family-personal life balancing act (availability of maternity or parental leaves, childcare), and ways to improve recruitment and retention of women, particularly in departments of pure and applied sciences. We thank you in advance for your attention to this survey when it arrives by email, and ask you to take a few minutes to complete it. Our Vice-president of Internal Affairs, Denis Bélisle, will present preliminary findings from the survey at the colloquium in May, and a high participation and return rate is essential. 

Colloquium May 14 in Ottawa
FQPPU will hold its colloquium Women Faculty and the Sciences this May 14 at the University of Ottawa as part of the 77^th Congrès of Acfas. We invite you to look over the program details and to reserve the time now on your agenda. Some promising presentations on the menu are : « Incompatibility of style : a problem of perceptions and values » by Carole Beaulieu (Université de Sherbrooke); « Polytechnique, male bastion ? » by the four holders of the Marianne-Mareschal Chair - Suzanne Lacroix, Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin, Diane Riopel, Annie Ross; « The career situation of women professors in Québec » by Mélanie Belzile, with the collaboration of Frédéric Deschenaux (UQAR); « Women Faculty : epistemology, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity » by Louise Vandelac (UQAM); « Is it more difficult to be a woman prof or a young prof ? » by Audrey Moores (McGill University) and as mentioned above, « Survey of Women Faculty in the Sciences : preliminary analysis » by Denis Bélisle (Université de Sherbrooke).

EDUCATION IN OUTLYING REGIONS : A COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY - CSE

The Conseil supérieur de l’éducation has published a report on the state and needs of education at all levels in the so-called outlying regions of Québec. The report presents an exhaustive look at regional sociodemographics, discusses the challenges in providing the educational services to which the regions have a right and details the substantial efforts on the part of those responsible to meet the demand. It concludes with a statement of four guidelines which the Conseil puts forward to encourage educational progress for individuals and their communities.

For universities, several challenges remain despite considerable progress and achievements, particularly in the areas of: program accessibility, support for student integration, and diploma obtention rates in certain regions and university establishments. The Conseil sets out the three fundamental missions of universities and the respective responsibilities of ministries, organizations and others involved, so that the establishments may fully play their part, especially in the outlying regions.

The report’s conclusion states that education is a right for all, not just at the level of compulsory schooling but also « to make it possible for everyone to attain the highest level of schooling and qualifications », including adults who go back to school. Meeting the challenges posed by outlying regions, where a relatively small population is spread out over vast geographic territories, requires active participation by those communities which look to the educational system for significant contributions to their overall development, and for greater coherence in the operations of the various ministries and governmental organisms. 

 THE QUÉBEC UNIVERSITY – PUTTING THE PIECES BACK TOGETHER – ON CANAL SAVOIR BEGINNING APRIL 13

This video production, commissioned by FQPPU and produced by Caroline Martel of productions artifact on professoral careers and the evolution of Quebec universities, will be shown this spring on Canal Savoir as part of their new programs. Putting the Pieces Back Together will be on the schedule beginning April 13, with three airings per week through Friday, July 10, 2009, along with a long interview with Guy Rocher, From the Parent Report to Today, which is already being aired. Video trailers have already appeared this past winter and also short clips from the DVD.

COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS BY MEMBER UNIONS

The professors at UQAM have held several strike days recently, hoping to break the deadlock in negotiating a renewal of their collective agreement which expired May 31, 2007. In the current difficult situation we all know, they have been joined on the front line by the language teachers who have been without a contract since May 31, 2008. Students, support staff, course lecturers and teaching assistants at UQAM all expressed their solidarity with the members of SPUQ, who voted 91 % on March 27th, and 91 % again on April 6th, in favour of continuing the strike until April 14, unless there is either a settlement or significant advance made before then.

At the Université du Québec à Rimouski, negotiations have begun between the Administration and the Syndicat des professeurs et des professeures (SPPUQAR) aimed at renewing their collective agreement which expired January 15, 2009.

CUFA, the Concordia University Faculty Association, finally reached agreement in principle early this March for the renewal until 2012 of their collective agreement, which had expired June 1, 2007.

Exceptionally in these days of long and difficult negotiations, SPPUQAC signed an agreement to renew their collective agreement last May, 2008, one year before it expired, the new agreement to run until May 31, 2014. 

A NEW COMITÉ EXÉCUTIF TAKES OFFICE JUNE 1

During the Conseil fédéral this past February, delegates elected the new FQPPU Comité exécutif members who will hold office from June 1, 2009 until May 31, 2011. Three of the current members valiantly agreed to serve another mandate : Sylvain Beaudry (SPPUQTR) as Secretary-Treasurer, Françoise Naudillon (CUFA) as Member-at-large, and Denis Bélisle (SPPUS) as Vice-president. Max Roy, professor of literature at UQAM, will become the President of FQPPU in a few weeks, and Jean-François Boutin (SPPUQAR) will join the Comité exécutif in the role of Member-at-large. Congratulations and best wishes to our new Comité exécutif who, remarkably, will start its mandate with a full slate.

And a very big thank-you to outgoing executive members

We extend a whole-hearted thank-you to Cécile Sabourin who has devoted ten years to FQPPU’s Comité executif, to which she was first elected in the spring of 1999. In May 2005, at a particularly difficult moment, she accepted the presidency of the Fédération. We owe to her, along with her fellow members of the Comité exécutif 2005-2007, the relaunch of FQPPU on a more modest but solid basis and the re-establishment of stimulating and harmonious debate at the Conseil fédéral.

We also extend our thanks to Pierre Hébert who took part in the reconstitution of FQPPU. Since his return in the fall of 2006 – he was previously on the Comité exécutif 2003-2005, and all during his third term of office, he helped articulate FQPPU positions in numerous open letters, and convoqued the academic sector far and wide to a series of very inspiring colloquia.

On May 31 we say good-bye to them but also ‘until we meet again’, hoping that in future they will be willing to work with the Fédération on particular issues.