Closing the Gap: In Search of Librarian/Faculty Parity

From 23 to 25 October 2009, Michael Hohner attended a CAUT conference entitled Negotiating for Parity: Closing the Librarian/Faculty Gap on behalf of the UWFA Executive. The conference  was about how academic freedom allows librarians to vigorously oppose efforts to censor, filter or divert information. It also allows librarians to critique workplace mechanisms and structures that interfere with the exercise of their duties.  It is therefore essential that parity in regard to academic freedom exist between academic librarians and faculty in collective agreement language.  It is equally important that librarians elevate the exercise of academic freedom to a central place in the culture of their workplaces, as faculty have done.

Michael Hohner is the Systems & Media Services Coordinator for the University Library (on leave for 2009-2010). His full conference report can be found here.

CAUT Librarians' Conference Report

Academic Freedom on Campus and Beyond

By Darlene Abreu-Ferreira, History

On Tuesday, November 17, 2009, a timely discussion on academic freedom took place at the Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall.  The panel that initiated this conversation consisted of four faculty members of University of Winnipeg:  Kelly Gorkoff, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Guelph, and presently an Instructor in the Criminal Justice Department; Christopher Leo, professor in the Department of Politics; Vesna Milosevic-Zdjelar, Instructor  in the Department of Physics; and Brock Pitawanakwat, Assistant Professor in the Aboriginal Governance Program.

The evening began with a spirited introduction to concerns about academic freedom at a number of universities around the globe, delivered by Milena Placentile, a local curator and writer.  With examples of struggles in universities in South Africa, Poland, and the U.S., among others, Placentile illustrated the extent to which university citizens, and citizens at large, need to be vigilant in order to safeguard academic freedom which, in her opinion, should be “protected as a universal civil right.”

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Transforming the Academy: CAUT Aboriginal Academics Conference

Adapted for the UWFA News by Tracy Whalen, UWFA Secretary

The most recent conference of Aboriginal academic staff discussed a host of challenges that face Aboriginal faculty in postsecondary institutions. For instance, Aboriginal female faculty often feel they have to prove themselves; universities do not always provide a non-threatening environment; Aboriginal faculty, both female and male, are not given the same status as other faculty. Aboriginal faculty are expected to sit on every committee involving Aboriginal students or communities and expected to remain involved in the community, an important value. However, fulfilling community responsibilities can threaten promotion and tenure.

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Salem Bland & Academic Freedom at Wesley College

By Tom Faulkner (Theology and Global College)

Image Citation: Lawren Harris, Dr. Salem Bland, 1925 (AGO ID 3545). © The Family of Lawren S. Harris.  From the Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario  http://www.ago.net/

In 1917 the leading Canadian thinker of the Social Gospel movement was dismissed from his post in the Faculty of Theology at Wesley College. Salem Bland was convinced that his academic freedom had been violated.

Henry Steele Commager reminds us that we are always searching for a “usable past,” and I should like nothing better than to offer Bland’s dismissal as a straightforwardly cautionary tale for those committed to academic freedom at The University of Winnipeg today. But the lesson to be learned is wickedly complex.

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