Testy, Testy

By Jim Clark, Psychology

Unnamed workers renovating Wesley Hall bathrooms discovered a Senior Administrator Questionnaire (SAQ) designed to select people for the U of W’s top positions. Sample items appear below. The correct answer is always agreement, and I include possible rationales.

1. When funds are limited, spending on administrative hiring and functions yields the greatest benefits. The rationale is a variation of trickle-down economics; spending at upper levels allows for maximum benefit downstream.

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Vice Presentation

By Dr. Mark Golden, UWFA Member-at-Large

Somewhere amidst the Dark Matter that makes up so much of our universe a committee is meeting. Made up of representatives of the Board of Regents, support staff, students, senior administrators and UWFA members, it will at length recommend a new Vice-President Academic to Lloyd Axworthy.

There is a lot not to like in this process. The committee makes use of headhunters and these do not come cheap. Senate will have no role in ratifying what is after all an academic appointment. But what I find most galling is its secrecy. Are we choosing a colleague or an undercover agent?

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Community Learning? The UWFA Executive Responds

Is “Community Learning,” as contemplated in President Axworthy’s recent position paper, a good thing for the University of Winnipeg?  The UWFA Executive is not yet convinced. The Association has responded to concerns the document raises in the domains of academic freedom, faculty workload, and Collective Agreement provisions. We also have commented on the implications for the funding of core academic operations of university fundraising for community activities. Concerns remain about process and about the need for academic review. The UWFA response is too lengthy for inclusion here, but members are urged to read Dr. Axworthy’s paper.

Then read UWFA’s response.

331 Days and Counting...

By Tracy Whalen, UWFA Secretary

Remember that crowded UWFA meeting to which Administration members were invited, the one in which some members were enjoying the prime real estate of floor seating? Well, that meeting took place 30 March 2009—-almost a year ago. You may recall that at that meeting, UWFA member Pauline Greenhill presented a few faculty and administration numbers to President Lloyd Axworthy. Greenhill, for instance, calculated a 51.42% increase in the number of administrators between 2001 and 2009, but only a 17.89% increase in UWFA Members (Collegiate members included) for the same time period. She also noted that in 2004 there was 1 administrator for every 7.25 members, while in 2009 the number was 1 for every 5.72. Axworthy maintained, however, that there was a reduction in the proportion of administration to faculty. Greenhill calculated a 14% increase in tenured faculty between 2004 and 2009. Axworthy put the figure at 25%. Whatever the case, the University President said that Greenhill’s figures were incorrect and promised he would send UWFA his numbers.

Greenhill, the former editor of the UWFA newsletter, promised to publish those numbers once they arrived.

They have not arrived. UWFA members are starting to ask me in the hallway about those numbers. They are starting to ask how many days it has been since those numbers were promised. I can give you that number at least: 331.

Members are still waiting.

Still Waiting...

By Pauline Greenhill, Women’s and Gender Studies

Remember the administration’s request in March 2009 that UWFA members take days without pay?  (See article “Who is better at math? Lloyd or Pauline” in the last newsletter (www.uwfa.ca/may-uwfa-news). While the University of Winnipeg President suggested that the University of Winnipeg’s administration had shrunk since his arrival, their own administration charts clearly indicate that they had grown in number by over 50% since Axworthy took over, greatly outpacing faculty growth at just under 18% for the same period.

During that meeting, I asked him if he would provide the figures to support his contention.

Still waiting.

A Cautionary Tale: Lessons from Thompson Rivers University

By Tracy Whalen, UWFA Secretary

It’s a cautionary tale for those of us who decide to teach a course with someone outside the bargaining unit—-in this case, a university president. A few weeks ago at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, professors Rachel Nash and Mark Wallin showed up for their first class of English 116, which they were teaching with TRU President Kathleen Scherf. They anticipated the media blitz which accompanied it—-reporters and cameras and questions in the classroom on the first day—-because the class was seen as a “rarity” (to quote a local publication). What they did not expect, however, is that they would ultimately be responsible for the course themselves. The TRU collective agreement prohibited Scherf from teaching at all; further, the other two professors were not notified about the status of the course until the day Scherf actually stepped foot in the classroom and was then pulled. The course was to have been primarily the president’s, with Nash and Wallin teaching smaller seminars. Right now, the two professors are quickly working to pull the much-publicized course together, taking what they can from Scherf’s notes and adjusting their schedules to accommodate new lecture times.

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University Budget Issues

By Mike McIntyre, Psychology

In our discussion following our meeting with the administration on April 6, I made two general comments about budget issues.  These generated some interest and raised some questions. The first issue had to do with the size of our administration and the second with the ways that the University has retrenched in the past.

With respect to the size of the administration, it is my opinion that utilizing small percentage increases or decreases as a touchstone is not as meaningful as some other possibilities.  If, for example, we are told that the cost of administration declined by 2% while academic expenses increased by 1%, then should we breathe a sigh of relief?  I don’t think so.  For one thing, I’m not inclined to debate numbers that reflect, of necessity, sometimes arbitrary assignment of expenses and revenues.  UWFA has already experienced difficulty reconciling budget numbers used in the meeting with our own numbers.  In any case, such numbers tell us very little about the appropriateness and efficiency of any unit. 

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Letter to Dr. Axworthy - Brian Bater's Email Goes Viral

By Brian Bater with an introduction by Peppa Gourmay

Those of you who can access the various University bulletin boards might have noticed that an E-mail from Brian Bater, an open letter to Axworthy, appeared briefly on March 25 in response to the news release about Senior Administration’s pay cuts. As Brian himself told us, approximately a half hour later the message was removed from all the boards, and Brian (a retired AESES member) had his account discontinued. Though the message has since gone viral, and we suspect there aren’t many U of W folks who haven’t seen it, we reprint it here, with Brian’s permission.

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Who is Better at Math?: Lloyd or Pauline?

By Pauline Greenhill with thanks to Michael Hohner for research support

At the meeting of UWFA members on March 30, to which Administration representatives were invited, Lloyd Axworthy presented some interesting figures about faculty and administration numbers.  For anyone who didn’t manage to squeeze into the room (the largest one we could obtain for the meeting), here are just a few questions that arose.  We know, as Barbie said, that “math is hard,” but judge for yourself.

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