Open Letter to Senate

An Open Letter to Senate and the Honorary Degrees and Fellowships Committee:

The Women and Equity Committee of the University of Winnipeg Faculty Association (WE Committee) is writing this letter in regard to recent concerns over the conferring of honorary degrees.  Of particular concern to the committee are the lack of clarity in selection criteria/process and the omission of student input.

Recently, at the October 17, 2010, Autumn Convocation, an honorary degree was bestowed upon the Honourable Vic Toews. This incident serves to highlight the two concerns presented in the preceding paragraph. As noted in the minutes of the November 17, 2010, Senate Committee meeting, students held a “peaceful protest” outside of the Duckworth Centre. The valedictorian, selected to represent her fellow students, made her opposition to this recipient clear to those in attendance at the Autumn Convocation as well as to the media. The disappointment of the Women and Equity Committee arises from the Senate’s failure to address these concerns. Though the protest was noted in the Senate meeting minutes, no resolution was offered.

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UWFA Women and Equity Committee

By Roewan Crowe, Chair - Women and Equity Committee

The UWFA Women and Equity Committee (WE) is a Standing Committee of UWFA. Formerly the Status of Women Committee, it was renamed in 2009. WE works to represent the interests of women, designated equity groups, and other marginalized people (henceforth “women and equity”) on the University of Winnipeg campus and to liaise with the UWFA Executive and other committees regarding their interests.

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UW Libraries Not Exactly Stacked With Librarians

By Michael Hohner, UWFA Librarian Representative

University of Winnipeg Library is poorly staffed compared to others in western Canada.  Responses to a recent survey posted on the CAUT-Lib list revealed that the ratio of full-time equivalent (FTE) students served by each librarian at U of W Library is far worse that of other Western Canadian University libraries, with only one full-time librarian for every 843 FTE students.  For full charts, see www.uwfa.ca.

Currently, the average for western Canada is one librarian for every 578 FTE students. We are at least one full standard deviation below the norm. University of Manitoba Libraries, on the other hand, are at least one full standard deviation over the norm, at least in part because they have several hospital libraries with librarians who have contact with relatively few students.  With the introduction of more graduate programs, the University of Winnipeg should have a librarian complement more like the University of Lethbridge, with one librarian for every 409 FTE students, than Thompson Rivers University (formerly a college that more recently achieved degree-granting privileges), with one librarian for ever 1125 FTE students.  College libraries typically have poorer librarian to student ratios, and, unfortunately, the University of Winnipeg continues to show its historical roots on this front.

Our current standing is even more troublesome when you consider that we have three librarians with contracts ending in June 2009, with no promises of extending their terms at this point, and one librarian going on sabbatical starting September 2009, with no promise of leave replacement at this point.  Our already poor ratio of librarians to students will worsen significantly in the 2009-10 academic year unless some decisions are made quickly to confirm our complement of librarians.  As candidates are interviewed for the University Librarian position, we hope that they will not find our situation too daunting.