The Student Movement 1

THE STUDENT MOVEMENTFebruary 17th, 2011Issue 8 - tsmwindsor.ca Windsor’s Grassroots Student Newspaper

The march to support graduate students on Jan. 27. Photo by Stanley Moll. For more photos, turn to the back page.GA/TA union to seek strike mandate from members By Travis Reitsma

The University of Windsor is currently negotiating with CUPE 4580, the union representing graduate and teaching assistants, whose collective bargaining agreement expired last August.

After only a few short sessions at the table, the university’s bargaining team, led by executive director of human resources Rita LaCivita, has stopped negotiating despite repeated calls by the union to get back to the table.

For years, graduate students have been struggling under the weight of continued budget cuts, and assistantships have been the most effective way for students to attempt to make ends meet.

Despite a 32% increase in the number of graduate students since 2007, both PhD and master’s level, the university is imposing a decrease of nearly $600,000 in all graduate funding; funding which goes directly to paying for assistantships.

“Graduate students are not typical students,” says CUPE 4580 president Denton Cockburn, “[they] are being funded to apply a trade which is to learn how to research and how to function within a [post-secondary] institution.”

“The system is set up in such a way where graduate students are being used as cheap labour for the university,” says Cockburn who represents nearly 900 working students at the university, “they are very educated people living well below the poverty line.”

The university’s refusal to negotiate with the union has led CUPE 4580’s representatives to seek a strike mandate from its members. Without a strike mandate, Cockburn fears the union will lose its leverage in negotiations.

“Nobody wants to [strike]. That’s the last thing any of us want,” says Cockburn, “but right now, the university is making so many cuts that if we don’t get a strike mandate, the university in effect [will] get to write the contract as they see fit.”Continued on page 3.

Graduate students take a stand for quality educationBy Enver Villamizar

On January 27th, over 200 graduate students and their supporters held a spirited rally on campus to bring attention to their working conditions and the cuts to funding for university graduate assistants and teaching assistants. The rally was full of life and enthusiasm of all those taking a stand for their rights.

Gradtuate students from many different faculties across campus were joined by undergrads and professors. The rally was organized by the graduate students in an effort to show the administration that graduate student problems cannot be ignored. The main problem they identified is the fact that graduate students are highly educated and capable academics, however many live in poverty as a result of funding cuts.

Following a march throughout campus, participants enthusiastically headed right to university President Dr. Alan Wildeman’s office with their concerns. Met by an office packed full of students, Wildeman initially wanted to meet with a few representatives. However, the entire crowd agreed that Wildeman should address them directly to acknowledge their presence. Wildeman conceded and spoke to the entire crowd. He responded to the students’ concerns and claimed that there had not been any cuts to graduate funding and that the problem was different in different areas of campus.

One student noted that this was the same rhetoric he used almost a year previous at a town hall where the same concerns were raised by grad students. Following his remarks, students asked questions about what was actually happening. One student asked why there wasn’t an objective formula for graduate student funding based on undergrad enrolment in a faculty. At the end of the exchange the president agreed to keep close attention to the issue and meet with representatives of CUPE 4580 (the GA and TA union), GSS, and an electrical engineering student.

Continued on last page.

2 The Student Movement

Privatization initiative squashed at SenateBy Darryl Gallinger

On Friday February 11th, Senate intended to vote on whether or not to accept Study Group International (SGI) on their campus. This proposal had been voted down a year ago over heated debate, and tension started to build once more with its return as faculty and students expressed serious concerns.

Senators, faculty members and students were primarily concerned with the fact that while the University of Windsor is a public institution with the goal of educating students, SGI is a non-accredited, non-certified private firm that allows the university to recruit international students who normally do not meet the university’s standards. As a private firm, its first and foremost concern is profit, not education or the well-being of the students it teaches.

Dr. Wildeman had emailed Senators a couple of days before the meeting, saying, “Study Group...will be withdrawn from the February 11, 2011 Senate agenda. The President will speak to this under item 5.2, ‘Report of the President’.” This was clarified by Dr. Wildeman in his report to Senate, when he stated, “Even if the motion were to pass in Senate today, I won’t sign a deal with Study Group, now or ever,” and cited concerns over campus unity, students’ best interests, and whether the university had the staff and facilities to support it.

Senator and TSM writer Ian Clough raised serious concerns about how Dr. Wildeman removed the item. “I believe that the item should have went through Senate and then been voted on by this democratic body rather than yourself deciding what items should be withdrawn,” Clough said.

Recently, the province indicated they would increase international student enrolment by 50%. Senator Dr. Jamie Essex pointed out that just recruiting international students doesn’t meet universities’ goals of internationalization and diversity. It’s important to build on what’s here.

Dr. Wildeman and Senators expressed the desire to develop internal mechanisms to resolve the difficulties that international students face.

“When the province says, ‘[universities] should increase international student enrolment by 50%.’ they have a very narrow sense of internationalization” Senator Dr. Jamie Essex said, and urged Senators to consider “internationalization beyond bringing international students to campus.” He indicated the work had already begun in some areas and it’s important for the campus to build on it.

For more information on Study Group, please visit tsmwindsor.ca

A commitment to internationalization?By Kate Murray

The University of Windsor’s Strategic Plan has outlined five elements ‘crucial’ to realignment, the fifth being a focus on internationalization. 10% of the student body is made up of international students from over 100 different countries, and 20% of local Windsor residents were born outside of Canada. Combined, this creates a significant number of international perspectives, experiences, and ideas to be shared with the Windsor community. Clearly, thinking in terms of this priority has much potential to move the university forward; however, the university has committed to increasing the number of international students. This increased enrolment brings in three times the amount of tuition fees per student than domestic enrolment. With a difficult-to-locate centre for international students, many are often left wondering: where is the University of Windsor’s commitment to internationalization?

In section IV.5.5 of the Strategic Plan, the university commits to providing “international students with extra-curricular services and facilities that meet their needs and aspirations.” Enrique Chacon, International Student Advisor at the International Students’ Centre (ISC), is responsible for managing all such services and facilities including the Soft Landing program; the Windsor International Student Employment program; and the International Student Orientation. Chacon says he finds it difficult for the ISC to gain access to Canadian students for support. “Less than once a month a Canadian will walk through the doors,” says Chacon. This presents a challenge to a student services centre which has limited resources and depends on student volunteers for successful programming. In fact, IPASS workshops, a series of workshops tailored for international students around such topics as employment, immigration, and healthy lifestyles, have been put on hold completely, and the Host for the Holidays program where Canadian students open up their homes to international students for the holidays regularly has more registered participants than hosts.

Vice Provost of Students and International Clayton Smith, who has recently moved into a newly renovated office in the CAW Student centre, recognizes that the ISC’s current home in dilapidated Cody Hall needs to change. “The Centre is not in the best facility yet,” he says, “but those days will come.”

When asked about the lack of participation of domestic students at the ISC, Smith replied “the University of Windsor is international,” and suggested that internationalization happens naturally within the existing cultural diversity of the campus. Combine this idea with Smith’s self-titled practice of “management by wandering around,” and it is clear that those responsible for internationalization prefer a passive approach. In reality, internationalization is a far more challenging process which requires the active engagement of all members of the university community, particularly the efforts of Canadian students.

Robert Hii, a student in the mechanical engineering program who came to Windsor three years ago from Malaysia says that “people need to choose to associate on a multicultural level, and expecting this to just happen in the classroom or in a lab means expecting racism, too.” He acknowledged the fact that international students are still regarded as a minority, and that this changes the experience felt.

Continued on next page.

The Student Movement 3

Are you proud a part of the Strategic Plan?By Ian Clough

At President Wildeman’s last town hall meeting, he launched the “Are You Proud” campaign. The campaign “is part of the rollout for the Strategic Plan,” said Holly Ward, the executive director of the Public Affairs and Campaigns (PAC) office. It’s “part of an engagement strategy really with the employees and students and staff that work here to let them know what the priorities of the university are and how they can work to support those priorities.”

The campaign uses a website where students, professors, staff, alumni or Windsor community members can submit their stories for the PAC office to use in marketing campaigns.

“Part of the challenge with working in an organization of this size is also collecting all those stories,” said Ward. “This offers an organic way of collecting news and collecting great information from across campus because the tool is there for people to use and they use it when they have a great idea.”

The “Are You Proud” campaign is certainly a step up from the school’s previous campaigns (anyone who has been on the campus for a few years will remember the “You’re this close to a quality university education” campaign). By letting the community help out, the university is keeping the marketing in house rather than exporting the business.

However, this should be taken a step further. Although students were consulted in focus groups, we are not part of the process. The university could bring in business students to give them real-world marketing experience.

The campaign also focuses very heavily on Wildeman’s strategic plan. According to Ward, the campaign asks people “how is what you’re doing or how of what you’re proud of aligning with some of these things that we’ve deemed as important?”

Although it is nice to see the administration utilizing creative means to meet their needs, the “Are You Proud” campaign is part of an alarming trend where the admin seems more focused on pushing the Strategic Plan rather than fixing the problems we face every day.

Continued from GA/TA union.

Cockburn said that if a mandate is not given by the members, the union could dissolve and all graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants would be without proper representation.

“As of right now, as a graduate student, you are not guaranteed a single dollar of funding from the university,” says Cockburn, “at other schools you are, but at Windsor you’re not.”

The union will be seeking the strike mandate from its members within the next couple of weeks. Graduate students and undergraduate teaching assistants are encouraged to get informed on the issues and cast their vote.

For more information on the union’s progress and a date and location for the mandate vote, visit www.4580.cupe.ca or contact local president Denton Cockburn by e-mail at cupe4580@uwindsor.ca.Continued from Internationalization.

Commitment to internationalization means taking a proactive approach to engaging the entire UWindsor community in the international experiences which exist so prominently on campus. Cultural diversity training and a concrete plan to relocate the ISC to a more accessible and prominent building would make for a good start. This, of course, would require the university administration to consciously consider students over profits.

For more news on internationalization, please visit tsmwindsor.ca

Two campus unions pass strike votesBy the Editorial Committee

CUPE 1001, representing groundskeepers, maintenance, custodial, housekeeping, and food services employees at the University of Windsor voted 93% in favour of a strike mandate last month. The union is in negotiations with the university and has been operating without a contract since August of last year. CUPE 1393, representing technical, professional and trade staff at the university, held a strike vote on January 13th, and passed a strike mandate with a majority of 83%. The Student Movement Editorial Committee calls on students and all members of the campus community to support the unions as they struggle for a fair contract.

Drop Fees supports locked-out USW 1005By the Editorial Committee

On January 29th, the Drop Fees Coalition travelled to Hamilton with CAW locals 200 and 444 to support United Steelworkers local 1005, who have been locked out of their plant since November 7th. With thousands of others, the Drop Fees Coalition took to the streets of Hamilton and marched to protect pensions and demand that 1005 be allowed to keep producing steel. The demonstration, titled “The People vs. U.S. Steel,” brought out over 15,000 supporters from across the country and even from the United States.

“In the modern world people have rights by virtue of being human,” said Rolf Gerstenberger, 1005’s president, in his speech at the rally. “All governments and those who employ humans must recognize those rights and guarantee them. Our rights at this time can be broadly expressed as public right. They include the right to a livelihood and security in retirement because we are the producers of all the wealth society depends on for its existence. Our rights include the right to control the decisions that affect our lives, livelihoods, security and pensions, but this right to decide has been usurped by the rich and their governments.”

“The People vs. U.S. Steel” Rally in Hamilton. Photo by Enver Villamizar

4 The Student Movement

Photos by Stanley Moll and Enver Villamizar

Continued from Grad students take a stand.

Rally organizers report that the large presence of students showed Wildeman the real concern GAs and TAs have over the quality of education at the school.

While student reps met with Wildeman, the crowd rallied outside Chrysler Tower. Speakers addressed the fact that Wildeman did not really show an understanding of the issue and that this was unacceptable for the president of a university. Representatives who were meeting with Wildeman during the rally report that they could hardly hear him speak as the vuvuzelas and chants bellowed from outside Chrysler Tower.

The rally showed that a student body that is active in defence of its rights is able to exert power on the administration and bring attention to problems they face. This is important as the GAs and TAs may need to hold a strike vote in order to show the administration that they are united in defending the quality of education on the campus. The general sentiment of the participants was that this was just the beginning of a process of mobilization and politicization.

For more pictures and video of January’s Graduate Student Rally, visit tsmwindsor.ca

By Vajo Stajic and Ian Clough