Annual meeting has MPs and professors meet

Universities ‘much more like a commercial operation’: CAUT director

Chelse McKee, staff

Recently, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) concluded its annual council meeting in Ottawa, which included 40 professors and academic librarians attending to discuss their top concerns involving their respective universities.

At the meeting, attendees had the opportunity to discuss their post-secondary concerns with their locals MPs.

David Robinson, the associate executive director for CAUT, said that the top issue brought up among the members was funding for the institutions.

As well, the issue of the cost of tuition was brought up. A recent poll conducted by CAUT revealed that tuition rates were also the top concern of Canadian adults who were polled.

Robinson said that the tuition rates are making today’s post-secondary institutions “much more like a commercial operation,” and also compared them to “shopping malls.”

“It’s a big issue for our members right now because, as you know, we’re going through a bit of a retirement phase,” Robinson said. “We’re hiring new professors. Those professors are starting off in jobs that aren’t paying as much as they thought were going to pay and [they] have very high student loans. Every faculty member was once a student . . . so we know what it’s like to have high student debt and starting a career. ”

Robinson said that, even more than the needs for new professors, tuition fees are also an issue for experienced professors.

“[Professors] are now seeing some of their students starting to struggle because many of them are having to work part-time jobs in order to pay for living costs, fees, and so on and [they] can’t devote as much time to their studies.”

Many members at the meeting, according to Robinson, seemed concerned with the issue of recruitment and retention of new faculty members. He explained that during the retirement boom currently going on that this is an important issue for universities to consider. He said that the issue eventually boils down to a matter of salaries and university funding.

Another issue brought up was the infrastructure of the universities. Many members complained that libraries were cancelling journal subscriptions in order to save money and complained about leaky roofs and university buildings in need of repair.

Brenda Austin-Smith, the president of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association and a university’s representative for the meeting, said that they lobbied for better financial accessibility for students wishing to go to post-secondary institutions.

“We mentioned that not all support for students should take the form of competitive fellowships,” she said. “Students who do not qualify for fellowships also need sources of financial support, and this is where changes to the student loan program, and the provision of more bursary and grant monies come in.”

Overall, Austin-Smith continued on to say, the CAUT lobby days were very effective and successful for members of the university.

“You can make a difference when you visit and speak up about issues, face-to-face.”

From the meeting, Robinson explained that CAUT has developed a set of post-secondary objectives, such as more affordable tuition, money for recruitment and retention, and developing more capacity for qualified students wishing to go into post-secondary education.