April 2009
26 February, 2009
Good afternoon. My remarks today will not be the
usual variety of university news and topics, because the state of our affairs
here at York is not usual, nor is it sustainable. I want to speak to you today
about the future of our University.
We are all here today because we believe in York. We
believe in what it stands for: accessibility to the very best education, equity,
social justice. We believe that this place has great strengths and even greater
potential. No other university in Ontario — maybe in Canada — has the potential
that York has. But before we can realize that potential, before we can build
the York University of the future, we must address the shared challenges we
face, as well as the threats to this institution that are holding us back.
There’s a lot of good work happening here, but it’s
being overshadowed by recent events. York is at a critical point in its history
and we need to change. We need to address the issues that threaten our
institution and our academic reputation. As the University’s academic governing
body, I call on you to rise to this challenge and to help deliver the change
York needs.
We have just endured the longest university strike in
the history of English-speaking Canada. Our students have returned to class and
to examinations, only to be faced with a barrage of disruption, hostility and
even intimidation from their fellow students. This state of affairs is
unacceptable to me, and it should be unacceptable to you. Intimidation,
bullying, and discrimination will not be tolerated here, and we are taking
action to protect the rights and the safety of all students and staff.
If these challenges were not enough, the world is
entering the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Tens of
thousands of our fellow Canadians are losing their jobs. Parents have told me
what a struggle it is to send their children to university; students have told
me how difficult it is to juggle part-time jobs with their education and how
worried they are about their prospects for summer jobs.
The Government of Ontario has put us on notice that
it will be looking for savings in university operating grants. Along with most
other universities, our endowment payouts — which benefit students and faculty
directly — are dwindling. Our budgets — which were already being cut by two per
cent per annum — will have to be cut further. Our pensions are facing a
shortfall and will have to be topped up to meet our legal obligations. The
strike has cost us many millions of dollars in direct costs. The costs in lost
opportunities cannot be measured. Our applications are down 10 per cent, our
first-choice applications are down 15 per cent.
But at a time when our community should be pulling
together, we turn on each other instead — academic disruption, intimidation,
sit-ins, name-calling, shouting people down, banging on the doors and windows of
Senate or the Board of Governors or student clubs. Then we run to the media and
tell anyone who will listen how bad York is.
Is it any wonder our own students are disconnected?
Or that turnout at our student elections is so low? Or that our students and
their families are voting with their feet? Our public face is not demonstrating
the core values a university shouldstand for:
But we cannot demand social justice only for
ourselves and for those who think like us. Social justice is for everyone, or
it is for no one. York has a history of social activism, but the events of the
past weeks — intimidation and shouting each other down — have nothing to do with
social activism.
That is why I am asking you today, as Senators and
key representatives of the academy, to make your voices heard and say, “enough
is enough.”
I want to give a couple of examples of how the
academy can contribute to open dialogue on tough issues. At other universities
in this province, faculty members participate as guest speakers at lecture
series organized by student clubs. These events tackle the very same issues we
are struggling with:
The goal is not agreement or endorsement of each
others’ ideas, it is to create safe spaces where people can come together to
articulate their views — without fear and without being shouted down.
I’ll give you another example happening right here at
York. Next week, the York Centre for International and Security Studies is
hosting an event that will examine the idea of academic boycotts. Speakers will
explore the topic in a reasoned way in an academic forum. These two examples
share one common element: faculty involvement.
Our faculty needs to become more involved in leading
these conversations. Students look up to their professors. They look to you for
direction. You are in a position to mentor and guide them and to teach them how
to talk with passion about things that anger us, but without anger, without
hate, without fear. I am asking you to help us fix our community, because this
truly is our problem.
We talk a lot about diversity here at York, but
somehow we have allowed that diversity to divide us. We need to focus now on
unity, on our common values and on what makes us a community. We must identify
the challenges and work as a community to address them.
We talk about
educating citizens of the world and about developing critical thinkers, but we
must do more. We must teach a sense of responsibility so that our graduates can
contribute to the life of their times.
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