October 2008

FQPPU Newsletter - vol. 3 no 2

· AUTUMN IS HEATING UP !

o À Bâbord’s latest issue looks at the university in crisis

· FROM ONE COLLOQUIUM TO THE NEXT

o Next meeting : Must we rebuild the university ?

· UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

o Demystifying NPM

o Government Bill calls for action

· SCIENCE AND DEMOCRACY, A NETWORK TO BUILD IN QUÉBEC, CANADA, AND THE WORLD

· INTOLERABLE ATTACK ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH: THE CASE OF NOIR CANADA

· ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

· NEWS FROM FQPPU

o Renewal time for the Comité exécutif

o A DVD to stimulate discussion on the university and being a prof

· READERS' PAGE

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AUTUMN IS HEATING UP!

This 2008-2009 academic session will be a crucial year for universities, for both good and less than good reasons, as spelled out in FQPPU’s Welcome back message. Here are some of the projects which will occupy us in the coming months: pursuing the documentation of university funding – particularly as regards capital expenditures, preliminary results from the survey on professoral working conditions, the forthcoming Bill and Parliamentary Commission on university governance, and a colloquium examining the university as we know it and as we want to have it for the future.

À Bâbord ! Latest issue looks at the university in crisis

The October-November issue of the socio-political review À Bâbord ! deals not only with the financial woes of the university – the most obvious problem – but also with the social, political and cultural crisis that is shaking the institution. Edited by Jacques Pelletier who also wrote the editorial with Normand Baillargeon, the issue contains articles by professors and graduate students from different institutions across Québec. Among the authors are Cécile Sabourin and Pierre Hébert from the FQPPU Comité exécutif and Frédéric Deschenaux, president of FQPPU’s Comité sur le corps professoral. The issue will be available in bookstores as of October 6.

FROM ONE COLLOQUIUM TO THE NEXT

Who owns the university?, the annual colloquium held by FQPPU during the Acfas conference in Québec last May 8, was a huge success. A brief summary of the colloquium (available in French only) by Frédéric Deschenaux is now available, along with the contributions of Pierre Lucier who gave the opening remarks, Amélie Descheneau-Guay who spoke on NPM and university governance – repoliticizing management, Bernard Robaire who presented Preserving assets and meeting challenges in Quebec universities, (a position paper from the Commission sur l’enseignement et la recherche universitaires du Conseil supérieur de l’éducation), and of Marie Blais whose subject was the effects of privatization on the perception of higher education.

Next meeting : Must we rebuild the university ?

In order to expand our knowledge and our discussions on the university in Québec and its future, FQPPU extends an open invitation to all concerned to participate in a colloquium to take place in Montréal on November 6 – 7; the title is Must we rebuild the university ? Professor Guy Rocher is the honorary chair of the colloquium. We invite you to save the date now on your calendar : program details (available in French only) and the registration form are available from our website.

UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

Demystifying NPM

In her report Demystifying university governance in « the knowledge economomy »: rhetoric legitimizing the managerial restructuring of the university (avalaible in French only), Amélie Descheneau-Guay presents a detailed analysis of the rhetoric dominating the knowledge economy debate and its application to the university. Showing step-by-step how the principles of network management underlying the theory of new public management (NPM) have been applied in Quebec universities in order to harness them to market demands, her article is indispensable in understanding the origins and the consequences of this managerial approach.

Government Bill calls for action

The work of Amélie Descheneau-Guay comes just in time to illuminate the debate for those looking to respond to the Bill on university governance which Minister Courchesne will table this fall, followed by a Parliamentary Commission. All professors, effectively, should make their views known loud and clear, because preliminary discussions reveal that the minister will follow to the letter the IGOPP Report, which has already been vehemently rejected by FQPPU and the other members of the Table des partenaires universitaires. Their positions are available on the Federation’s website under the heading «La gouvernance, un sujet chaud pour la table des partenaires» .

SCIENCE AND DEMOCRACY, BUILDING A NETWORK IN QUÉBEC, CANADA, AND THE WORLD

FQPPU’s Comité exécutif is committed to building a Quebec network that will support the democratic use of science and technology. More precisely, it is aimed at extending democracy to the scientific and technical sphere, and to strengthen political dialogue between those involved in research and in social movements in order to defend :

• knowledge as a common social good;
• permitting researchers to exercise their social responsibility;
• the autonomy and public service mission of research;
• improved conditions for students, researchers and engineers;
• partnerships between citizen movements and research institutions.

This initiative is part of an international process already underway in France, Brazil and India, which, among other endeavours, is organizing a social forum on « Science and Democracy ». More information and a call for participation .

INTOLERABLE ATTACK ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH: THE CASE OF NOIR CANADA

FQPPU strongly protested the abusive lawsuits filed by mining giants Barrick Gold et Banro against the small publisher Écosociété following the publication of Noir Canada – Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique. The book’s authors, Alain Deneault with Delphine Dabadie and William Sacher, along with its publisher are the targets of two gag-lawsuits totalling 11 million dollars for having published a rigorously-documented work based on reliable public sources, freely available to anyone. Such inadmissible tactics reinforce the urgent need for legislation which will guarantee freedom of speech and prevent similar attempts at censorship. Those wishing to support this cause, you can find suggestions for action on the website Slapp Écosociété.

ON INTERNATIONAL SCENE

Labour organizations in the field of higher education, in particular the Education International (EI) which actively follows the case for its members, got a slight reprieve from the collapse of talks during WTO negotiations this past July, 2008. It was only a deferred match, however, and faculty and student associations in Quebec and Canada must remain vigilant because, not only have the talks resumed, but a meeting of trade ministers could be convened this September. For more details, see the section GATS and Globalisation on the EI website.

The EI, on behalf of its members, is also closely watching the experimental project Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) which the OECD set in motion during an informal meeting of its members held last January in Tokyo.

The FQPPU expressed its opinions and analysis of the situation to the ministers responsible for these dossiers.

NEWS FROM FQPPU

Renewal year for the Comité exécutif

At its February meeting the Conseil fédéral will elect the next Comité exécutif for FQPPU ; the two year mandate of the current office-holders terminates May 31, 2009. The present CE’s « reign » was notable for the significant contribution made by many professors to the work of its committees, as well as in the workshops and colloquiums held by the Federation. We wish to thank all our invaluable collaborators who enrich the discussions, analyses and position statements of the FQPPU. We invite all those who would like to participate in Federation research and collective activities to send us their proposals for topics and courses of action.

DVD to stimulate discussion on the university and being a prof

This fall FQPPU will release The Québec university – Putting the Pieces Back Together a DVD produced by the video director Caroline Martel of productions artifact, with the generous collaboration of five professors who shared their views on university life and their affection for this vital institution. The Federation offers this new medium as food for thought for all professors and other interested parties. It will be available starting October 23. Don’t hesitate to request a copy.

READERS'S PAGE

Richard Sennett (2006), The culture of the new capitalism, New Haven, Yale University Press.

Book review by Roger de la Garde, professor and associate colleague

What the author seeks to show is that “big bureaucracy can bond as well as oppress”. As an unabashed member of the 1960s New Left for whom state socialism and multinational corporations seemed “bureaucratic prisons”, he has witnessed the dismantling of rigid bureaucracy. But, contrary to expectations, “Taking institutions apart has not produced more community […] : face-to-face relations of trust and solidarity, relations constantly negotiated and renewed, a communal realm in which people became sensitive to one another’s needs” (p. 2).

With the advent of new capitalism “bureaucracy has reorganized itself”. Sennett’s analysis concludes that the “global spurt of growth may have brought many benefits, but a better quality of institutional life is not among them” (p. 181). The list of negatives brought about by this reorganized bureaucracy includes: “[…] institutions are neither smaller nor more democratic; centralized power has been reconfigured, power split off from authority. The institutions inspire only weak loyalty, they diminish participation and mediation of commands, they breed low levels of informal trust and high levels of anxiety about uselessness. A shortened framework of institutional time lies at the heart of this social degradation; the cutting edge has capitalized on superficial human relations. This same shortened time framework has disoriented individuals in efforts to plan their life course strategically and dimmed the disciplinary power of the old work ethic based on delayed gratification” (p. 181). Add to these is the lost of craftsmanship, commitment, the sense of public service and a sense of one’s “life narrative”.

The list of positives is much shorter and focuses on “qualities of self which might allow individuals to flourish as institutional life becomes more shallow. […] repudiation of dependence, development of one’s potential ability, the capacity to transcend possessiveness” (p. 181-182).

While Sennett’s study of bureaucracy “reorganized” applies to the “advanced economic sectors of global finance, technology, media and merchandizing” it could, in my view, very well be applied, with appropriate nuances, to higher education. Though not tailored for the university, this read will certainly help to sharpen a critique of today’s university both in terms of the negatives and the positives.