| De: |
Lisa Campbell [ Profil ] |
| Sujet: |
Save Women's Studies at Guelph!
|
| Envoyé: |
Mar 22nd, 2009 - 15:16:12 |
|
| |
> ***Please Forward Widely***
>
> Responses should go to: Dan Irving, irving.dan (at) gmail.com
>
> Please note that the BUGS meeting has been switched to March 24th, so
> we are asking for sign-ons asap.
>
> We are requesting that you (1) consider signing on to this letter
> which we will send to the President and VP's at Guelph. To do so
> please indicate to me that you would like your name added and I will
> do so (2) circulate the letter within your networks.
>
> Please feel free to use this letter as a template for your own, or
> borrow portions.
>
> Below are some facts concerning the decision to eliminate WS at
> Guelph:
> ************************************************************
>
> Dear Colleagues,
> >
> > As you may or may not know, the administration is in the
> >process of eliminating the Women's Studies program at the University
> >of Guelph. One of the University's responses to the current budget
> >crisis has been to drop programs with fewer than forty majors. No
> >data have been provided to substantiate the argument that
> >eliminating majors will resolve our budget problems and, at this
> >point, Women's Studies is the *only* major in the University that's
> >on the chopping block. (Our source: a memo received by
> >Undergraduate Coordinators from Shari Dorr of the Undergraduate
> >Academic Information Centre, quoting AVPA Serge Desmarais.)
> >
> > The BA Programs Committee recently voted to eliminate
> >Women's Studies (having been told by the administration that there
> >was no alternative). The decision still has to go through the Board
> >of Undergraduate Studies (BUGS) and Senate before it's finalized.
> >
> > We're writing to ask you for your support in our efforts to
> >save Women's Studies. In particular, please write the Chair of
> >BUGS, Neil MacLusky (nmaclusk (at) uoguelph.ca), and ask BUGS to overturn
> >the BA Program Committee's decision. Here are some facts you may
> >want to use in your letter:
> >
> >* Women's Studies has been chronically underfunded. The
> >program began in 1979 but did not receive stable funding for more
> >than twenty years. Cutting the Women's Studies program will save
> >*less than 0.17%* of the University's predicted $46 million
> >shortfall. And yet Women's Studies is the only program in the
> >university that's slated to be cut.
> >
> >* In 2007, Women's Studies received a favourable report from
> >an external review committee, co-authored by Janet MacInnes of OVC
> >and Alison Keith of Classics and Women's Studies at the University
> >of Toronto. That report indicated that the program was
> >under-resourced, and that the administration refused to provide
> >additional resources.
> >
> >* Because of the current budget crisis, in January Women's
> >Studies Coordinator Norman Smith offered to cut the budget *by more
> >than half*. This would have involved dropping all WMST core courses
> >except WMST 1000, Introduction to Women's Studies; the revised
> >program would have focused on existing courses on women, gender
> >and/or sexuality currently offered in the COA and CSAHS. This
> >proposal was turned down. Instead the university is dropping the
> >program.
> >
> >* Other Colleges are trying furiously to save important
> >programs with fewer than forty majors, sometimes by combining them
> >with other programs. (For example, the College of Physical and
> >Engineering Science is trying to protect the interdisciplinary
> >Biophysics program, which has an enrolment comparable to Women's
> >Studies.) Women's Studies is not receiving such support.
> >
> >* Despite its chronic underfunding, Women's Studies is one of
> >the most efficient programs on campus. Figures for the number of
> >Women's Studies major vary, from 21 to more than 30, depending on
> >how they're counted. Suppose, however, that there are as few as 20
> >majors. 20 majors and 0.4 full-time faculty gives a ratio of 50
> >majors per full-time faculty member.
> >
> > Psychology has roughly 750 majors and 34.5 full-time
> >faculty, which works out to approximately 22 majors per full-time
> >faculty member.
> >
> > History has 558 majors and 28 full-time faculty, which works
> >out to approximately 20 majors per full-time faculty member.
> >
> > Admittedly, Psychology and History have MA and PhD programs.
> >So let's suppose that graduate students take 50% of a full-time
> >faculty member's teaching time. That makes 44 majors per full-time
> >faculty member for Psychology and 40 majors per full-time faculty
> >member for History - still less than Women's Studies, even using the
> >low-ball estimate of the number of majors. (If Women's Studies has
> >30 majors, that works out to *75* majors per full-time faculty
> >member.)
> >
> >* If the University of Guelph drops the Women's Studies
> >program, it will become one of only a very few English-speaking
> >universities in Canada, and certainly the only one that professes to
> >be a research university, not to have a Women's or Gender Studies
> >program. This is shameful.
> >
> >* To add insult to injury, the University wants to keep
> >offering WMST 1000 Introduction to Women's Studies. But it will be
> >impossible for students to major or minor in Women's Studies.
> >
> > Please write to the Chair of BUGS, Neil MacLusky
> >(nmaclusk (at) uoguelph.ca), and ask the Board of Undergrad Studies to
> >save the Women's Studies program. Please cc your letter to
> >President Alastair Summerlee (president (at) uoguelph.ca), Provost and VP
> >Academic Maureen Mancuso (m.mancuso (at) exec.uoguelph.ca), Dean Don
> >Bruce (don.bruce (at) uoguelph.ca) and, to show them your support,
> >Women's Studies Coordinator Norman Smith (nsmith06 (at) uoguelph.ca) and
> >Administrative Assistant Linda Georges (lgeorges (at) uoguelph.ca).
> >
>
> --
> Dr. Dan Irving
> Assistant Professor
> Human Rights and Sexuality Studies
> Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies
> 2213 Dunton Tower
> Carleton University
> Ottawa, ON
> Office Phone: 613-520-2600 x. 1899
> --------------------------------------
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