The following are brief statements from York units and departments regarding remediation and return to classes.

Department of Humanities Motion (March 20)

Given the untenable situation in which we were placed by Senate and Senate Executive, and because of our concerns with academic integrity, with our graduate programs, and with safety issues, the majority of faculty cannot support the resumption of classes on March 23, 2015. We urge the administration to focus its energies on settling the labour dispute with Units 1 and 3 of CUPE 3903 first and foremost, and providing a remediation plan that commences post the strike.

The Department remains committed to providing positive remediation for all students. We respect that some courses may resume earlier for pedagogical reasons

Department of Equity Studies (DES) Announcement (March 23)

The large majority of faculty members of the Department of Equity Studies have decided that classes should not resume while the strike continues. Like other departments,  we understand fully that our collegium is the appropriate steward of the principles of academic integrity and fairness to students. We urge the administration to settle the labour dispute  and thereby end the strike with Units 1 and 3 of CUPE 3903. We look forward to a remediation plan that is fair, collegial, and consistent with the academic  integrity of individual courses and programs in our unit.

Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought Statement (March 25)

The Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought has made the decision to suspend its own graduate courses until the strike is over. Academic integrity is not possible to sustain under conditions of student absence from seminars due to their membership in CUPE 3903. Attempting to teach graduate students in this climate will result in inequalities in the delivery of education and the activity of learning, and the exacerbation of an already divisive and uncollegial situation. We are part of the “community of faculty, students, staff, alumni and volunteers committed to academic freedom, social justice, accessible education, and collegial self-governance” that allows York University to make “innovation its tradition,” and we work by the principle of “Tentanda Via: The way must be tried.” As a program whose international reputation is built on the commitment to the deeper, wider, critical, creative and progressive aspects of social and political thought, our view is “Tentanda Via Novo” in theory and in practice.