Tag Archives: governance

Open letter to President Rhonda Lenton and Senate Executive – Response to the Free Speech draft policy Reply

by • free speech • Tags: , , , , , , ,

We, the undersigned senators, address in this communication our assessment of the proposed York University Statement of Policy on Free Speech submitted to Senate Executive by the York Working Group on Free Speech Policies. More…

Motion of non-confidence by the Faculty of Education Faculty Council Reply

by • Strike 2018 • Tags: , , ,

April 25, 2018

The following Motion of non-confidence in the BOG and call for an independent, external, judicial review of the BOG conduct and interpretation of the York University Act was passed by the Faculty of Education at the Special Meeting of Faculty Council on April 25, 2018.

Votes in favour: 25

Votes against: 3

Votes abstaining: 3

Motion: The Faculty of Education rejects the BOG understanding of their responsibilities and authority to include authority to suspend classes during a disruption, and we reject their interpretation of the respective roles of Senate and the Board of Governors under the York University Act, and further the Faculty of Education rejects the BOG’s assertion that they are fulfilling their fiduciary duties, all of which was asserted in the April 2, 2018 letter from the chair of the BOG to the chair of Senate. We put forth a vote, a statement of non-confidence in the Board of Governors and a call for an independent, external judicial review of the Board’s conduct and interpretation of the York University Act.

Rationale:
1. Respective roles of Senate and the Board of Governors under the York University Act, 1965
Section 12 of The York University Act, 1965 clearly vests responsibility for academic policy of the university exclusively with Senate and gives Senate the authority to enact by-laws, rules and regulations for the conduct of its affairs, regarding academic policy. And further The York University Act clearly states Senate’s jurisdiction over academic policy is wide ranging, general and without limitation: without limiting the generality of the foregoing.
The language of section 12 is unlimited and gives no overriding power to the BOG to override Senate jurisdiction over educational policy. This means that Senate’s authority over academic policy does extend unilaterally and without limitation over academic policy and all matters that pertain to, and impact on, academic policy. There is no requirement or obligation under the York University Act for Senate to consult with the BOG on academic matters, or to seek its agreement on academic policy, although it has the power (not obligation) to consult, if it so wishes.
Unlike some other university Acts in the province and across Canada, the York University Act distinctly protects the Senate’s powers. There is nothing in the York University Act that accords priority, paramountcy or overriding jurisdiction to the decision of the Board.
By stark contrast the powers of the Board of Governors, under the York University Act, are immediately limited by the language under section 10 of the Act which clearly provides in its opening words that Except, as such matters by this Act specifically assigned to Senate, the conduct, management and control of the University and its property, revenues, expenditures, business and affairs are vested in the Board. This means that except for academic policy, which is clearly the exclusive jurisdiction of Senate as stated in section 12 of the Act, the other conduct is within BOG jurisdiction. It also means that when the BOG’s conduct, management and control over revenue have implications for academic policy the Senate has paramountcy. Under the York University Act, the BOG powers are clearly and unequivocally limited by the Senate’s control over academic matters.
Following the reasoning of Justice Sharpe in the case Kulchyski v. Trent University, 2001, These words qualify all of the Board’s powers, including its general governance power and its specific authority over property and expenditures. I agree with the appellants’ submission that by enacting these words, the legislature provided its own solution to potential conflicts between the Board and the Senate. The legislature subtracted authority over educational policy from the Board’s powers and protected Senate’s power over educational policy from encroachment by any power of the Board. Neither the Board’s powers of general governance, nor its power of the purse, allow it to usurp the role of the Senate to control, regulate, and determine the educational policy of the University. (Paragraph 65)
Explicitly, under the York University Act, the limitations of the Board’s powers are precisely in the area assigned to Senate namely, in the area of academic policy. Preserving the academic integrity of York University is central to academic policy. Any disruption (labour or otherwise) that undermines academic integrity is squarely within the purview of Senates authority. Moreover, s. 12 (b) gives Senate the explicit power to determine such things related to standards, courses of study and requirements for graduation. This also speaks to Senate’s power and authority over class suspension or continuation. In the Kulchyski case, Sharpe J. tells us that Administrative interpretation and practice may be used to assist in determining the meaning of legislation and can be an important factor in case of doubt about legislative meaning. (para 91). Senate policy and the university by-laws support this view and past practice of the university during previous strikes also reflect Senate’s clear authority to cancel classes.
Unlike the Board, Senate’s very expertise is in academic matters. The BOG suggestion that they have the expertise, competence or statutory authority to determine academic matters is preposterous. Their conduct violates the York University Act.
2. Fiduciary duties of the Board of Governors
Since the letter suggests that the BOG fiduciary duties somehow give it the power to overstep its role under the York University Act, we would like to address this notion head on. We reject the assertion that the Board is somehow acting in fulfillment of their fiduciary duties in this blatant power grab and aggressive attack on Senate’s exclusive jurisdiction over academic policy. This interpretation is a gross distortion of the BOG fiduciary duties at law. In the university setting the fiduciary duty of care owed by governors and officers of the university is described by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges the following way:
The duty of care generally requires officers and governing board members to carry out their responsibilities in good-faith and using that degree of diligence, care and skill which ordinarily prudent person would reasonably exercise under similar circumstances in like positions. Accordingly, a board member must act in a manner that he or she reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the institution.
 
The duty of loyalty means that the board member must not act in their own individual interests, or the interests of another person or organization, but rather must act in the interests of the university and its not- for- profit or charitable purposes. They must act reasonably and in good faith and not out of expedience, avarice or self- interest.[1]
 
In our view, the BOG has certainly been acting out of expedience and quite possibly in bad faith. According to this legal standard, and contrary to the claim in the April 2, 2018 letter, York’s BOG are not fulfilling their fiduciary duties to carry out their responsibilities in good-faith and using that degree of diligence, care and skill which ordinarily prudent person would reasonably exercise under similar circumstances in like positions. In our view, they are not acting prudently or reasonably or with diligence and care. In fact, past practice shows that previous BOG at York, and elsewhere around the country, as well as statute and case law, have all respected Senate’s power over academic policy. This is especially crucial during disputes and disruptions to maintain academic integrity.
Contrary to the assertion in the letter that the majority of governors independent external members who receive no salary or other remuneration who volunteer their time, knowledge and expertise for the benefit of the university and all its stakeholders; current and future students, faculty and staff, alumni, donors, and the public at large, we contend the BOG are, in fact, not acting in the best interests of the university and all its member constituents, nor is the BOG protecting the public interest in its reckless and flawed interpretation of the York University Act. We, as paid employees and academic stewards of this institution are invested in educational governance at York. We are extremely concerned that York’s reputation has been squandered in this strike by the BOG. Chaos and confusion abound as a direct result of the BOG actions in this matter.
This raises issues for us regarding our non-confidence in the BOG’s leadership and, as represented by its Chair. We believe the BOG’s egregious interpretation of theYork University Act compromises their ability to institute any legitimate, internal governance review at York University, and that an external, independent, and judicial review of the BOG’s conduct in this matter is urgently warranted, to ensure that, now and in the future, the respective roles of Board and Senate in a labour disruption are respected and clearly understood by all members of the community, and that any decisions about how to manage the academic implicates of a strike are effectively implemented.
The faculty that have submitted this motion have consulted in-person together at two open invitation meetings to tenure-stream members of the Faculty of Education and on-line numerous times since March 5th, 2018 to prepare this motion.
Appendices:
1. York University Act, 1965

2. Letter from Chair of BOG to Chair of Senate Executive, March 2, 2018

[1] Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. Governance Brief on Fiduciary Duties. At https://www.agb.org/briefs/fiduciary-duties. Note that the Canadian University Boards Association (CUBA), which York University is a member, directs members to this American association and this document regarding the statement of board duties. Similar statements appear in case law. For example, the fiduciary standard was classically defined by Judge Cardozo in Meinhard and Salmon, 164 N.E. 545 (N.Y.1928) as “Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard of behavior, the duty of finest loyalty, and, stricter than the morals of the marketplace.”

Statement from the Department of Cinema and Media Arts, AMPD Reply

by • Strike 2018 • Tags: , , ,

April 25, 2018

To: Mr. William Kaplan, Investigator, Ontario Ministry of Labour Industrial Inquiry into the CUPE 3903 Strike at York University.

We, the faculty members of the Department of Cinema and Media Arts, join our colleagues from Glendon, the Department of English and many other colleagues across the university, in expressing our outrage at York administration’s continued refusal to negotiate with CUPE 3903 in good faith. We condemn the administration’s strategy and, with our colleagues, present this vote of non-confidence in President Rhonda Lenton, her senior administrators, and the Board of Governors of York University.

Rationale: For eight weeks, the administration has played a game of hardball, insisting the two sides in the current labour dispute are too far apart to even consider negotiating. This is a misguided strategy as evidenced by the resounding 85% of the union membership of CUPE 3903 that voted ‘no’ in the forced ratification vote, April 9, 2018.

We believe collegial governance is what distinguishes universities as institutions committed to a public good. This core aspect of the university’s mission, however, has been steadily eroded over the past decades as decision making has become centralized and, in particular, Senate authority has been challenged and breached both prior to and during the current labour disruption. Spending on administrator salaries has skyrocketed. Please see Mathew Kurtz’s illuminating article in Excalibur, “The rising cost of high-income administrators at York.”

We believe that much of the erosion of collegial governance stems from a Board of Governors, chaired by Rick Waugh, that is increasingly unrepresentative, undemocratic and whose orientation is blatantly anti-union. Their vision of a corporatized university is not the vision we share. The refusal to negotiate, which we believe is informed by an explicit desire to break the union, is undermining the integrity of our academic offerings, demoralizing faculty, punishing students – including students who, as TAs and GAs, are walking the picket line – and is ruining the reputation of York University.

 

 

 

Second open letter to Minister Hunter Reply

by • Strike 2018 • Tags: , , , , ,

April 10, 2018

The Honourable Mitzie Hunter
Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development
Government of Ontario

Dear Minister Hunter,

I am writing to you again, as a woman with a government led by a woman Premier, to urge you to restore legitimate governance at York University.

The Board of Governors is operating outside its By-laws. It has imposed a President whom only 11% of faculty approved, and has now usurped the powers of the university Senate.

I have held tenured appointments at two Ontario universities since 1980 and been a visiting professor at two other Ontario universities (University of Ottawa and Carleton) as well as at McGill University in Quebec. I have never ever seen a situation like this.

Students offered grades ‘on the cheap’ but pay full fees

Over 75% of courses at York University have not been given since the beginning of March, over five weeks ago! My students do not know where to turn.

For so many of them, obtaining advanced education is already a challenge. They have to work part-time or full-time to pay their fees. They have young families or family care-giving responsibilities. For many it is a daily struggle to pay for housing and food. Under these conditions, meeting assignment deadlines is already challenging and they do not have the time to do their best work. I know, because I encourage my students to communicate their situation to me so that I can provide whatever assistance I can to help them complete their courses successfully.

But what are York students to do now? They have plans for graduating, for applications to other programs, for summer employment. Everything is on hold. They have paid full fees for their courses with their hard-earned money. Why should they have to pay all their fees when they don’t have timely access to all their courses?

The University administration is suggesting they take a grade for 60% or 70% of their work, that they accept some kind of grade ‘on the cheap.’ Will future employers look down at their York diploma? Will they still be able to get jobs? Why is the administration degrading its own degrees?

A Board of Governors completely disconnected from students, staff and faculty

This dire situation has arisen because a small group of people from big business and big banking have taken control over the Board of Governors and are usurping powers normally held by the President and the University Senate.

The Board runs the show behind closed doors according to its own hidden agenda, consulting only with union-busting lawyers and corporate public relations firms. There is no discussion, no dialogue, no respect of rules, no sense of community, and no sense of what a university is. This is not how a university should be governed. What kind of example is this for our students?

I received a shameless email yesterday from info@yorku.ca. The email wasn’t signed. I don’t know who wrote it. As a faculty member, I simply receive these anonymous emails from ‘above.’ Often the messages, addressed to us by our first names, are intimidating or contain misleading information.

I have never ever in 38 years of university teaching in Ontario seen such a radical disregard and disrespect on the part of a university Board and administration for its university’s students, staff and faculty. I have never seen such havoc and injustice wrought on a university because of a Board so completely disconnected from the people and principles of the university it is supposed to foster.

A Board of Governors in breach of its By-laws: No representation for vast sectors of the public

I wrote to you on March 19, 2018 to draw your attention to these grave governance issues at York University. I pointed out the Board of Governors’ disrespect by of its own By-laws requiring broad community representation on the Board, the Board’s failure to ensure gender equity on the Board, and the Board’s lack of representation of approximately 95% of York students and their programs. My email was copied to the Secretary of the Cabinet.

I received no response from you or your Ministry. I can understand that this is a busy time for you, since elections will be held on June 7. But I don’t see how your government can sit by and allow such hardship to continue at Ontario’s second-largest university, with46,400 undergraduate students and 5,900 graduate students, and 7,000 faculty and staff (http://about.yorku.ca/).

A Board of Governors opposed to equity for women

Your government is to be commended for having taken important steps to ensure gender equality and to prevent violence against women. Your program ‘GET ON BOARD – Ontario’s Implementation Plan to Promote Women in Corporate Leadership’ has set targets for the number of women on corporate boards.

Many Provincial Boards and Agencies have surpassed the 40% Target, achieving over 50% representation of women (https://www.ontario.ca/…/get-board-ontarios-implementation-…).

How then can your government accept that at York University, where 59% of undergraduate students are women, women constitute only 35% of external members on the Board and only 15% of the members of the Board’s central Executive Committee?

Chair of the Board makes sexist remarks in the Financial Post

How can your government accept that the Chair of the Board of Governors of an Ontario university has publicly expressed in the Financial Post his opposition to government legislation on gender equality and his sexist belief that if there are not more women on boards it’s because there are not enough qualified women? (http://business.financialpost.com/…/managing-in-the-grey-sc…)

The Board appoints its own external members. How can your government support a Board that has stubbornly refused to appoint an equal number of men and women?

A Board working against your government’s legislation on wage equity and women’s safety

Your government has put in place measures to ensure wage equity. How can it support a university Board who is actively widening the wage gap by refusing to improve working conditions for contract faculty, the majority of whom are women?

Your government has taken major steps to prevent violence against women. How can a Board that cannot even appoint an equal number of women possibly exercise appropriate oversight on university health and safety policies to prevent violence against women? Indeed, York University has a long history, under former President Shoukri and the same kind of sexist Board, of lack of concern for women’s safety.

A Board who does not represent 95% of York’s Undergraduate Students

The Ontario government funds universities through a complex formula that reflects enrollments. At York University, three faculties, Schulich (business), Osgoode (law) and Lassonde (engineering), represent about 5% of undergraduate students.

Yet, ALL the external members of the Board of Governors have degrees in these three fields. Five external Board members sit concurrently on advisory Boards at Schulich. In other words, NO external Board members represent the programs and disciplines of 95% of York University undergraduate students.

How can a Board skewed towards only three small faculties make informed and responsible decisions about programs in the eight other faculties? How can such a Board ensure that the public funds and student fees the university is receiving for these programs, where 95% of York University’s students are enrolled, are actually going towards these programs? The answer is that it cannot make, and is not making, responsible decisions for all York students.

A Board who pays lip service to experiential learning then cuts 800 graduate assistantships

Graduate assistantships provide valuable professional experience to students. They are proud to put their assistantships on their résumé and their work experience at York University helps them obtain employment after graduation. Through these positions, students receive professional mentoring, participate in dynamic research projects and contribute to research at the university

Your Ministry has made strong efforts to increase Ontario students’ access to experiential learning and on-the-job training and has asked Ontario universities to outline the experiential learning opportunities they offer to students.

How can your Ministry support a Board that has outlined these opportunities to you then, behind your back, cut over 800 experiential learning positions for its own graduate students?

The Ontario government cannot allow a small, illegitimately appointed corporate Board to cause so much suffering and injustice at a public university

I believe that your government has an obligation to redress the enormous disconnection at York University between the Board of Governors and the administration it has put in place, on the one hand, and students, staff and faculty, on the other.

Students, staff and faculty at York University are under great duress. It is an exceedingly stressful situation. York University is a publicly-funded institution. Boards have an obligation to be accountable to the public they serve, but this Board at York is not answering to anyone.

I am deeply disappointed in this Board’s failure to respond to longstanding calls to respect its own By-laws and include members from a broad range of diverse sectors in society.

On the contrary, it has just infringed more regulations and laws in flagrant disregard for the very principles of mutual understanding and respect, on which universities are founded. This is not how a university should be governed.

I am deeply distressed by the inhumane actions of this Board. It has consistently and shamelessly trampled over the interests of students, staff and faculty. It has made every effort to degrade the collective intellectual and creative spirit of York University. It has not shown one iota of regret for the real suffering it is imposing on real people.

Your government has to take responsibility urgently. It must hold the Board accountable for the actions that are putting York University and the education of its students at risk. It cannot allow a handful of individuals who have appointed themselves to the university’s Board and function as a closed shop to sabotage a public institution of higher learning.

I am urging you, because it behooves you as Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development, to 1) place York University temporarily under government supervision, 2) disband the current illegitimate Board of Governors, 3) annul its appointment of Dr. Rhonda Lenton as President, and 4) appoint an interim Chairperson of the Board of Governors tasked with undertaking the renewal of the university’s governance structures.

Yours sincerely,

Agnes Whitfield, Ph.D., c. tran.
Professor/Professeure titulaire,
Department of English/Département d’études anglaises
York University/Université York, Toronto (Canada)
http://people.laps.yorku.ca/people.nsf/researcherprofile…
Founding Director/Directrice fondatrice, Vita Traductiva
http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/…/english-prof-launches-new-tra…/
Visiting Professor/Professeure invitee, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 2017
Bilingual Joint Chair in Women’s Studies, Carleton University, University of Ottawa/Chaire conjointe bilingue en études des femmes, Université Carleton, Université d’Ottawa, 2009-2010
Virtual Scholar, Heritage Canada/Chercheure virtuelle, Patrimoine canadien, 2006-2007
Seagram Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies, McGill University/Chaire d’invité Seagram en études canadiennes, Université McGill, 2003-2004
Présidente, Association canadienne de traductologie /President, Canadian Association for Translation Studies, 1995-1999

Letter to our Students from Colleagues at the Faculty of Education Reply

by • Strike 2018 • Tags: , , , , , ,

April 9, 2018

On April 5th, 2018, colleagues from the Faculty of Education, York University, met to discuss our ongoing concern with the Administration’s troubling tactics during the labour dispute. These tactics reverberate through all levels of collegial governance and democratic process, and affect every aspect of our work. Having entered into its fourth week, the Administration embarked on the dangerous wager of forcing ratification and, in the meantime, has done little to improve the climate of negotiation between itself, the university community, and CUPE 3903.

Within this context, we want to express our support and solidarity with our students and colleagues of CUPE 3903. We do so as a commitment to our responsibility as faculty for the well-being of the University, and against the unfair and precarious situations of employment at the University. As professors, we feel it is our duty to protect the University’s educational principles and to support our students and colleagues by adhering to 1) collegial governance, 2) principles of academic integrity, and 3) our responsibility as educators to our students. We reaffirm our role and responsibility as faculty because these three aspects have been under threat during this dispute.

As scholars, professors, and instructors of education, we are uniquely positioned to gage the damage that recent events pose for academic integrity and scholarly innovation that are the hallmarks of York University’s highly regarded reputation. Our worry is that this dispute is not merely about providing fair conditions for workers, but increasingly about the Administration’s re-alignment of faculty governance. It seems to us that the University is being run less and less by professors and students, who are invested in educational and academic concerns, and more by people in management and commerce, guided by the Board of Governors, with little or no experience in or sense of responsibility for academic and educational matters. Such a re-alignment betrays the longstanding right to have educational and academic autonomy from the Board of Governors for which faculty and others have previously fought. This managerial and economic trend will not serve faculty and students well.

As professors of a Faculty of Education who have long-standing experience and engagement, sharing with multiple stakeholders, in public schools, communities, and educational sectors, we roundly reject the Administration’s rush to undermine faculty governance and educational authority. Our position aligns with those expressed in numerous universities and by school teachers worldwide, some of whom are protesting in the streets today, the devastatingly failed project to make education profitable. Rendering education a commercial project, and putting financial concerns before pedagogical ones, privileges the few while denigrating the promise education holds for so many. Our students, young people, and children stand to lose the most from the reckless actions of the Administrators and the Board of Governors. These managerial actions, lacking foresight, have caused so many teachers, educators, and scholars everywhere to take a decisive stand for the idea and ideals of education, academic integrity, and free enquiry underlying the right to public education in just and democratic societies.

We urge the Administration to respect collegial processes and return to the bargaining table, in good faith and fair play, to lessen the turmoil, confusion, and conflict we are all experiencing. Labour disputes are important events that help us to think about ourselves and the society in which we want to live; they also take the temperature of our foundational institutions and the core values driving them. A strike gives us pause to reflect on the state of our academic organization and how we belong and commit to it. For many of us at York University, this dispute exposes the deliberate collapsing of collegial structures into managerialism, and how our talents, which defy economy, are exploited for their serviceability to the bottom-line. A strike also reminds us (because we all tend to forget) that nothing in life is given. Our lives are all precarious (in different ways) and, in a democratic society, we have a right to speak of our needs and a responsibility to take care of each other. Our Administration needs to remember — indeed, we all need to remember — that when you give people a living, dignifying wage, and treat them like people with minds and dreams and the promise of a shared and sustainable present and future, rather than seeing them as economic “units” and income generators, we provide the fundamental conditions for education to be possible.

In solidarity with teachers and students everywhere,

Steve Alsop,
Sarah Barrett
Warren Crichlow
Roopa Desai Trilokekar
Mario DiPaolantonio
Nombuso Dlamini
Lisa Farley
Jen Jenson
Joy Mannette
Aparna Mishra Tarc
Naomi Norquay
Gillian Parekh
Tina Rapke
Theresa Shanahan
Kurt Thumlert
Laura Wiseman

Important links regarding the CUPE 3903 strike

by • Strike 2018 • Tags: , , , ,

SIGN NOW! Online petition: President Lenton: Settle with CUPE 3903!

Official sites:

Labour Updates (official York University website)

CUPE 3903 website

CUPE 3903 Strike Bulletin Issue #1

CUPE 3903 Strike Bulletin Issue #2

CUPE 3903 Strike Bulletin Issue #3

CUPE 3903 Strike Bulletin Issue #4

CUPE 3903 Strike Bulletin Issue #5

Passed motions:

Motion of non-confidence by the YFS, May 10, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the FGS Council, May 10, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the Development Studies Graduate Student Association, May 9, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the YUGSA Council, April 30, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the LA&PS Faculty Council, April 30, 2018

Two motions by the Department of Social Science, April 30, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the ComCult Graduate Student Association, April 27, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the Faculty of Education Faculty Council, April 25, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the Department of Sociology at LA&PS, April 25, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the Science & Technology Studies Graduate Student Association, April 21, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the Glendon Faculty Council, April 20, 2018

Motion of non-confidence by the Department of English at LA&PS, April 18, 2018

Two motions by the Department of Humanities, March 14, 2018

Two motions by the Glendon Faculty Council, March 2, 2018

Statements and open letters:

Statement to York’s Senate – Senator Ricardo Grinspun, June 14, 2018

An Open Letter to Kathleen Wynne, May 16, 2018

Statement by YUGSA: Kaplan’s Report Misses the Mark on GA Cuts, May 7, 2018

Statement by YUFA: York U admin faces mounting criticism as summer term threatened by strike, May 2, 2018

Statement by CUPE 3903 Member, Devin Clancy, at Senate Meeting, April 26, 2018

Statement by Ricardo Grinspun at Senate Meeting, April 26, 2018

Statement from the Department of Cinema and Media Arts, AMPD, April 25, 2018

Open letter to President Lenton by YUFA Executive Committee, April 20, 2018

YUFA members and remediation: Our rights, extra remuneration, and more, April 19, 2018

Statement by Justin Podur, YUFA Chief Negotiator, April 18, 2018

Statement by CUPE 3903 Member, Devin Clancy, at Senate Meeting, April 12, 2018

Second open letter to Minister Hunter, April 10, 2018

Letter to our Students from colleagues at the Faculty of Education, April 9, 2018

VOTE NO! YUGSA recommends its CUPE members reject York’s latest offer, March 30, 2018

Open letter from Osgoode Strike Support Committee, March 28, 2018

Letter to President Lenton by The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, March 27, 2018

Statement by YUGSA: York must bargain a fair deal with all units of CUPE 3903, March 21, 2018

Statement by the School of Human Resource Management, March 20, 2018

Statement by the Department of Psychology, March 20, 2018

Open letter to Minister Hunter, March 19, 2018

Open letter to President Lenton in support of Conversion Program, March 19, 2018

Statement by the Faculty of Cinema and Media Arts, March 18, 2018

FES Faculty members statement concerning GAs (CUPE 3903 Unit 3), March 15, 2018

Open letter from STS graduate students and alumni, March 14, 2018

YFS statement regarding the CUPE 3903 Strike, March 14, 2018

Statement to York’s Senate by Senators, March 12, 2018

Open letter to York History re: continuation of classes, March 12, 2018

Critical Disability Studies students and alumni response to the CUPE 3903 strike, March 8, 2018

An open letter to FES Dean by Master’s students, March 7, 2018

Open letter to colleagues from the Faculty of Education, March 7, 2018

Honorific professors issue open letter to York admin, March 7, 2018

OCUFA issues open letter to York University President Rhonda Lenton, March 6, 2018

E-mail to students from Glendon POLS Chair, March 5, 2018

YUFA statement on Employer’s ‘SRC’ bargaining proposal, March 3, 2018

Cross-Campus Alliance to York admin: ‘It’s time to negotiate a fair deal with CUPE 3903’, February 28, 2018

Discussion papers:

On the Matter of “Open” Searches, Academic Excellence, and Student Success: A Radical Proposal, April 2, 2018

To Convert or Not To Convert, That is the Question: The CUPE 3903 Strike and Precarious Academic Labour, March 20, 2018

Media:

NDP thwarts government’s two attempts to pass back-to-work legislation for striking York University staff (Toronto Star), May 7, 2018

Ontario government introduces legislation that would end York University strike (CP24), May 7, 2018

York students do deserve better – That’s why instructors are on strike, April 23, 2018

The rising cost of high-income administrators at York (Excalibur), April 20, 2018

Corporate Canada now controls more than one-third of all seats on university boards across Ontario (PressProgress), April 16, 2018

York University’s 50,000 students are trapped in a time warp (Toronto Star), April 13, 2018

Striking contract workers vote no to latest York University offer, union says (CBC Toronto), April 9 ,2018

Striking York U staff reject university’s latest offer (CTV Toronto), April 9, 2018

York University strike: three big sticking points (Now Toronto), April 4, 2018

Union for full-time faculty at York U accuses school of deliberately misleading public (CP24), March 29, 2018

Union says forced ratification vote is ‘shameful,’ calls on York U to return to table (CP24), March 28, 2018

Is York University really running as usual? (YUFA via Newswire) March 27, 2018

York University Strike: Was the school right to continue classes? (Maclean’s), March 24, 2018

York University students stage occupation to force labour talks (Toronto Star), March 23, 2018

Talks collapse; no end in sight to strike by York University (Canadian Press), March 21, 2018

Minister urges York University, union to try to reach deal on strike (Toronto Star), March 21, 2018

Strike by 3,000 CUPE 3903 academic workers to continue after York University refuses to continue bargaining (NewsWire), March 20, 2018

Students confused, frustrated as York University strike enters third week (Toronto Star), March 16, 2018

Striking to win (Jacobin), March 15, 2018

Striking contract faculty at York accuse university of ‘needlessly prolonging’ work stoppage (CP24), March 14, 2018

Man gets blocked from crossing York U picket line after receiving emergency call to pick up girlfriend (Global News), March 12, 2018

University vice-chancellors are paid far more than public sector peers (Guardian), March 11, 2018

York University on strike: Why it keeps happening again and again (Maclean’s), March 9, 2018

York University Special Senate Meeting – What the hell happened? (Medium), March 9, 2018

York University rejects counter-offer from CUPE, strike continues (CBC), March 6, 2018

Contract staff represented by CUPE begin strike at York University (Canadian Press), March 5, 2018