The fate of the Faculty of Arts and Science remains uncertain for students and faculty.
Queen’s Coalition Against Austerity (QCAA) held a virtual teach-in over Zoom on Dec. 1. During the event, staff, and faculty members provided insight into Queen’s budgetary measures and the impact of cuts departments will be seeing over the next several years.
The teach-in was held in response to new policies introduced by the Office of the Provost eliminating small course sections within the Faculty of Arts and Science, among other changes, as the faculty must balance its books over the next two academic years.
Don Cohen, assistant professor in the department of geography and planning, argues there are alternative ways Queen’s should address the budgetary pressures without drastic cuts and compromising the University’s teaching mission.
READ MORE: New policies risk education quality in Arts and Science
Cohen cited independent bond agency DBRS Morningstar in the May 2023 report stating Queen’s University holds the strongest liquidity positions—the ability to easily access cash or reserve funds—among DBSR Morningstar-rated universities.
“Queen’s benefits from a relatively strong balance sheet and a large pool of internal reserves, which provides financial flexibility to endure difficult operating environment without the need to make drastic cuts that could affect its core academic mission,” DBSR Morningstar’s report stated.
Cohen pointed to the University’s pooled investment which are estimated to generate gains of $5.2 million this year despite the volatility of financial markets. In 2021, the University used investment income to offset deficits, but now is using it to fund future capital projects.
The Shock Doctrine report cites an accumulated $618 million in surpluses since 2013—according to the QUFA budget report from April 27—as putting the university in a “strong fiscal position.”
Bertrand Malsch, associate professor at the Smith School of Business, called for Queen’s leadership to be transparent about the deficit, their financial calculations, and to justify the need for the proposed cuts.
“The idea of a budget crisis is to a certain extent always constructed. It reflects certain calculations, but these calculations are not just fact and truth that we should accept without questioning. They reflect some subjective views and judgements which can be challenged,” Malsch said.
Department Head of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (LLCU) Bronwyn Bjorkman, put the budget cuts in a department-level context. She was told by administrators a 13 per cent cut to her department’s budget is to be expected with the implementation of the new policies.
Bjorkman worries her department is at a greater risk under the proposed policies, especially since upper year courses include fewer students. According to Bjorkman the courses subject to elimination are second year and third year courses in Italian, Arabic, and Hebrew, as well Spanish, German, and Chinese.
“Faculty and staff are being asked to do more, and more with less. Faculties are tasked to teach more students, with less administrative support. Cuts to office support and fewer TAs. There is a real feeling of damage to morale,” Bjorkman said.
In response to the new policies being implemented the AMS released a statement saying the budget cuts came as a surprise, and their executive team will advocate for students’ best interests.
As part of their advocacy, the AMS extended an invite to Provost Matthew Evans to AMS Assembly on Jan. 23, which he accepted. During the Assembly, students will have an opportunity to ask questions regarding the future of Arts and Science.
The Arts and Science Undergraduate Society didn’t respond to The Journal’s request for comment on the new policies that are being implemented. On Dec 11, ASUS released a statement acknowledging the budget cuts and claimed the executive are connecting with Arts and Science Dean Barbara Crow, Provsot Matthew Evans will be attending ASUS assembly on Jan. 15 to address students’ concerns.
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John Sherbino
As an Honours BA and MIR grad I have watched the devolution of Queen’s as a learning/student-focused institution over decades.
It is above all, now a profit focused growth oriented business, generating income through: selective student recruitment, and increasingly business—oriented faculty development and elimination—all while encouraging financially rewarding research as opposed to pure inquiry.
Fine arts, outdoor education and other forms of social inquiry/research are not recognized as valuable and staffing is much less expensive when treated as contract employment—the cheapest being the use of grad students as supplementary faculty, who in fact work for free when their tuition is offsetting their cheap labour cost.
New construction offers places to hang donor names. Even if, as in the case of the well endowed art gallery, the faculty that fostered it is virtually non-existent.
The cliché holds—if you want to know where Queen’s is going…follow the money.
Laurie Adkin
The experience of faculty and staff at Queen’s is all too familiar to your counterparts at the University of Alberta. The thresholds for class sizes, freeze on hiring tenure-track professors, and lay-offs of support staff were all implemented here during the Redford government’s term in office (2012-14), following substantial cuts to university operating grants. These measures were never reversed and more draconian cuts were made under the UCP in 2019-23. We have faced precisely the same battles, such as the withholding of budget data and consultants’ reports by the administration. They know this is critical to controlling the “crisis” narrative. About half our teaching is now done by contract academic staff, who have no representation in university governance bodies. But beware, especially, of executive actions to remove decision-making power from faculty. (One of the ways this achieved is by withholding the data.) A lot has now been published about the UAlberta experience which might be instructive for faculty, staff, and students at Queen’s.
We have something else in common: Queen’s former Dean of Law, Bill Flanagan, became the President of the University of Alberta in July 2020. He has overseen the imposition of an executive management model, in cooperation with the UCP-majority board of governors.
Solidarity!
Here are some links:
https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/higher_education_corporate_or_public
https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/retelling_the_story_of_the_ucp_governments_budget
https://albertaviews.ca/assault-higher-education/
Laurie E. Adkin, “Cracking foundations, contested futures: Post-secondary education in Alberta at the end of the holocene” (10 Dec 2023)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10714413.2023.2285652?src=recsys
Marc Schroeder, “The academic governance body: What’s its role and who decides?” (15 Dec 2023) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10714413.2023.2291346?src=recsys
Carolyn Sale ,”Uncollegial governance and the restructuring of the University of Alberta.” https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10714413.2023.2299515?scroll=top&needAccess=true
Deb Verhoeven and Ben Eltham, “‘Nousferatu’: Are corporate consultants extracting the lifeblood from universities?” (20 Dec 2023) [open access] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10714413.2023.2290972?src=recsys