AUFA Communicator Acadia University Faculty Association Newsletter Volume 17, Number 3 March 2010 Special points of interest: AUFA Members partici- The AUFA President Communicates pate in a rally and CAUT Forum. support and policy options which are Tim O’Neill appointed to review aimed at ensuring the long-term vi- Consider who you might nominate for the AUFA Nova Scotia’s University system: ability of the university system in Award. déjà vu all over again? Nova Scotia. This is not the first time the univer- On January 22, the government of sity system in Nova Scotia has been Nova Scotia announced the appoint- reviewed. In the early 1990s, Janet ment of Tim O‘Neill, an economist Halliwell, former Chair of the Nova and former Bank of Montreal execu- Inside this issue: Scotia Council on Higher Education tive vice-president, to review Nova (1992-96), was charged with the task Scotia‘s university system. In an- The AUFA President Com- 1 of ‗rationalizating‘ Nova Scotia‘s thir- nouncing the appointment, Premier municates teen post-secondary institutions, Darrel Dexter stressed the impor- based on the assumption that amalga- AUFA Supports Faculty and 5 tant role Nova Scotia‘s universities mation, realignment, consolidation of Staff at Lakehead Over Clo- play in the economic and social de- sure institutions at the metro- or province velopment of the province. O‘Neill -wide level would save money and Hard Choices 7 also commented on the relationship made academic sense. Among the between universities and the recommendations put forward by The E-Word 8 ―economic, social and cultural life of Halliwell was the notion of the communities in which they oper- 11 ―consolidation of commonalties‖. CAUT Council Report ate.‖ Both the Premier and O‘Neill According to this scenario, new alli- emphasized the positive results they Tensions in Identities: A 17 ances or realignments of institutions expect to achieve through this proc- Reflective Report on the or their component elements into ess, intended to ―further strengthen CAUT Forum for Aboriginal several new institutions would have Academic Staff Nova Scotia‘s world-class university been created, such as a college of fine system.‖ It is clear, of course, that Dates to Remember 22 and applied arts or an institute of the focus is on demographic trends pure and applied science. Other ideas and the financial situation currently 23 put forward in the Halliwell report Lois Vallely-Fischer Award facing both the post-secondary insti- for Democratic Student Citi- included the consolidation of all the tutions themselves and the provincial zenship universities in the metro Halifax area, government. O‘Neill‘s report, which or even the creation of a province- is expected in early summer, will in- Editorial Policy 24 wide University of Nova Scotia. In the clude recommendations on financial end, little was done other than merg- Page 2 AUFA Communicator The AUFA President Communicates (cont’d) ing TUNS (the Technical University of Nova Scotia) ernmentwith Dalhousie can afford in 1997. to The rationalization exercise itself was highly criticizedignore for itsO‘Neill‘s lack of recom-clarity, the amount of time it consumed, and its lack of results.mendations altogether. Nova Scotia‘s universi- Teacher education in Nova Scotia has also been theties, object on the of ongoingother hand, re- view, starting with the Shapiro report, "Teacher Educationwill certainly in Nova want Scotia: to An Honourable Past, An Alternative Future", publishedresist in 1994.any changes The thatrecom- could mendations of this report prompted the Council ofnegatively Nova Scotiaaffect enrolment University and each will lobby for a change to Presidents (CONSUP) to create later that same yearthe an current Academic funding Transition formula that Acadia University Committee (ATC) which eventually led to the closureworks inof its severalfavour. teacher Wolfville, NS education programs in the province: the Nova Scotia Teachers College B4P 2R6 (NSTC) in Truro, and the schools of education at UCCB (now Cape Breton Phone: (902) 585-1422 University), Dalhousie University, and St. Mary's University. The only institu- Fax: (902) 585-1153 tions where approved B.Ed. degrees could continue to be offered were E-mail: [email protected] Acadia, Mount Saint Vincent, St. Francis Xavier and Université Sainte-Anne. Permanent faculty working in institutions that were about to lose their edu- cation programs were offered the option of moving to one of the new amal- gamated centres or receiving a buyout. Several faculty members currently working here at Acadia in our School of Education came to us as a result of the closure of these other programs. Despite the government‘s efforts to restrict the number of institutions where education degrees can be offered, universities whose education pro- grams were closed quickly began exploring alternative ways to continue to attract students. From 2003 to 2009, Cape Breton University had an ar- rangement with Memorial University of Newfoundland that allowed students to complete Memorial's B.Ed. while studying in Cape Breton. In 2009, CBU launched its own new 16-month B.Ed program which offers students the op- portunity of applying upon graduation for Teaching Certification in Nova Scotia. Saint Mary's University has developed a partnership with the Univer- sity of Maine at Presque Ile that also allows students upon graduation to qualify for Teacher Certification in Nova Scotia. Memorial University and Dalhousie University have recently been exploring a similar partnership. De- spite recommendations from the Ministry of Education to end teacher- education agreements with schools outside Nova Scotia, more than 1,000 new teachers graduate each year but fewer than 400 jobs are available. What can we expect from yet another review of post-secondary education in Nova Scotia? If we look to the past to predict future behaviour, one might conclude that the government will once again fail to act and that universities will be slow to implement any changes that are recommended. However, given the current financial crisis, and the provincial government‘s promise to reduce the deficit and balance its budget, it seems unlikely that the NDP gov- Volume 17, Number 3 Page 3 The AUFA President Communicates (cont’d) ernment can afford to ignore O‘Neill‘s rec- would have been fa- ommendations altogether. Nova Scotia‘s cilitated by the silo “A shared administrative universities, on the other hand, will certainly effect that a rationali- system would reduce want to resist any changes that could nega- zation of universities tively affect enrolment and each will lobby by subject matter costs, since each for a change to the current funding formula would have produced. individual institution that works in its favour. There may be some justification for pro- would presumably More optimistically, one could hope that this fessional programs at not need to have its own review, unlike the others that preceded it, the graduate level will look beyond the potential savings that such as education, cohort of senior closures or amalgamations of universities in law, or medicine, but administrators.” Nova Scotia might achieve, and also examine none at the under- the economic, social and cultural benefits graduate level. universities bring to the communities in which they are based. Acadia is not only the This is precisely what the Shapiro report attempted largest employer in our region, but also the to achieve for education programs, and it made main client for most of our local businesses. some sense to place restrictions on the number of All of these factors should be taken into universities that could offer degrees in education, consideration if the purpose of the review rather than allowing limitless numbers of students truly is to strengthen the viability of the uni- to enroll in programs with little hope of ever find- versity system in Nova Scotia and to enrich ing a job in Nova Scotia. The failure of this second the economic, social, and cultural life of the attempt at rationalization highlights the problem of communities in which these universities op- a province-wide education system which forces uni- erate. Tell your friends versities to compete with each other both for stu- Know someone who would like to receive a copy of this dents and for government financial support in a cli- While it is, of course, impossiblenewsletter? Contact usto and we’d predict be glad to add them to our mailing list. mate of dwindling enrolment and financial restraint. what recommendations O‘Neill will make, Several universities simply bypassed the restrictions there are some lessons we can learn from imposed on education programs by developing out- the failures of the past. Halliwell‘s recom- of-province partnerships in order to increase their mendations to rationalize undergraduate enrolment. education in Nova Scotia failed largely be- cause they did not take into account the lib- What might make more sense if one truly wanted eral arts tradition of our undergraduate de- to improve the education system in this province grees. It made no sense to attempt to re- would be to revisit the suggestion made by the Hal- group science programs in one university, liwell commission that Nova Scotia universities de- and arts programs in another, as students in velop shared administrative and computing systems liberal arts programs are expected to gain a between institutions in order to allow universities solid foundation in a variety of subjects, and to deploy a greater portion of their financial re- are encouraged to combine their knowledge sources to the academic sector. A shared adminis- in a number of fields through the pursuit of trative system would reduce costs, since each indi- minors and double majors. None of this Volume 17, Number 3 Page 4 The AUFA President Communicates (cont’d) vidual institution would presumably not based on feedback received from the need to have its own cohort of senior membership survey we conducted in administrators.