Hot on the heels of my meeting with the members of Local 350 at Georgian College, I drove west to Windsor, Ontario, to meet with faculty at St. Clair College. St. Clair is a mid-sized college, with approximately 8,600 full time students spread across three campuses. Two of the campuses are in Windsor, and one is in Chatham.The professors of St. Clair are represented by OPSEU Local 138. I was able to meet with Local President Bernie Nawrocki at the Windsor campus of St. Clair, and then sat in on an LEC dinner meeting later in the evening.
In my meeting with the officers and stewards of Local 138, I heard about the increased workload being experienced by professors, and the ways in which "extras" keep getting added on to already maxed-out schedules. Faculty are regularly being asked to do program review work, recruitment, marketing and committee work, and all of it on a volunteer basis. When combined with the normal demands of a full teaching load, and the new demands of online learning management systems (LMS), faculty are starting to feel the pressure.
The high-stress environment facing professors is contributing to more strained workplace relations , and as a result the officers of Local 138 have been spending considerable time managing grievances concerning bullying and harassment. This is a concern expressed by several colleges I've visited so far, and speaks to the broader impact on faculty, students, and support staff when a collegial environment focused on education turns into a competitive one focused on cost-cutting.
In our meeting, the faculty at St. Clair expressed both a sincere belief in the uniqueness and importance of the college system, and also a fear that its integrity was being threatened. With fewer and fewer full time professors, counselors and librarians, and less faculty control over academic decision-making, our members are rightly asking what the ultimate result will be...
How can we help Ontarians realize that leaving administrators make academic decisions leads to a degradation of the workforce and our competitiveness in the global economy? The challenge is similar to that of climate change; no one believes it until drastic impacts appear...
ReplyDeleteHey Laurent, I agree that the challenge we face is conveying the impact of a lack of faculty academic freedom to people outside of the college system. We're already getting critical feedback from students and employers, and its time the wider populace also heard it. Our Report on Education in Ontario Colleges, to be released early next year, should help get the word out.
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