Ensuring Access at Confederation College

Happy New Year, and all the best for 2014!

It's great to be back from the holidays and once more talking about my passion - college education in Ontario.  In late December the southeast part of the province endured some pretty extreme weather, and hopefully the worst is behind us (or did I just jinx us all there...?).  Big respect to all of the linesmen (and women) who braved the cold to bring power back to thousands affected by the ice storm.

In the next few weeks I'll be completing posts about my visits to the various community colleges.  At the same time I'll be drafting a Report on College Education in Ontario, so January will be a busy month.

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After a warm and informative visit with Carolyn Gaunt and Local 655 at Cambrian, early November saw me heading north-west to visit with faculty at Confederation College.

The Shuniah Campus of Confederation College

Confederation was founded in 1967, and its main campus is located in Thunder Bay.  The college services approximately 215,000 square kilometres of northern Ontario through 8 area campuses.  Like Cambrian and Boreal, dealing with long distances and the unique needs of far northern communities present a constant challenge.  Despite this, the faculty at Confederation do an exceptional job at providing access to high quality education for 3,200 full time and over 17,000 part time students.

Faculty at Confederation are represented by president John Kornichuk and the officers of OPSEU Local 732.  I was able to meet with the Local executive, then with the general membership, and was impressed by the way Confederation's many far-flung campuses were integrated into the meeting via Skype. 

In the North, on-line learning is essential in accessing remote communities, and represents an appropriate use of this technology.  Despite this, it was interesting to hear a steward from BSCN nursing describe the hunger online students have for direct personal contact with faculty.  Because of this, faculty try to schedule face-to-face intensives at the area campuses, but are limited in this by budget constraints.

The intrepid team of Local 732

The impact of restricted funding is apparent in many of Confederation's operations, and particularly in staffing.  The current complement of 160 full time faculty is way down from a 1992 high of 242.  At the same time, part-time and sessional now outnumber full time by over two to one.

Management cost-cutting is impacting the trades.  Where apprenticeship programs once had one professor and one technician teaching a lab of 10 students, the college is now moving toward a single instructor teaching a class of 15 students.  Nursing is also feeling the pressure of increasing enrollments and decreasing staffing.  Classes once capped at 50 students now range from 65 to 70.

Along with a decrease in staffing and increase in class sizes, the funding crunch at Confed is also leading to the marginalization of faculty in academic decisions.  Whereas once a collegial attitude prevailed, with monthly meetings between the VPA and faculty, now many management decisions are made without consultation.  An example of this shift is the expansion of online delivery into locally-based programs, and to student groups that clearly struggle with a lack of face-to-face instruction.  Faculty complain, but are not heard.

The struggles of faculty at Confederation to maintain educational standards speak to the broader problem that also faces Cambrian, Boreal, Sault, and the next stop on my tour, Northern College.  The colleges in the North provide a critical service to their communities.  The original mandate of the colleges was to reflect the diverse needs of different regions, yet the move to a more corporate, competitive and resource-scarce model is making this increasingly difficult.  The Colleges' recent announcement of sweeping mandate changes and "differentiation" just furthers suspicions that the original vision of access and community responsiveness is fast receding.

Despite these formidable challenges, I left Confederation knowing that the faculty there remain committed to ensuring access to high quality education in the North.  This fact, more than anything, gives me hope...

Precarious college faculty: the silenced majority

For this entry I welcome a guest writer who, as a part-time college professor, brings a very important perspective.  In the coming months, along with further reports on my visits to Ontario colleges, there will be other contributions from guest authors, with the intention of presenting several different views on college education today...

I am an Ontario college professor. I have been teaching in the college system for over 20 years. I have a post-graduate degree and good standing in my profession. But, I am a precarious worker.

For the entire time that I have worked as a college teacher, I have been on a part-time contract. I am in the part-time category called, Partial-Load, which means that I am, very luckily, part of the faculty union.  But, I still do not have the most basic protection, job security.

What does this mean? My teaching contract lasts one term only. So, when I start teaching in September I never know if I will still have a job in January. If I am teaching in the spring term, I never know if I will have a job the following September.

If I raise a complaint of any kind about my working conditions, about harassment, or if I get on the wrong side of my boss: the dean or associate dean; I risk not getting another contract--without any explanation.

This is why I am must write anonymously. I do not have a voice in my workplace.

The surprising fact is that I am now in the majority. 70% of faculty in my college are precarious contract workers. I share this situation not only with the faculty, but also with support workers in the colleges, many who are also part-time, precarious workers.

The number of students accepted in our colleges is rising steadily, a 53% increase in the last decade. During the same period, the number of full-time faculty with full job protection has actually decreased by 22%. The colleges are hiring more precarious workers instead of creating good, stable jobs. Why? We have been told, in this age of austerity, that it is a lack of money.

My college currently has a surplus of over $225 million. Money is clearly not the problem. And clearly the political will is not there to create good jobs.

Ontario college faculty and support workers are both entering the next round of bargaining with our employer, the College Council.  

In the last round of bargaining my union was able to win a small gain on the issue of job security. Partial-Load faculty who have worked more than two years experience who are not rehired to teach the courses they previous taught can fight this through the union grievance process. This is a small but significant step.

This round of bargaining college faculty and support workers will need to stand together to continue fight for better jobs and to maintain quality education.

Cambrian College: Back to the North!

On Halloween day I drove back up to Sudbury to visit with faculty at Cambrian, the other college that calls the city home.  The professors, counselors and librarians at Cambrian are represented by President Carolyn Gaunt and the stewards of OPSEU Local 655. 

Carolyn Gaunt - a most memorable local president

With over 4,000 full time students, Cambrian is the largest of Ontario's northern colleges.  Originally, Cambrian had campuses in Sudbury, North Bay and Sault St. Marie, but in the 1970s North bay and Sault became independent colleges in their own right - Canadore College and Sault College.  In 1995, the french language programs at Cambrian were transfered to the newly created College Boreal.

During an LEC meeting, the stewards at Cambrian discussed a host of pressures that they are experiencing as programs are rationalized.  Like most colleges, a primary challenge at Cambrian concerns the declining number of full time faculty.  Local 655 currently has 182 full time members, approximately 35 partial load, and over 200 part time.  This ratio of full time to part time faculty is better than at many colleges, but full time numbers continue to shrink as retirements aren't replaced.

The impacts of management cost-cutting are apparent in several other areas.  Stewards in the trades describe classes in which students are doubled up on machines designed for a single student to learn on.  Apart from the health and safety flags this raises, one steward expressed his concern for student learning: "they're not paying for half an education, so why do they put up with this?"   Increasing class sizes and mandatory online courses were also mentioned as negatively impacting student learning.  However, without faculty academic freedom, professors, counselors and librarians are finding it difficult to be advocates for academic standards.  Faculty that complain can face serious repercussions, including termination, and college student associations tend not to get involved in academic issues.  At the end of the day then, who is speaking up for students?

Near the end of our discussion, Cambrian faculty switched to the big picture, and asked where the current trajectory of college education is taking us.  If it's business as usual, they argued, the future looks like a largely part-time academic workforce, university-sized classes, mostly online courses, and an ever-expanding army of administrators.  All the while, students will keep paying higher tuition, and getting less in return. 

Only by taking control over our academic work can faculty reverse a management-driven austerity agenda, and refocus on the raison d'etre of college education - the relationship between student and faculty in the classroom.  Carolyn Gaunt summed up what this change could mean for our students, noting: "When you think back to your own time in college, do you remember your favourite professors, or do you remember your VP Finance?"

I sure know who I remember...

In Transition at Sheridan College

In late October I took a short trip down the road from my home in Hamilton to visit Sheridan College.  Sheridan is one of the larger community colleges, with just over 17,000 full time students.  The College has an international reputation as a centre for excellence in media and animation, a status gained by the hard work of committed faculty.  President Jack Urowitz and the stewards of OPSEU Local 244 represent faculty at Sheridan, and over lunch and an LEC meeting we talked about the challenges they face as their college transforms into a university.



Sheridan's Hazel McCallion building

The announcement that Sheridan was moving toward university status was made by College president Jeff Zabutsky in 2012.  Reasons cited for the transition were that Sheridan students are demanding more degree programs, and that the degrees now being offered weren't being given full consideration by other universities. The provincial government has indicated it wants to open three more universities in Ontario focused on undergraduate education, and Sheridan sees itself as one of them.

Sheridan's transition serves to highlight faculty concerns over academic freedom and educational standards.  In the first place, the fact that Sheridan degrees weren't being seen as equivalent to university degrees indicates that college professors' lack of academic freedom has a direct impact on how their work is perceived outside of the system.  This is a disservice to the world-class education that professors at Sheridan College are already providing, and it also shows that full recognition of this work only comes when faculty have the same level of academic freedom their university peers possess.

Sheridan's transition also reveals a tension between academic and practical knowledge, and between university credentials and workplace experience.  Local 244 members are concerned that an integrated theoretical and practical model of education is being threatened by the transition.  The fear is that professors teaching in more skills-based programs, or those with extensive industry experience instead of academic training, will be marginalized.  Instead, faculty argue that academic freedom - the right of professors to teach according to their expertise and to be openly critical of their institution - are as important for professors in practical programs as for those teaching more academic courses.

Ultimately, academic freedom is about the integrity and quality of the educational process. Our society sees fit to support these goals in relation to classical university-based subjects like philosophy, social science, and humanities.  However, are these standards any less important for professors training airplane mechanics, I.T. specialists, or electricians?  Would Canadians want to know that the nurse looking after their sick relative was trained to an academic standard determined by full-time, credentialed professors, or by managers with no relevant qualifications, and a mandate to offer the cheapest possible education?

According to the college president, Sheridan is increasing the number of full time faculty and enacting academic freedom, including a senate structure, in order to increase the quality of the degrees it offers.  These standards for ensuring the rigor of university education are laudable, but they should apply equally to Ontario's colleges.

Life at Lambton

Lambton College is in my hometown of Sarnia, and I was especially looking forward to visiting the faculty there and listening to their experiences.  I was finally able to make the trip in late October, and spent an incredibly informative day with Local President Baiba Butkus and the officers and stewards of OPSEU 125.

President Baiba Butkus, left, and LEC members

Lambton is one of the smaller community colleges, with approximately 2,700 full time students, and 125 full time faculty.  Like most colleges, Lambton has seen the increasing use of part-time faculty, and the union has had to file grievances to maintain full time staffing levels.

A change that has profoundly affected professors at Lambton is the College's new practice of splitting up the theoretical and practical instruction that has traditionally been done by a single professor.  Management's goal is clearly cost-saving, as lab, studio, or other practical student contact is being given to lower-paid technicians.  Professors are then relegated to teaching theory courses, and are no longer able to globally evaluate the performance of students.

The fissuring of theoretical and practical instruction strikes at the heart of what makes the community college system unique - an educational environment in which theory and application are closely integrated, and in which students are able to learn directly from experts in the field.  Increasingly, professors are responsible for assigning student grades without ever observing them in practical situations.  Given this, is it any wonder they're questioning how reliable the evaluations are?

Technology Professor Khaled Nigim

Other changes are eroding the hands-on, interactive nature of education at Lambton, including he growing practice of putting core courses online, and expanding the size of face to face classes.  As with every other faculty group I have spoken to, professors at Lambton describe consistent student complaints about online learning, and equally consistent management indifference to these concerns.

In fact, management at Lambton has embraced a particularly tech-heavy vision of college education that they call "mobile learning".  The idea is that students will regularly use mobile devices - phones and tablets - in all aspects of their education.  To this end professors are being pressured to use i-pads, regardless of whether the technology is actually useful in a given class.  Of course, along with the vision of "mobile learning" comes lucrative corporate deals for hardware, software, and e-textbooks. 

Lambton College's vision for "mobile learning" speaks to the wider debate of how technology is used in education today.  On one side of this debate is the undeniable power that technology has to enhance learning and productivity, and also the inescapable need to be technologically proficient in today's economy.  On the other side of the debate are critical voices who argue that high-tech isn't always better, that mobile gadgets can be as distracting as they are helpful, and that corporate profit is driving the field more than sound pedagogy.

As I've said before in this blog, no professor I've spoken with is "anti-technology".  Heck, even I typed this blog entry on my i-pad and took the pictures with my smart-phone.  However, I also agree with professors concerned about an uncritical rush to bring every new technological trinket into the post-secondary learning environment.  Student and faculty experiences are already revealing the limitations, as well as possible strengths, of learning technologies.  For this reason it is critically important that professors be the ones to decide, based on research and experience, when and how technology is used.

Off to St. Clair College

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...

Talking Quality Education at Georgian College

In mid October I visited the campus of Georgian College in Barrie.  The professors, counselors and librarians of Georgian are represented by the hard-working team of Local 350, led by president Terry Heittola, vice president Andrea Lovring, chief steward Anita Arvast, treasurer Lydia Robertson, and communications officer Jason Murphy.  Georgian has about 272 full time professors, and this number reflects the tireless work of the Local in advocating for full time hires.  Even with the Local's success at securing new hires, ensuring adequate staffing is becoming increasingly difficult at Georgian, and overall about 70% of professors are now either part time or partial load.

Terry Heittola

Terry and his team have managed to balance good labour relations with effective representation of their members' interests.  However, despite a functional relationship between management and the union, professors at Georgian are still experiencing many of the same pressures affecting their colleagues system-wide.

Online learning is now being enforced by the Georgian administration, leading professors to voice the same concerns as their peers at Mohawk College.  Students don't like being forced to take online and "blended" courses.  They consider it to be lower quality education for the same price, and complain to the faculty forced to teach online courses.  As with many colleges, it is clear that online education at Georgian is being pushed far beyond its natural scope of use.  Used correctly, online learning can improve access to education for students who can't travel to campus or who's schedules demand a high degree of flexibility.  However, when used as an "across the board" cost-cutting measure, it actually disadvantages most students.  Ultimately, without faculty determining how this delivery method is used, an accessibility technology ends up having an anti-access effect.

The online strategy being pursued by Georgian management is also contradicted by a parallel push for student retention.  The Colleges say that using "early alert" protocols to identify students who need extra academic help is about providing better education.  However, while the college simultaneously increases class sizes, puts courses online for no academic reason, and doesn't give faculty enough time to actually provide the extra help that struggling students need, management's stated goals and observed outcomes fail to add up.  Instead, "retention" seems more and more like a cynical attempt to maximize tuition dollars, not to improve access to quality education.

The officers of Local 350 are clearly committed to their work, to education, and to the students they teach.  At the end of our meeting chief steward Anita Avrast stated it plainly: "Education is not a business".  I couldn't agree more, and that's why professors should have the academic freedom they need to put quality and student success back at the heart of the Ontario college system.