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TO:
CAAT Academic Local Presidents FROM:
The Faculty Negotiating Team DATE:
RE:
“Semester Replacement Strategies” The
value of an academic credential is a determined by the reputation of the
institution which grants that credential. That
reputation is established over time. It
is developed by the work of the institution’s graduates and by the work of the
faculty, both teaching, support, and research. In
the case of The
key measure of the academic strength of post-secondary institutions is the work
of the regular faculty. Some of the
recently publicized plans to give students their diplomas and certificates will
do irreparable damage to So
far, various colleges have announced a variety of “strategies” to complete
the semester. Some have managers teaching, others, support staff, others say
they will try to hire replacement teachers to teach full-time. Some colleges
have indicated that they will only complete courses with the regular faculty.
Any and all of the strategies to complete the semester without the regular
faculty will result in a serious and long-lasting devaluation of every
credential from every Ontario College of Applied Arts and Technology. Unlike
elementary and secondary schools, college teachers do not maintain daybooks that
outline the details of the curriculum covered.
Students have experience with supply teachers in the secondary system and
know the vast differences between these teachers and their regular teachers.
Those differences will be magnified significantly for college courses.
Only the teachers who have delivered the curriculum to date will know
what has been covered, what has been tested for, what students needs are.
It will not be possible for any replacement workers to complete the
courses of study, because, even if they had the skills to do so, they lack the
knowledge of what has taken place in the courses up until March 6. The
right to confer marks and credentials rests with the colleges, but any claims
that the courses of study can now be completed without the regular faculty are a
pretense – a very dangerous deceit in terms of the long-term health of the
college system. Not
only will the credentials of this year’s graduates from those colleges that
pretend to complete the term with replacement workers be forever tainted, the
credentials of graduates from all colleges will be brought into question. The
public education sector is not like the industrial sector where replacement
workers might be able to pick up the tools and perform the tasks of the workers
on strike. Colleges are not like
mines or assembly lines. A new teacher cannot be dropped in and successfully
complete the course of study. Where
replacement faculty are necessitated because of sick leaves or similar
circumstances, those replacement faculty are always guided by the person they
are replacing, wherever possible, or by other full-time faculty, or by both. The
use of replacement workers in the education sector is unprecedented and for good
reason. Aside from the damage to the
value of credentials, if replacement workers were to be used in place of college
faculty, there would be staggering damage to relations in a system that depends
on a considerable degree of collegiality. That
would be destroyed. The
destructive effects of replacement workers on labour relations in other sectors
are well-documented. Firstly,
striking workers have not and will not passively allow replacement workers to
take over their work. Where, to
date, picketing has been very peaceful in contrast to labour disputes in other
sectors, we can be certain that it will not remain so if the employer tries to
use replacement workers. Secondly,
once the strike is over, there will be long-lasting, serious negative impacts on
labour relations and on critical academic relationships. Those impacts will
assuredly result in damage to the reputations of Ontario Colleges for decades. The
threatened use of replacement workers is not about completing courses of study.
It is what such actions are always about – strikebreaking.
Management has made zero effort to settle since at least February 7 when
the strike vote was taken. They have kept the same offer on the table and even
knowingly made it worse at the 11th hour.
That speaks volumes to their interest in completing the semester.
Settlement would have accomplished that. Settlement might not have been
possible. That is one thing. But no
effort was made to settle. That is quite another. Students
have complained that they were being used a pawns.
The so-called semester completion strategies are actually the prime
example. Naturally, the promise of
finishing the year ASAP is attractive to students. That is completely
understandable. However, students
would be well advised to consider extremely carefully the long-term impact of
supporting or endorsing such a scheme. The
credentials they would receive via this expedited but fatally defective process
will devalue that credential enormously. Post-secondary
degrees and diplomas can be obtained via the internet quickly, handily, and
cheaply. But as soon as institutions acquire the taint of being diploma mills,
those credentials are worthless. Making
curriculum available is not education. The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology now has detailed curricula for over 900
course up on its free “OpenCourseWare” site. When the site was launched in
2001, MIT president Charles M. Vest was not concerned about a decline in
enrolment because, as he noted, students come to MIT for interaction with the
teachers there. The quality of the
institution’s teachers is the greatest determinant its credential’s value.
Once lost, a good reputation is exceedingly hard to regain. Ultimately,
the responsibility for allowing replacement workers to undercut and damage the
value and credibility of Ted
Montgomery, for the Bargaining Team |