Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 31, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian Cole 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press a 1 1 october 1995 i i u of m downsizing should be across the Board administration immune to cuts by Irwin Lisnowski special to the free press there has been considerable Dis Cussion in the pages of the Winnipeg free press about a variety of difficulties besetting the University of most recently regarding the strike by members of the University of Manitoba faculty association much of the comment in my been the Central Issue dividing Ufa and the Central administration of the u of m is How the University can downsize in the least damaging the need to downsize has been dictated by continuously shrinking Grants from the universities Grants reflecting reduced allocations from the government of Manitoba for higher How should the u of m downsize without destroying its academic pro Grams and without creating a climate of fear that would be deleterious to the proper functioning of the University a Cli mate of fear May succeed in motivating salesmen on a used car lot for the threat to fire the salesperson with the lowest sales each month May do wonders for sales but it is not conducive to fostering and nurturing new ideas and the critical examination and rejection of old to achieve the latter As Well As to educate our population to think critically about social issues and about prob lems at the Frontier of human faculty members must feel free to pursue knowledge and truth without fear of reprisal from vested Over 75 per cent of the faculty Mem Bers who exercised their right to voted in favor of strike action which has Only been taken with the greatest possible reluctance by every faculty unlike Many strikes of the this strike is not Over the fundamental Issue relates to the governance of the University How is the University to be run and How is it to be it is regrettable that this Point appears to be a closely guarded constraints the administration has invoked the necessity of budgetary constraints to seek the flexibility to target individual professors for dismissal to put a veneer of civility on this unpleasant the collective agree ment which expired March 31 allows downsizing through redundancy and in the event of the University declaring financial it also provides for safeguards that would ensure that such downsizing is done with meaningful input from faculty members with a View to protecting the academic Quality of programs to the extent possible and to ensuring that there is due process As jobs Are Termi the administration finds these procedures in the same one might argue that our Judi Cial system is also yet the costs of protracted trials and appeals Are costs that our society willingly bears in the interest of there Are two important facts that have been largely ignored in seeking a Solu Tion to the budgetary crunch at the u of the median age of faculty Mem Bers is this Means that in three years from on half of the faculty Mem Bers will have reached Early retirement age of this is a lamentable state of reflecting the failure of the University during the past 15 through chronic to renew itself by offsetting the and death of faculty members by hiring replacement thereby allowing the infusion of new blood and new the Silver lining is that if the administration were to demonstrate leadership and imagination by designing incentives that would Reward faculty members who elect to take Early retire rather than penalizing them for doing the problem of downsizing and Many of the financial woes at the u of m could be solved in a relatively painless the second fact that has apparently escaped notice is that the University suf fers from a to heavy dare i say bloat administrative in the Era of former u of m president Hugh Saun the senior executive positions in the Central administration consisted of the an academic Vic Epresi Dent and an administrative Vic Epresi Saunderson ran a very lean ship the number of students at the time was approximately on half of the current what is the Structure of the Central administration at the present time has it merely doubled in More or less in proportion to the increase in student numbers or has it Lestha doubled in virtue of the fact that one Ordinary desk top computer today possesses More computing Power than did a mainframe computer in that Era it would seem that the Central administration has been the leading growth sector at the u of the University Telephone directory in addition to the president and two vice presidents named positions such As a Vic president for research and external an associate vice president for a vice Provost for academic a vice Provost for academic a vice Provost for Stu Dent an associate Vic president for human an associate vice president for As Well As numerous executive Legal a variety of officers and and associate Deans in different Fracul since the buzzword of our Era is the quest for efficiency and Economy should not focus exclusively on downsizing faculty and eliminating academic the administration should not be exempt from a thorough assessment of its organizational its performance and its such an assessment should go Well beyond examining comparative data from other comparable for they too May have experienced hyper growth in administrative the questions to address in such an assess ment is How did the University previously manage to perform its administrative tasks with a Small fraction of its current staff and computing Power and can some useful lessons be drawn from that experience if the University of Manitoba is to downsize in a manner that inflicts mini Mal damage to students and to the Quality of the positive incentives should be offered for both faculty and administrators to voluntarily opt for Early since downsizing that is coherent and humane is imperative if the Quality of teaching and research at the University of Mani Toba is to be if some kind of Bridge financing is required during a Brief interim period spanning several the government of Manitoba should accommodate this need during the transitional preventing the University from being irreparably damaged through indiscriminate and arbitrary fir or through the faculty fear that this might is no less worthy a cause than was that of keeping the jets hockey club in it would be reasonable to expect that the economic and social returns to the citizens of both present and from such a cooperative initiative Between the provincial government and the University of Mani Toba will be very High Irwin a professor of economics at the University of is currently on imagine nation without Borders letters to the editor i have a few thoughts on the Issue of separation and the integrity of a Why yearn for a place with boundaries to be alien ated from others who seek and treasure the talents and his tory of such a diverse people in Canada All people of Canada have at some time in their history been exiled from their no one group or culture has been spared or left alone in their 0 we Are always appearing to be outside looking missing the special uniqueness of those beyond our physical or imagined All have been forced far from being alienated in their own ancestral people and nation Are the Perse arbitrary hatred and envy ought not to hold ultimate we ought not to allow ourselves to be held hostage by these and therefore take individual responsibility to overcome and succeed in our there is great Comfort in being part of something that is neither place nor fear not by the threat of alienation but join in the affirmation of the grow and develop within the dreams of what could be better in Unity and of Winnipeg who will want to teach your editorial is Correct that the University of Manitoba does not aim to abolish academic the abolition of academic Freedom will merely be collateral damage but it will be gone just the administrations aim primarily to restructure but they Are not capable of doing it without extensive consultations with and the pub they will give us the educational equivalent of Emer gency room without any concern for the students or pro if the administration succeeds in abolishing who will come Here to teach virtually every other University in North America offers candidates in hot new Fields will be the least Likely to accept a Job because they will have better and who will stay Here Daniel Stone Winnipeg give furniture to salvation army i live in an apartment Block with a number of apartment blocks most of the tenants have one thing in when they get new furnishings they put the older ones in or near the big How to reach us the free press welcomes letters from letters must be signed and should include a clearly printed address and Telephone names will be published but not All letters May be edited for style and Short letters Are less Likely to be please address letters to letters to the Winnipeg free 1355 Mountain Winnipeg r2x letters can be sent to our fax number letters May be submitted through the internet at letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone garbage if they made a phone Call to the salvation army some poor family would be delighted to have the i am humbly asking you to use your paper to make the Public aware of their duty to their fellow Louis Sutchuk Winnipeg an apology from Pauls the Pauls student Community would like to apologize formally for the events that took place on the night of the actions of a Small group of students have adversely affected the entire Community of the As Well As numerous residents of we make no excuses for the actions of these to those who were affected in any Way we offer our deepest Pauls is a school with Christ Ian we believe in restitution and restitution Means the restoring of something to its original state or reconciliation is the forgiveness for the wrong that has been the students involved feel remorse for any pain that has been you can be assured that these students have been reprimanded the punishments handed Down to these students Are designed to emphasize each individuals accountability to the citizens for any damage by the actions of these our name and reputation have been held up to Public this was not a school sanctioned we Hope that by taking responsibility for the Independent actions of these students and by undertaking the task of compensating those who suffered we can begin to regain the respect of the citizens of in we would once again like to apologize for the damage that was Pauls student Council Winnipeg fans should be encouraged to attend jets especially in this last season in the private or get Back to basics in the letter a lesson in Public private in the 19 free the author makes too Many assumptions without enough facts to Back he implies that Public school Stu dents possibly be taught Well enough to match their private school counterparts on standardized tests unless they had the Benefit of privately run support where Are his figures to support such an Assumption and How does he know that the private school students dont receive just As much of this Type of Aid he also assumes that private tutoring services have increased during the past 15 years strictly because of inadequate Public Edu How does he know that Siz Able numbers of private school pupils Arent also utilizing these services because of shortcomings in their own As indicated by an earlier article As for the supposed superiority of private school computer Cours the author needs to look at a recent study conducted by several computer engineering professors at Yale after they extensively assessed numerous courses in new they were equally critical of both Public and private schools for adopting too much software which is excessively dependent on the Glitz and glitter of video games while bypassing the literacy and numer Acy skills that students should have mastered Len Schroeder Winnipeg a season to remember we All realize that jets ticket sales Are Down this but your front Page photo of one Lone jets fan surrounded by 38 empty seats in not in any Way representative of spectators out of a possible the free press would do Winnipeg a better service by enc our not Winni Eggers to attend games in this final we Are certainly tired and depressed by your con Stant funeral to the youve had a great Start to your season and i wish you a successful my family and i will be there to cheer you on As often As we Are Susan Larke Winnipeg u of musing hitlers tactics the tragedy at the u of m is being treated somewhat disingenuously by the authorities government and u of m Board of governors and sad to by the for the information of those who do not speak much eng disingenuous Means Infin having secret not candid concise Oxford diction the talk is All about Money and the press is fond of writing about doddering old professors who Are keeping so Many eager Young Fellows or being rude to or about poor forgotten students As for doddering old professors of whom at the age of nearly am surely one what nonsense consider Antonio Stradi Vari making Beautiful violins at or Arthur Rubinstein at 88 still playing like a or Michelangelo working in Peters at age or Verdi at 80 writing his finest they we rent doddering who were they keeping out but this is beside the the Point is the Board of governors of the University probably 90 per cent government appointees wishes to assume dictatorial Powers Over the lives and employment of the governors cannot contradict nor have they done because it is and i am App re because this is the 70 years and later started on the italian and German it was liberals and then jews later it became anyone who didst do precisely As he or she was told to by the that is what the present Row is and it has been fuelled by and certainly underfunding of the University by and one sees too it is one Way to keep your governing class in Power precisely the same sort of mindset years caused the death of Socrates just Over 70 at the time of his in 399 things dont change do they Leonard Isaacs Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau Man on of her loon5y at Pont woj think 7d Shes in a tru5tmz up 5takz on it have Lanicz you ;