Recent Comments
Category Archives: Uncategorized
In which the University of Alberta forgets that it has faculty
Yesterday the “invitation” below went out to members of the “College of Social Sciences and Humanities” at the University of Alberta. The invitation is for “small group” meetings with the two candidates for the role of “College Dean” — a … Continue reading
“Evolving” to what? The Plans for the Humanities Centre and the Future of the University of Alberta
Last Friday morning (Good Friday), CBC Edmonton published a story confirming that the University of Alberta “is looking” to lease out the Humanities Centre or possibly demolish it. The schedule for this decision is uncertain. But the University claims that … Continue reading
Wear Black Friday (Guest post by Cole Rockarts, NASA)
This Friday, October 8, will mark an inauspicious day at the University of Alberta, as all remaining in-house custodial services will cease to be provided by university staff and will be outsourced to private contractor Bee-Clean. Back in July, thousands … Continue reading
The Clock is Ticking Down, Decisive Action Needed to Ensure Health and Safety of University of Alberta Community this Fall
Members of the academic staff at the University of Alberta have finally had a response from the Association of Academic Staff’s President in regard to the University’s preparations for the return to classes in four weeks’ time. In the face … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
The Single Worst Thing That Happened at the University of Alberta Board of Governors Meeting on Friday (11Dec2020)
Copy of post to the Members’ Forum of the Association of Academic Staff (AASUA) on 12 December 2020 Dear Colleagues, You already know the upshot of yesterday’s meeting of the Board of Governors. With the Invisible College model defeated at the … Continue reading
UAlberta Faculty of Arts & Science
In the face of the Kenney government’s four-year program of savage cuts to the University’s budget the University of Alberta is considering restructuring its Faculties. If the Faculty of Arts is to be amalgamated or bundled with any other Faculty, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Letter to Student Union President re Dougal MacDonald
2 December 2019 Akanksha Bhatnagar President, University of Alberta Students’ Union Room 2-900 Students’ Union Building University of Alberta 8900 – 114 Street NW Edmonton, AB T6G 2J7 Dear Akanksha, We are very concerned about the statement issued by the … Continue reading
Do Albertans understand what Kenney’s cuts to the University of Alberta’s budget will mean?
Do Albertans understand just how much damage the Kenney budget cuts announced last week will do to the University of Alberta? The University has been struggling for several years in the wake of budget cuts first affecting certain Faculties in … Continue reading
Posted in alberta budget 2019, alberta funding for post-secondary education, Uncategorized
Tagged academic freedom, alberta budget cuts 2019, alberta corporate tax cuts, alex usher, extractivism, indira samarasekera, jason kenney, kenney war room, tar sands, times higher education rankings
5 Comments
AASUA Ratification Vote: What is a Pair of Zeroes Worth?
This is a public version of a letter posted to the AASUA Members’ Forum on 7 April 2019. Dear Colleagues, I have already written to you about why we must not ratify the Gender Pay Equity MOA. I now write … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Read this! Dutch Study on “Baseline Grant” System for Research Funding (Guest Post by Andrew Gow)
Dear colleagues, I urge you to read this thought piece on our current research funding model. It presents a simple and cost-effective alternative to our current labour-intensive method of allocating funding. The potential results are surprising. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0183967#pone-0183967-t001 Just as our … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
MLCS is going generic or, Why French will no longer be an exception (Guest Post by Sathya Rao, Modern Languages & Cultural Studies)
Modelled after the modern languages departments at the universities of Exeter (UK), Sheffield (UK), and Saint Louis (US), the controversial Modern Languages and Cultural Studies (MLCS) major proposal – which passed last May 25 at Arts Faculty Council – is … Continue reading
Arts Squared 