Inside: Students look back on the undergrad experience. Queen’s needs to disclose research on animals. Athletes celebrated at Colour awards. Vicious cycle of bike theft on campus. Stephen Heighton visits campus.
the journal Vol. 145, Issue 27
Queen’s University
T h u r s d ay , M a r c h 2 9 , 2 0 1 8
since
1873
Clubs on campus struggle to deal with sexual harassment page 8
ILLUSTRATION BY AMELIA RANKINE
Provincial poll shows Search for new principal demand for job security continues, consultation for university professors firm hired OCUFA reveals Eastern Ontarians want “equal pay for equal work” for professors
Recruitment process facing criticism due to large committee size and externally-focused approach
S arina G rewal Assistant News Editor
S arina G rewal Assistant News Editor
The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) has released the results of their 2018 poll, which aimed to gauge Ontarians’ perspectives on the current state of precarious employment faced by many university professors in the province. The OCUFA represents 17,000 faculty and academic librarians in Ontario, all of whom work with 28 different provincial faculty associations, including the Queen’s University Faculty Association (QUFA). The survey was conducted by Mission Research — an external research firm — from Jan. 22 to Feb. 4, and surveyed 2,001 people. Five-hundred of these respondents reside in Eastern Ontario, which includes Kingston. During a media event on Mar. 27 at the University Club, OCUFA and Mission Research presented the findings of the poll. Among a larger pool of statistics, it was revealed that queensjournal.ca
65 per cent of Eastern Ontarians want to see university professors who teach classes have job security and adequate benefits. Among high school students looking to go to university, this number was 71 per cent. A majority also believe that while universities provide high quality education, there’s some cause for concern. However, most believe that professors can be trusted to address issues related to education quality. Eighty-six per cent of Eastern Ontarians were also shown to support equal pay and equal access to benefits for contract professors who teach the same courses as their full-time colleagues. At the media event, OCUFA President Gyllian Phillips said she believes that Ontario hasn’t invested enough resources into full time faculty. Ontario gets the least per-student funding in Canada, according to Phillips. “We’re advocating for increased funding to @queensjournal
In the months since Principal Daniel Woolf announced he wouldn’t be seeking a third term as principal, the search for his replacement has become active. The recruitment process, which officially began in January of this year, is now fully underway. According to a Mar. 20 release from The Queen’s Gazette, executive search firm Perrett Laver has been hired to facilitate the process. Consultations are set to occur with internal and external stakeholders, including senior administrators, Board of Trustee members and alumni. A public survey can also be found on the school’s Secretariat website, where Queen’s students and community members can provide their thoughts on the new hire. As per The Gazette, the timeline for the appointment of the new principal is as follows: “The Joint Board-Senate Principal See Contract-based on page 5 Search Committee is aiming to identify a @queensjournal
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first group of interviewees in the summer, and it anticipates interviews will take place in September and October. The committee will then work toward recommending a candidate to the Board of Trustees in December.” However, not everyone is satisfied with the methodology used by the University in their hunt for Woolf’s replacement. In a Mar. 17 opinion piece to The Globe and Mail entitled “Why the hiring process for university principals could use a revamp,” Harvey Schachter criticized the committee for its size and outlook. Schachter is a Kingston-based writer who specializes in management issues. In his piece, Schachter stated that more effective committees for appointment decisions average at about four or five people. As a result, he argued that the larger 19-member size of this search committee poses many problems.
See Principal on page 5
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