presDec7-99


	OPSEU Local 560
To:	All Members of OPSEU Local 560
From:	OPSEU Local 560 President Ted Montgomery
Date:	December 7, 1999
Subject:	Update

Over the past few weeks, there have been three major news items relating to the Colleges.

First was the release of the working paper Voices from the Classroom by York University’s Centre for Research on Work & Society. The second item, reported in the Toronto Star, documented the planned $800 million cuts to education. Finally, on November 21st , Thomas Walkom of the Star detailed the confidential cabinet document identified as "Ref # 373," prepared for the Priorities Policy and Communication Board of cabinet. You can find Walkom’s articles on the web at http://www.thestar.com/back_issues/

While Walkom focused on the funding for private schools issue, he also set out the government’s thinking on the Colleges which the document also addressed.

He outlined several key points:

"Changing laws, policies and regulations surrounding community colleges to make them more ‘market-driven and flexible.’ The document says a new charter for the colleges would be required."
Scrapping the Council of Regents, the body which currently oversees Ontario’s network of community colleges. It would be replaced by an employers’ council charged strictly with labour negotiations.
Merging or amalgamating universities and community colleges. Originally community colleges were established to provide vocational training at a local level. [Interestingly, no mention was made of merging GTA colleges or other central colleges, only those in the north, east and west of the province]
Giving community colleges more prestige by allowing them to grant degrees rather than just diplomas."

The government has not denied any of these references to colleges. We will need to look at them closely over the next months.

The major news item flowing from the leaked document, focused on the Harris Government’s plan to take $800 million out of the public education system. Of that, more than $160 million would come out of Colleges and Universities Minister, Dianne Cunningham’s portfolio over the next three years. The $800 million is in addition to the $1 billion already taken out of the education envelope. Some of that money will come from reduced grants to students and some from the elimination in colleges and universities of programs which do not score well on the government-devised performance indicators scale. Some too will no doubt come from the plans outlined above.

Both Premier Harris and Minister Cunningham have confirmed that the province is looking at both private universities and the amalgamation of post-secondary institutions.

Less publicized was the news report on the release of the working paper, Voices From the Classroom. In a November memo to faculty, I outlined some of the findings of this independent research study. Professor Jerry White of the Department of Sociology of the University of Western Ontario, working through York University’s Centre For Research on Work and Society produced the study. Your stewards have a copy of the Executive Summary of the Report.

Here are some further findings from the study:

Operating grants to the colleges decreased by 20.9% from 1992-1998.
1999 grants are similar to those of the late 1980’s
Between 1991-92 and 1995-96 enrolment increased by over 9%
The Ministry indicates that for the period 1996-98 that upward trend continued
78% of faculty report an increase in class size
71% report a decline in the quality of curriculum covered, due to the reduced number of weeks per course.

White notes that, "it is easier to spot trends and directions than to assign a precise ‘grade’ to the quality of any program." A 1985 study commissioned by Premier William Davis concluded that four benchmarks could be used:

i. enrolment and resources as they impacted on classroom size and crowding;

ii. media and extra resources available to classrooms;

iii. the potential for dialogue between teacher and student in class and out;

iv. and the type of assignments and examinations used to evaluate students (whether faculty were pressured to use multiple choice rather than essay tests).

A 1996 study conducted by the Harris government concluded that: "the trajectory of development and subsequent issues of access and quality would depend on how resources are allocated to the sector."

White’s conclusion in 1999 —

"We have concluded that quality has been declining in the 1990’s and will continue to do so unless the sector is refinanced."

"The data from both documentary and interview-survey evidence reveals that there has been a decline in the quality of education over the past 5-10 years in the colleges of Ontario. This has also resulted in a deterioration of morale among the faculty and a deterioration of the Colleges as a workplace for teachers. Stress levels are increasing for those working in the Colleges. Improvement will require an investment in operating funds that facilitates retaining more professors and related faculty in library and counselling services. All indications are that support staff have also suffered reductions in numbers and morale and increased stress levels."

I have spoken with both Jerry White and Carla Lipsig-Mummé who is the Director of the York Centre for Research on Work and Society, and they are both interested in meeting with Seneca faculty to discuss what next steps may be taken to halt and reverse the erosion of quality education in the Colleges. I will be setting that process up in the new year.

How telling it is that just as a study is released which further establishes the damaging effect that cuts to the Colleges have had on quality, this government leaks its plans for further severe cutting. Announcing, at the same time, increased support for private post-secondary institutions! The intent to create two tiers for post-secondary education is clear. Not two streams as was envisaged when the Colleges were established – but two tiers based on ability to pay.
Ted Montgomery, President OPSEU Local 560

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