The Muse, vol. 56, no. 10 (17 November 2005)

              The Muse
Volume 56, Number 10
general@themuse.ca
November 17, 2005
Province, university at odds over Grenfell
By Alex Bill
The debate over autonomy for Sir
Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner
Brook will soon take a new turn, as
the college has recently laid its "expectations for change" with Memorial
University.
Those demands include some
straightforward issues, such as the authority to approve programs and the
integration of the Western Regional
School of Nursing into the college.
But, there are more contentious is
sues, such as placing a Grenfell representative on the university's senior
executive committee and gaining financial security through formula
funding or a direct allocation of money from government.
Axel Meisen, president of Memorial
University, says the expectations are
reasonable and that he will discuss
them with the Board of Regents on
Dec. 7.
"Some of the expectations are matters that the Board will really need to
become engaged in, and other matters
are different," said Meisen.
He says the physical separation
must be settled to create a regional
vice-president position for Principal
John Ashton on the senior executive
committee. At the moment, video-link
from Corner Brook, Newfoundland
and Labrador is a possibility.
Commitment concerns are also an
issue. The Board of Regents usually
meets for a couple of hours and Meisen
says Ashton must dedicate that time
"even though many of the issues will
not be of primary interest to [him]."
But, the president concedes that
these reasons are too weak to keep
Ashton off the executive. (Currently,
Ashton reports to Vice-President
Academic Eddy Campbell.)
Of all the demands, funding concerns may be the most difficult to settle. Meisen is willing to consider formula funding, but it won't work as well
when cutbacks are necessary, whether because of a decline in students or
fiscal constraints.
He says changes to the funding
structure could create further con
flict among university institutions and
departments as each tries to secure a
stronger budget.
"Presumably, what would happen
in that scenario is that the decisions,
with respect to allocating dollars for
post-secondary education, are made
at a different level and sometimes the
pie is only so big," said Meisen.
The issue of direct allocation from
government is a hot one, especially in
light of recent comments by govern-
See 'Memorial' on Page 2
Remembering Memorial
BAKHTIYAR PEER
Hugh Nagle and his son take part in the Remembrance Day activities in downtown St. John's this past Friday.
Nagle's father participated in building the National War Memorial in 1924. Remembrance Day ceremonies took
on a special atmosphere this year at the university. MUN was built and named as a memorial to the world wars,
but this year is also the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II, the nationally proclaimed Year of the
Veteran, and the eightieth anniversary of the opening of Memorial College.
Tenure
shortage stunts
faculty growth
By Katie Hyslop
Memorial University has seen a rise
in per course and contractual professors, which is causing problems for
students writing their master's theses and honours dissertations.
A large percentage of MUN professors began teaching during the
1970s and are now approaching retirement age. This follows a nationwide trend of aging faculty in universities and colleges.
According to Macleans, enrolment
in Canadian universities increased
by 50 per cent between 1987 and 2003
while faculty increased by only seven per cent.
The science and engineering faculties report no shortage of tenured
faculty, but Steven Wolinetz, interim
dean of arts, recognizes the increase
in retiring professors. Per course and
contractual instructors replace these
tenured professors, sometimes with
contracts as short as four months.
"The key issue is something called
faculty renewal, or how fast and in
what way we replace these people,"
said Wolinetz. "Whatever rate we
are doing that, [it] is not fast enough
- we don't always replace everyone
who retires."
But, Wolinetz believes teaching
experience and expertise, not duration of employment, determine
the quality of a professor. MUNSU
VP Academic Katherine Giroux-
Bougard disagrees.
"[Tenure profs] permit a certain
stability in the department so students from one semester from another can count on a certain professor
being there, offering a certain type of
course," said Giroux-Bougard.
"I think in a lot of the departments, they're relying more and
more on per course instructors to
teach courses. From my personal experience in some departments, this
instability causes - especially third-
and fourth-year students - a lot of
stress."
Giroux-Bougard has received
complaints from honours students
who have lost supervising professors and were forced to change dissertation topics.
One fourth-year political science
honours student, who asked not to
be named, decided to switch supervising professors and her dissertation topics when she discovered her
supervisor may leave.
"I had been doing a fair bit of research on my initial topic, but given that this particular professor was
perhaps the only professor that we
had here on campus that dealt with
my specialized topic, apparently I
was being too original," she said.
"The political science department
is being fairly lenient. They understand that this is out of my control,
out of my hands, and my new advisor is very understanding."
Graduate Students' Union VP
Academic Shelley McCarthy has
received no similar complaints, but
cites her short time in office as an
explanation. Yet, she too stresses the
importance of tenured professors.
"Unfortunately, the university works as a hierarchy, and when
it comes to graduate students, tenured professors' references count for
more," she said.
"It helps a lot when you're looking for ... grad money. [With] a tenured professor, his name [or] her
name carries a lot more weight. ...
In fact, most graduate students will
not study under a non-tenured professor."
Not all students with retiring supervisors need to find new ones.
Some professors stay on after retirement through honorary research
professorships in order to advise students.
See 'Students' on Page 4
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