Letter: LAS Wants Charges Dropped, Better Working Conditions

LettersLiberal Arts Society — Published January 26, 2016 | Updated January 26, 2016 at 6:12am

We appreciate the emphasis you have placed on community building at Concordia University. This is why your recent divisive actions towards students and segments of the teaching staff alike have puzzled us.

Your rhetoric is not consistent with your actions. The Quebec Liberal government’s austerity measures undermine Concordia’s academic mission by impacting the quality of the education it provides, and harm the most vulnerable members of our community. Given your discourse, we would have expected you, as Concordia’s primary spokesperson, to present a united front leading all actors of the university against these cuts. Instead, the Concordia administration played into the government’s game by bringing the conflict between the Quebec community and Philippe Couillard’s government within the university’s walls.

The students have been at the forefront of the mobilization against austerity. Instead of recognizing this effort, 25 of them currently face disciplinary charges under Concordia’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities, and eight of them have already met with a hearing panel.

We ask that you drop the charges against these students, and conduct a review of the Code that includes student representation.

The quality of our education, and Concordia’s reputation, depend on the administration treating its entire teaching staff fairly and equitably. Part-time faculty, teaching and research assistants, are the most vulnerable members of Concordia’s faculty. Nonetheless, they have yet to be offered satisfactory collective agreements.

We further ask that TRAC and CUPFA’s demands be met, as their working conditions create the conditions necessary for Concordia’s student body to flourish.

Instead of standing united, the Concordia administration chose to follow the government’s example by repressing its students, and not offering fair and acceptable working conditions to its employees. This is the time to prove that community-building is not just a rhetorical device, but that the administration you lead is willing to actively bridge the gaps that have defined the last few months. It is time to fight the culture of distrust now wedged between the administration and the rest of this institution’s members.

We know firsthand the benefits and the opportunities Concordia gives its students. We know because we are students here, but we cannot stand idly by as our fellow students and the very integrity of professorship at Concordia fall under threat. So we address this letter to you, and hope to see the end of the tribunals, and the beginnings of better working conditions for the teaching staff in need of these changes.

— Liberal Arts Society