Janis Foster
Langley Times
January 14, 1998
Pages 1 & 4
A worldwide boycott by university teachers is having no noticeable effect on hirings at the Technical University of B.C., says Dr. Jane Fee, academic assistant, president's office.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) called for a worldwide boycott of Tech B.C. last July after the province passed Bill 30, the legislation which established the institution.
The proposed university, which does not have an academic senate, does not guarantee academic freedom or proper governance, according to CAUT. All other B.C. universities are governed by both a board of governors and an academic senate- Bill 30 places all the responsibilities in the hands of one board of governors.
The boycott was no deterrent to the hiring of Fee, formerly associate professor of Human Communication Disorders at Dalhousie University and a former president of the Dalhousie Faculty Association, or of Alice Mansell, hired last week as first vice-president, academic.
Mansell, the current president of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and practicing visual artist and teacher, joins the planning team of Tech B.C. on Feb. 1.
So far, hirings have been for administrative academics; ads for teaching faculty will be placed soon.
"We have not had any problems at this point with the boycott," Fee said Monday. "There's certainly been no problems at all for the recruitments we've done to date."
"I think their (CAUT's) concerns are extremely premature and I'm not at all concerned about issues of academic freedom at this institution."
Ron Dickson, chair of Tech B.C., says that the university is continuing meetings with members of CAUT this month to address their concerns.
"We're trying to resolve things," said Dickson.
"There's been some progress but nothing's finalized at this point. It's too early to comment on the precise kinds of solutions we're looking at."
The planning committee expects to make a recommendation to the province by early February on the facility's site, Dickson added.