Be responsible, TAs
Dear Editors,
Re: “TAFA union causes confusion” (Mar. 26, 2010).
Teaching Assistant and Faculty Fellow unionization is an extremely questionable move in light of the current financial state of the university.
Departments are struggling for cash, courses and programs are being cut and professors have been let go.
There are a number of frightening implications to this. Chief among them is a repeat of what happened at York University two years ago, where TAs walked off the job and the entire university was shut down for over two months.
The net result of this was a loss for everyone involved, including an exam period that stretched into June.
This vote on undergraduate education may have further implications. TAs are an absolutely integral resource, but departments certainly don’t have the money in their budgets to pay more to them.
TAs currently earn more than $36 per hour. Furthermore, graduate students receive stipends that are higher than nearly all other Canadian universities.
The Queen’s TA association website asks “Is Queen’s Behind,” but does this matter? Are these wages and stipends—especially in this economy—unfair?
If TA costs increase, departments will simply hire fewer TAs or will reduce or eliminate guaranteed stipends for graduate students. Either of these will seriously compromise academic quality.
The successful union vote put selfish demands in front of economic reality. Let’s hope our TAs will be more responsible than those at York.
James Simpson,
ArtSci ’11
Congrats, TAs, TFs
Dear Editors,
Re: “TAFA union causes confusion” (Mar. 26, 2010).
I was overjoyed to hear that Teaching Assistants and Teaching Fellows at Queen’s University have voted in favour of forming a union local with PSAC to better their employment conditions.
As one of the last universities in Canada to not have collective bargaining rights for both its staff and teaching assistants, this moment is well overdue.
I was deeply upset, though unfortunately not surprised, to see the approach taken by the Journal in covering the vote and campaign.
The article was extremely biased and took no efforts to ascertain whether what was printed was fact, or as was the case with much of the article, rumour.
Having worked as a TA at Queen’s and having participated in previous organizing drives, I have watched this campaign with iration for the dedication shown by those TAs and TFs involved in this drive, their ability to speak to the pressing issuing facing TAs and TFs and their honestly and commitment to integrity.
The vote was held in complete compliance with the Ontario Labour Relations Board and to suggest that there may have been voter fraud without any evidence does a disservice to all of the Queen’s community.
Congratulations TAs and TFs at Queen’s.
Perhaps the Journal can learn something from you about how to foster debate and discussion for the betterment of the Queen’s community.
Amanda Wilson,
former TA in Global Development Studies
ArtSci ’07
Threats to freedom
Dear Editors,
Canadians talk a fair game about freedom.
After all, we’re the land of the free, the home of the brave.
Canadians have fought for freedom in two World Wars and with the UN around the world.
Canadians are fighting for the freedom of others in Afghanistan.
Freedom in Canada isn’t in peril.
No one is going to take it away from you.
As you may have heard, Ann Coulter was prevented from speaking at the University of Ottawa this previous week.
She may have all the appeal of salmonella, but I take comfort in knowing that however insanity-laced her arguments and intolerant her prose, she’s free to speak her piece.
Apparently the University of Ottawa isn’t a free society.
I could extrapolate wildly from this one incident and claim that Canadians of a certain generation have a particularly poor concept of freedom.
That argument would be inappropriate, were the Coulter controversy a truly isolated incident.
I had the misfortune of watching the phony Jacob Mantle controversy last year.
The less said about the AMS’s letter on sumo wrestling festivities, the better.
Student government has become a realm for righteous indignation, possessed by those with little cause to be indignant and no grounds on which to claim righteousness.
The fact is, Canadians of a certain generation possess a poor understanding of freedom.
We exist in a realm of self-importance, secure in the knowledge that our way of life goes unthreatened.
So we imagine threats as a way of compensating.
Our self-importance gives us the belief that our pain is somehow special.
It comes at the cost of our grasp on common sense.
Ann Coulter is a nuisance.
One freely granted a media megaphone because of the offended self-importance of a few students with more outrage than brains.
Mantle told a joke.
In his case the quality of the joke was of greater offence than the content. The sumo suits are intended as fun, no more a cultural artifact than Shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day or lederhosen during Oktoberfest.
There are genuine threats to freedom.
Ask any immigrant who came to Canada from the Eastern Bloc with nothing more than the clothes on their back.
Our speech and thought, however stupid, is a right.
Your self-importance isn’t.
Mitch Heimpel,
ArtSci ’09
Your opinion?
Dear Editors, My understanding is that, due to the sudden availability of sumo costumes no longer required for campus funding raising events, the Physical Education Department plans to offer a course on sumo wrestling.
As a great irer of Japanese culture, particularly Sumo Wrestling that, “ancient and respected sport rich in history and cultural tradition” I would welcome the opportunity to don an inflatable sumo suit and learn something more of the sport’s theory and, of course, practice.
I understand the importance of wearing the helmet, but draw the line at attaching the bun of hair.
I have some concern about venturing into the realm of racial parody.
But my eyes don’t slant and my complexion, to my regret, is a rather pasty white and not the tawny olive I would much prefer.
Moreover, as a WASP, I “do not have the lived experience of someone who is oppressed due to my race” unless of course political correctness is considered a subtle way of oppressing “my kind.”
I hope my advanced age (70), a few physical disabilities and increasing deafness won’t be held against me.
The inflated sumo suit should ensure no aggravation of my physical problems and my deafness would protect me from the racial invective, which is apparently a staple of campus conversation.
I would need no encouragement to attend classes “to engage critically with issues of racism and oppression.”
Despite my handicaps of age, race and minor physical disability, do you think I might be eligible for the course?
I would welcome your considered opinion.
Ted Penton,
Arts ’63
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