As undergraduate students protested outside Robert Sutherland Hall, Senators protested for continued strike negotiations.
While Senate was originally set for March 27 in Robert Sutherland Hall at 2:30 p.m., earlier in the day, Senators were informed over e-mail of the meeting’s move to Zoom, citing safety concerns and difficulties for attendees ing in person. The meeting lasted over two hours.
In an e-mail obtained by The Journal, Chelsey Sisson, istrative assistant to the Office of the University Secretariat, cited an undergraduate protest outside Robert Sutherland Hall as the reason for the meeting being moved online.
“Given that we don’t know the size of the crowd to expect, we are erring on the side of caution and moving the meeting to online only to avoid disruption and avoid any safety concernsor Senators or Guests may have,” Sisson wrote in an e-mail responding to an attendee’s inquiry.
Senator concerns over the PSAC 901, Unit 1 strike
Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Studies and Department of Global Development Studies Kyla Tienhaara proposed amending the agenda prior to approval to add a motion enforcing grading procedures amidst the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) 901, Unit 1, strike.
The motion would mandate the use of existing academic regulations in grading, including instructors having the authority to assign grading categories of grade deferred (GD) in the event assessments cannot be completed and that credit received (CR) grades would be applied when requested by a student.
“There’s currently a lot of confusion and some misinformation about grade categories and options that are available to instructors whose courses and specifically assessment have been compromised by the PSAC 901 labour dispute,” Tienhaara said.
In a statement on the Labour News website, the University explained the process for giving out a credit standing.
“If a grade cannot be assigned, credit standing may be applied with approval from appropriate the Dean’s office,” the statement says.
Thirty-five senators stood firmly against the proposal of the motion, citing it came in late, different grading policies, different usage of GD or CR marks between faculties, and disadvantages to graduating students receiving GDs on their transcripts.
Bob Lemieux, Faculty of Arts and Science interim dean stated “If [students] have a GD on their transcript, they won’t be able to graduate. Students will not be eligible for Deans Honours lists. They won’t be able to enroll in new courses.”
The motion to amend the agenda failed with 12 in favour and 35 against. Despite this, throughout the duration of the meeting, Senators reiterated concerns over CR grading and halted negotiations with PSAC 901, Unit 1.
Tienhaara asked for further clarity on negotiation updates, stating PSAC 901 reached out to Queen’s on March 25 at 1:29 p.m., requesting a return to the negotiation table. Evans stated no formal request has been made by the union to resume negotiations, clarifying that a mediator must be ed.
However, in an e-mail sent to Evans at 9:38 p.m. on March 27 by the PSAC 901 bargaining team, they stated the PSAC-appointed negotiator, Elpis Law, ed the University’s Director of Faculty Relations, Michael Villeneuve, and CC’d Erinn White, the Ministry of Labour-appointed conciliator, two days prior to which they received no response from the University.
The Journal reached out to the University to confirm whether the people listed below are the official of the University’s negotiating team, but didn’t receive a response in time for publication.
Enrolment targets for 2026-27
Currently, enrollment targets are proposed to Senate six months ahead of arrival of incoming classes—resulting in issions being completed before Senate approval, Evans explained. Moving forward, enrollment targets will now be brought to Senate two years in advance.
From the academic year of 2026-27 and beyond, the University will also see a reallocation of 100 Bachelor of Arts (BA) seats for applicants within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to the Bachelor of Computing and Life Science & Biochemistry programs, and 200 to Commerce, Health Sciences, and Engineering. Exact numbers for each faculty weren’t specified.
Among the six research-intensive universities in Ontario, Queen’s had the fastest growth in student numbers from 2018-23 but the lowest tuition revenue growth.
Evans explained that according to their budget, the reallocation of seats from lower to higher tuition programs would lead to $1.4 million in tuition revenue for 2026-27 and $2.9 million for 2027-28.
BA seats will also be used due to their low selectivity with one in nine applicants itted compared to one in 17 business applicants, according to Evans. Additionally, BA programs aren’t typically an applicant’s first choice despite lower tuition, with 76 per cent of applicants listing BA programs as their second choice at Queen’s.
The new enrolment targets will be reintroduced for approval at the next Senate on April 17.
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