Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities (Days 4-5) (fwd)

[Richard Plant]

Hello All:

Here's a recent report on the Research Chairs and on the deplorable state
of Modern Language studies. A chair in theatre, anyone?

Richard Plant
Dept of Drama, Queen's University
and
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama,
University of Toronto

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 11:34:58 -0300
From: Fedcan <fedcan at hssfc.ca>
To: @hssfc.ca
Subject: Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities (Days 4-5)


CONGRESS 2000: Day Four (May 27)
Concerns Surrounding Federal Research Chairs Program Dominate Debate
CFI to allocate $125,000 in infrastructure support for each chair

 EDMONTON - Windfall or ticking time bomb?
 They're projected to be the cause of countless internecine squabbles
within academe over the coming months and there's widespread concern
they'll more than nudge universities along a path towards greater
specialization and differentiation.
 Whatever the outcome, there's little doubt the federal government's
vaunted $900-million program to create 2,000 new university research
chairs, including 376 in the social sciences and humanities, has stirred
a hornet's nest within academe and rapidly become the dominant topic of
corridor debate at Congress 2000.
 With newly-appointed Canada Research Chairs Program executive-director
Rene Durocher trolling through annual academic association executive
meetings to familiarize the community with the program, there's also
increasing concern the so-called 'Big 10' research universities are
about to be set loose on lightning raids of smaller schools for
top-flight talent.
 Still others have raised issues regarding the disparity in the number
of chairs available to the social sciences and humanities relative to
their overall share of faculty positions within academe. But as Durocher
told the Canadian Historical Association, the division of the spoils
between the social, natural and health sciences is "written in stone."
 Durocher argued the 20% stake in the program which the social sciences
and humanities will receive is well above the community's traditional
12% share of the granting council pie. The natural sciences will receive
45% (846 chairs) and health sciences 35% (658 chairs).
 Durocher also dismisses suggestions the spoils are being inequitably
diviied among universities. The number each receives is proportional to
their success in granting council competitions over the past three years
--leading to allocations of 251 chairs for the University of Toronto,
162 for McGill, 160 for U.B.C., 138 for U de Montreal and 118 for
Alberta.
 "There are big universities with a strong tradition in research so, of
course, it's quite natural" they'd be entitled to more chairs, Durocher
said in an interview. "But even if you're small, when you know what you
want and where you're going, you can compete with a big university. If
they (small schools) want to keep somebody, they have the means to do it
now. There will be big winners. But there'll be no losers." Some 6% (or
120) of all chairs have been set aside for smaller institutions.
 With allocations by discipline to be determined by individual
universities in conjunction with their long-term strategic plans,
Durocher also lauded the "latitude" institutions have been given to
determine which fields they want to develop.
 "Of course we can expect that it will be a rude competition," Durocher
siad. But to have taken such decisions out of the hands of universities
would be "micromanagement" of the worst order.
 Each university will also be given the latitude to determine how to
spend the $125,000 infrastructure allocation per research chair it will
receive from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. The monies will issue
to a university in the form of a global allocation based on the total
number of chairs it receives.
 For example, Toronto will receive roughly $31-million in CFI chair
infrastructure monies and generate an additional $47-million from
endowments or the provincial government under the CFI's 60% matching
requirement. But the university can then can opt to spend $10,000 on
infrastructure for a humanities chair and $500,000 on a biomedical
chair.
 Although the CFI has traditionally been precluded from issuing monies
for capital outlays, Durocher claimed exceptions will be made in the
case of the chairs. A university creating six chairs in the social
sciences and humanities could, for example, opt to use its
infrastructure monies to construct a building in which to house all of
the anointed research stars, he said.
 Similarly, a university can determine exactly how to spend the
$200,000/year or $100,000/year it will receive for Tier I (senior) and
Tier II chairs, respectively. "The university can spend the money to
cover the salary, the bonus, if there is one; the benefits; or it can be
used to recruit people, moving expenses; or organizing the space where
the chair will be."
 NOTE: Issues surrounding the Canada Research Chairs will be explored in
greater detail in a forthcoming post-Congress issue of Perspectives.


CONGRESS 2000: Day Five (May 28)
Task Force Established to Examine Solutions to Crisis in Modern Language
Departments
Value of modern language instruction caught in university funding crunch

 EDMONTON - With modern language departments in universities across the
nation under a virtual state of siege, the Humanities and Social
Sciences of Federation of Canada (HSSFC) and modern languages societies
have agreed to establish a task force to explore solutions to the
crisis.
 In slashing modern language departments to the point where they're now
atrophying, or even folding, universities have "overlooked" the
importance of training students familiar with languages and cultures in
countries with which Canadian industry trades, the societies argue.
 "A key resource in the international age is slowly being lost," HSSFC
president-elect and University of Alberta professor of English Dr.
Patricia Clements says. Moreover, for many departments, "the real story
is survival."
 Ironically, most are struggling at a time when knowledge of other
languages and cultures is crucial to the success of Canadian businesses
seeking to generate economic growth through increased exports, says
University of Alberta chair of modern languages and cultural studies Don
Bruce.
 Meanwhile, Canadian firms are begging for expertise and hiring
inter-cultural consultants from abroad, adds University of Calgary
professor of Germanic, Slavic & European Studies Dr. Esther Enns.
 The siege on modern language departments is in part the product of an
errant assumption that English is becoming the universal language of
business, particularly electronic commerce, says University of Ottawa
professor of Russian John Woodsworth. "But business speaks the language
of the client and if we want to deal on a global scale with markets
where people speak other languages, the onus is on us to learn their
language rather than expecting everybody else to come to ours."
 Aside from putting an iron cross around the neck of Canadian industry
by failing to adequately train people with the linguistic and cultural
skills that help open up new markets, the diminution of modern language
departments does an enormous disservice to students, says Carleton
professor of German Dr. Robert Gould. "It, in effect, translates into a
reduction of (career) opportunities."
 Yet, with financially-strapped universities under pressure to achieve
greater specialization and differentiation, the modern languages are
often lost in the rush to reapportion funds to such disciplines as
engineering or computer sciences, says University of Windsor professor
of German Dr. Linda Feldman.
 Some modern language departments have been amalgamated with other
disciplines within the humanities, and still others pared to the point
of near extinction, Feldman adds. "You have a baseline of faculty
members that gradually gets decreased over time, which means that the
teaching of individual disciplines within the language department
becomes restricted to skeletal staffing. Once you've reached the point
where you have only two or three people trying to carry a program, the
programs are almost certainly shutting. It's only a matter of time."
 The task force hopes to quantify precisely how severe the financial and
faculty cuts have been nation-wide within university language
departments over recent decades. Thus far, much of the evidence is
anecdotal. Carleton no longer offers degrees in any modern language
programs. The University of Windsor has lost its Japanese program, while
Russian, Italian and the classics appear destined for oblivion. Even
French departments aren't immune, despite Canada's status as a bilingual
nation. At the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, for example, the
number of faculty within French departments have been halved over the
past decade.
 Clements says the task force will seek to craft a national plan to
restore the health of modern language departments. But while that will
necessitate additional funding, she says it's far too early whether a
special cabinet appropriation is needed or whether the problem can
solved through some form of targetted initiative under the rubric of the
Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council's international
programming. The task force will also explore the possibility of
developing new financial partnerships with groups like cultural
associations, as well as examine means of promoting greater
international exchange of faculty.
 The task force expects to produce its final report and recommendations
by next year's Congress in Quebec City. With one of the themes for
Congress 2001 being 'Identity, Culture and Language', the various modern
languages societies are also proposing to organize a colloquium on
current challenges within their disciplines.
-30-


Editor:
Wayne Kondro is a freelance writer based in Ottawa.  The former Editor of
the "Science Bulletin", an independent newsletter on national S&T policy,
he is currently a regular contributor to such publications as "Science" and
"The Lancet".