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

[Sherrill Grace]

Richard--I am truly 'down' about these damn CRCs--and I don't get 'down'
easily.  We'll have to fight like hell to have theatre on the agenda--or
any of the fine and performing.  OR failing that, we'll really HAVE to
position ourselves to get a share of the funding that is 'released' as they
say by other people getting the CRCs.  I have started in my small way by
getting the fine and performing words into the minds of SSHRC and will
attempt to do this, as well,at this Federation/SSHRC October Workshop.  I
worry about the fragmentation of theatre studies across departments across
the country and hope we can communicate with each other for a cooncerted
effort.  Can ACTR do something?
Sherrill

At 07:54 AM 6/8/00 -0400, Richard Plant wrote:
>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".
>