MEDIA ADVISORY

For immediate release: September 27, 2024

KINGSTON, ON 27 September 2024 – Graduate students at Queen’s University are joining together to protest the school’s elimination of widely-accessed funding support for Master’s level researchers.

The protest is being advertised as an “All Out Walkout to Save Graduate Funding,” and is part of an increasingly common trend of mass solidarity events against Queen’s Senior Leadership Team.

The protest comes in response to another in a series of controversial decisions made behind closed doors by the university’s Senior Leadership Team, (SLT) — a small group of upper-level administrators who make operational decisions for Queen’s, typically in support of the University’s academic mission, though its adherence to that mission has been called into question by faculty, staff, and students over the past year.

Like many other recent budgetary decisions coming out of Queen’s, details of these cuts were revealed to the public through an information leak. On September 20th, the Society of Graduate and Professional Studies (SGPS) released a statement announcing that “the [SLT] approved a series of cost-cutting and fundraising measures.” SGPS shared that, “as part of those measures, the Queen’s Graduate Award (QGA), which currently provides an average of $4,100 per student toward research stipends, is set to be eliminated for new students beginning in Fall 2025.”

Groups on campus have been quick to condemn the decision, which would affect all departments and faculties at Queen’s. The protest itself is being organized by the student advocacy group Queen’s University Students vs. Cuts (QUSVC) but is being supported by both major on-campus graduate student organizations: the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Local 901, which represents over 2000 academic workers, as well as SGPS, Local 27 of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) student union.

Other on-campus unions such as United Steelworkers (USW) and various Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) locals have encouraged their members to take lunch breaks to attend the protest in solidarity with graduate student workers. Others, such as the Queen’s University

Faculty Association, which represents Professors at Queen’s, posted event details on their social media. All plan to have speakers in attendance at the rally as part of a growing movement of labour solidarity on campus.

PSAC 901 has been among the most vocal in its condemnation, calling the cuts “wrong-headed,” “idiotic,” “harmful,” and “discriminatory” in a statement released September 23rd. The labour union also took the dramatic step of calling for the resignations of Principal Patrick Deane and Provost Matthew Evans, both of whom have been embroiled in the budgetary scandals that have plagued the university over the past year as well as Vice-Principal Finance Donna Janiec. In their statement, PSAC 901 wrote: “Queen’s University is not a sinking ship, it is a ship that is actively being sunk by the wealthy bureaucrats at its helm – folks who are so out of touch with the needs of this community that they cannot see past the price tags on the pitchforks that are prodding them off the plank.

In a recent interview with the Queen’s Journal, PSAC 901 President Jake Morrow said “These cuts to Masters funding are an attack on the working class. What it does is it ensures that only people who either secure private or public funding or who already have the means to pay for an entire graduate education themselves can attend.”

The walkout has received widespread support on campus, with many academic departments from faculties across the university calling on professors to support graduate students’ right to protest and even asking instructors to consider canceling classes or work duties that may interfere with attendance. No department has issued a public statement as of this writing.

WHO: Queen’s University Students vs. Cuts, PSAC 901, SGPS, several allied Queen’s University Organizations

WHAT: “All Out Walk Out to Save Graduate Funding” Graduate Students Stage Walkout to Protest Queen’s Funding Cuts

WHERE: Reem’s Hall (Formerly Richardson’s Hall) 74 University Avenue

WHEN: Friday, September 27, 2024, 11:45am – 1:00pm

Media and the public are welcome to attend the walkout where leaders of Queen’s University Students vs Cuts (QUSVC), the Public Service Alliance of Canada Local 901 (PSAC 901), the Society for Graduate and Professional Studies (SGPS – CFS Local 27), and allied groups will speak.

For further information:

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