“Empty and Hollow Inside”: One Reader’s Response to the FAS Dean’s Town Hall

Dear Dean Lemieux (Bob),

I attended the FAS Town Hall in Humphrey Auditorium yesterday, and left feeling grateful to be in the privileged position of being able to retire next year.

I think the most depressing aspect of the Town Hall was the lack of any discussion of what we are doing as an institution of “higher learning” – our mission, our vision for the future, or the skills and abilities our students will need to address the multiple and overlapping crises we are facing: the climate crisis, illiberalism, intolerance and hatred of difference among humans, destruction of the planet, AI, isolation and loneliness, inability to think collectively, growing income inequality, the changing workforce, and much more. Though depressing, I am not surprised by the lack of discussion of mission and values at the Town Hall.

For many years, I have compared Queen’s (and Canadian universities more generally) to my former neighbour’s beautiful old catalpa tree. When I first moved into my home, I marvelled at the big old catalpa tree, which had beautiful heart-shaped leaves and gorgeous orchid-like flowers that bloomed in early July. The catalpa tree was the last tree on the street to leaf out in the spring, and every year, I held my breath wondering if it was still alive… Every year, it would eventually turn green and blossom. Then one year, my neighbour decided he should cut it down because he worried it would crash and cause damage in a wind storm. After he cut it down, I realized there were only a few inches of live trunk left, and most of the trunk was hollow, empty inside. Though I missed the tree, my neighbour made the right decision.

This seems like a perfect metaphor for Queen’s. We still look like a university and act like a university, but we have lost our sense of purpose, our “soul,” our mission. We are empty and hollow inside, hiring external consultants with their cookie-cutter solutions for our malaise. No wonder the public has little interest in rescuing us with better funding. Why would they?

I have been thinking and reading lots this month about Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win in New York City. The consensus seems to be that he won because he campaigned on things he believes in and because he is authentic.

What do we believe in? What could rally Queen’s faculty, staff, and students to re-imagine who we are and what we want for the future? What could get us so excited about preparing for the future that our energy is contagious, leading the public to understand that something exciting and important is happening at Queen’s and they should pay attention and invest? Nous can’t provide guidance on this. Marketing departments can’t create that kind of energy.

Another depressing aspect of yesterday’s town hall was the persistence in ignoring the problems that the Queen’s budget model has created. This makes me want to swear, and has led me to believe there is no will to change the budget model, that the apparent “deficit” that FAS is facing must be convenient for other purposes. Relatedly, how can we re-imagine FAS in isolation from other Queen’s faculties? Are we not part of the university? The idea that FAS is an independent island that can create our future on our own seems like a neoliberal, patriarchal fantasy.

Related to the lack of vision, another depressing aspect of the Town Hall was the utterly bureaucratic and banal nature of the suggestions for “future-proofing” FAS. There is nothing here that will distinguish us from any other post-secondary institution under Nous’ homogenizing thrall.

I put a lot of trust in my colleagues’ brilliance and dedication to creating the best possible educational experiences for students. However, with increasing class sizes, declining levels of service and support, fewer TAs, and increasing demands, my colleagues’ capacity to re-imagine the FAS is under pressure. The clear lack of support and sense of disdain for what we do from the upper administration and Board of Trustees is utterly demoralizing.

I appreciate that you are working with many factors that are not under your control. However, it seems completely unfair to expect you to lead a “future proofing” of FAS as if we were an island, under the constraints of the current budget model and with a Board of Trustees that seems to view the University as just another corporate entity, to be managed like a business, not an institution of higher education.

No one is coming to save us. The banal, bureaucratic, corporate logic of fiddling at the edges will not save us. Maybe the wind needs to knock down the hollow tree that is the university. Maybe it all needs to fall apart so that we can build something more authentic, lively, creative, life-serving, responsive to the needs of the people, the planet, the future. Something that serves the public good and is more true to our best ideas of what university education can offer. 

I wish you well. 

With thanks and appreciation for your service to the faculty and the university,

Elaine

Elaine Power, Ph.D., is a white settler scholar and professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Studies.