Solidarity. Not Austerity.
On Monday, March 31, in response to immense community pressure to clarify expectations about final grade assignment, two sets of guidance were released to the Queen’s community: A Message to Faculty from Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning) Gavan Watson and a revised set of Winter 2025 Grading Guidelines from the Dean of FAS, Bob Lemieux. While … Continue reading The Truth About CR Grades
A contentious Senate meeting on Thursday, March 27, left many members of the Queen’s community reeling. Originally scheduled as a hybrid session, the meeting was moved online at the last minute. In response to a query by a faculty member, the administration said they chose to make this change because they had learned of a … Continue reading A Contentious Senate Meeting
Since we posted about the undergraduate students' open letter on March 26th, the number of signatories has more than doubled to over 1600. Today, we write to to draw your attention to the bottom of that letter where more than 100 parents have added their names and reasons for signing. QCAA has provided a sample … Continue reading Fair Deal Now! Parents’ Messages to the Administration
Is there anyone left on this campus who still believes that senior administrators have the university’s best interests at heart? Three days before the exam deadline, ten days before the end of classes, the university refused an invitation to sit down to talk with PSAC. The university persists with the fiction that their side, though … Continue reading Newsletter #23 (03/27/2025)
The day after we published a post assessing the different options available to instructors for assigning grades in the context of the PSAC strike, the administration released an update on the university’s Labour News page. We are dismayed to see that the administration continues to insist on CR grades [credit standing] as the primary means … Continue reading A Response to the March 26 Labour News Update, Plus a Student Protest
QCAA continues to receive letters from undergraduate students urging the Principal, the Provost, and the Board of Trustees to return to the table and negotiate a fair deal for PSAC 901 workers. You can read some of those letters below, and find a summary in the word cloud. As of this morning, more than 650 … Continue reading Fair Deal Now! Letters to the Administration, Vol. 2
Like everyone, we have been hearing a lot of concerns from students, faculty members, and department heads about all the unknowns related to grading decisions, final marks, and student transcripts. This post reflects the collaborative effort of MANY faculty members. It is a long post; if you prefer to read (and circulate!) a pdf, you … Continue reading Fair Grades, Fair Deal: Assessing the Impact of CR, GD, and Reweighting
Queen's is mustering staff, resources, and huge institutional email lists to try to shape campus narratives about the strike. Our version of the story is somewhat different. Today we are posting two items to help set the record straight. Scroll down to see a graded version of the university's March 19th statement on the strike. … Continue reading Fiction and Fact in the PSAC Strike
Unsurprisingly, our focus this week is on the PSAC strike. Bargaining 101: Reading the university’s labour news update from March 19th, one gets the impression that the university is politely and eagerly waiting for PSAC to return to the table with a revised offer. What’s missing from the update is the fact that the employer … Continue reading Newsletter #22 (03/20/2025)
Queen's Coalition Against Austerity 