Solidarity. Not Austerity.
QCAA calls on all students, faculty, and staff to stand with CUPE workers fighting for a fair deal. Join the Support the Workers rally tomorrow, Thursday, January 30, at 11:45 a.m. at Richardson Hall. The 1000 tradespeople, custodians and caretakers, food service workers, and library, classroom, and lab technicians who keep Queen's running are facing … Continue reading Support the Workers!
In our last post, we outlined some of our concerns with Principal Deane’s Bicentennial Vision, giving him a failing grade for his analysis. But perhaps we were being too harsh? We know that in the past, the Principal has demonstrated a keen sense of critical analysis, including in an interview with University World News published … Continue reading Deane vs Deane: Will the Real Principal Please Stand Up?
The failure of the Principal, the Provost, and other members of the upper administration to inform and consult with faculty, staff, and students has made the rumour mill one of the more reliable sources of information about the rollout and impact of austerity measures here at Queen’s. Scholars have long understood gossip as a practice … Continue reading Introducing the Austerity Gossip Box
The murky process guiding the administration’s drive to restructure Queen’s got a bit more concrete last week when Principal Deane released a discussion paper, Queen’s Bicentennial Vision, in an email to all members of the university community. Readers who attended the December Senate meeting, where the Principal faced pressure to reveal the administration’s plans, will … Continue reading Queen’s Bicentennial Vision: From Liberal Arts University to Technical School
Members present at a three-hour FAS Faculty Board meeting on Friday, November 22, emerged from Dupuis Hall with more questions than answers about the proposed shift to a modular degree framework. You can read a blow-by-blow account of the meeting below. A brief overview of what happened is as follows: At the end of a … Continue reading What Happened at Faculty Board?
This will be a short issue today, but there is definitely more to talk about. Stay tuned. 1. As always, let’s start with the money. According to the university’s Investments Services website, the combined value of the institution’s short-term and Pooled Investment Funds (PIF) surpassed one billion dollars for the first time. This is an … Continue reading Newsletter #19 (11/21/2024)
Associate Dean (Academic) Jenn Stephenson has been on a public relations blitz in the run up to a major vote at this Friday's Faculty of Arts and Science Faculty Board meeting. Clearly nervous about resistance, Stephenson took to the pages of the Queen’s Journal to defend the controversial modular degree framework, which will reduce the … Continue reading Modular Degrees and FAS Faculty Board
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 … Continue reading Graduate Students Stage Walkout to Protest Queen’s Funding Cuts
Let’s start with the money. $20.4 million. 1. Queen’s University ended the 2023-24 fiscal year with an operating surplus of $20.4 million. The year-end consolidated financial statements are included in the agenda package for this weekend’s Board of Trustees meeting. QCAA has posted a commentary on the statement that draws our attention to the unusual … Continue reading Newsletter #18 (9/26/2024)
The Queen’s administration releases regular updates on projected budget deficits, but it's the end-of-year audited financial statements that provide the clearest picture of the university's financial health. With the Board of Trustees meeting this weekend, those figures have now been released. The 2023-24 financial statements are interesting for several reasons, but one figure stands out: … Continue reading Creative Accounting? QCAA’s Analysis of Queen’s’ Year-End Financial Statements
