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Universities suffer corporate enticements with strings

Some grand new buildings at the University of Toronto -- including a lavishly renovated "heritage mansion" -- seem to beckon us to walk through their doors into halls of higher learning.

But they're also evidence that our universities, faced with deep government funding cuts, have found comfort in the warm embrace of corporate money, which is paying for the impressive new facilities.

With university administrators now heavily focused on wooing private funds, corporate money has become an increasingly potent force shaping our universities -- a development prompting a group of concerned professors to hold a teach-in at U of T's Bahen Centre this Saturday.

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The tragedy of the First Nations University of Canada

Participants at FNUC's annual pow-wow, March 28 at the Brandt Centre, Regina. Photo: Stephen LaRose.

Given all that's happened over the past five years, it's amazing anybody can still find the time and energy to party. But as the First Nations University of Canada took over Regina's Brandt Centre on the last weekend of March for its annual pow-wow, it was almost possible to avoid thinking about the academic institution's future.

Steven Swan, a member of FNUC's student council, mans an information booth, during what's probably been the most relaxing time he's had during the last semester. That's not saying much, since the council has been an innocent casualty of one of the biggest operational crises in Canadian academic history.

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Redeye

Quebec students protest tuition hikes

February 8, 2012
| For decades the provincial government in Quebec kept tuition fees low to encourage people to take advantage of post-secondary education. The Charest government plans to reverse this policy.

13:15 minutes (12.14 MB)
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New book investigates influence of Israel lobby on free speech at Canadian universities

No Debate: The Israel Lobby and Free Speech at Canadian Universities

by Jon Thompson
(James Lorimer & Co,
2011;
$22.95)

Academic conferences don't usually muster public attention, but in 2009 the organizers of the blandly titled Israel/Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace found themselves at the center of a media shit storm fuelled by the hysterical rhetoric of pro-Israel community groups and their supporters in the media. This reaction culminated in an unprecedented move by Conservative Minister of State Gary Goodyear to threaten the funding of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) -- an arms-length agency created by an act of parliament -- if it did not commit itself to a review of the funding it had already awarded by an independent peer-review process.

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Unionizing students

danger: educated union members

Creating a student union is as tough as organizing in any other workplace. It also presents unique challenges. Building solidarity amongst students who come from all walks of life can be difficult. The size of the school can also be intimidating. How do you reach and unite all those people? It is possible.

Unions are more than student adovacy.They create service centres for specific student needs, rally against the adminstration and return power to the studnets. Whereas univerities and colleges have an easy time exploiting or oppressing individuals, students can make a difference if they band together. There are some great resource guides available for getting students organizing together.

 

Resources

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Drop the fees

A poster that says join the movement drop fees

On February 1, the Drop the Fees campaign begins, supported by the Canadian Federation of Students. Marked with large marches, demonstrations and protests, the campaign continues throughout the year.

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University Sector Workers / Social Movements and the Law

Nov 22 2011 - 8:00pm
Nov 22 2011 - 10:00pm

Location

St. James Park
120 King East King & Church streets, North West corner. Look for us the North West corner of the park (close to Adelaide near the bathrooms
Toronto, ON
Canada
43° 39' 0.6696" N, 79° 22' 23.6244" W

The Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly (GTWA) has sent the invite out to University Sector Workers to visit Occupy Toronto. Lets make the connection between the struggle for decent jobs and services and the occupy movement. Given that the site is under threat of eviction the second half of the meeting will be a discussion on social movements and the law and how we can defend the occupy movement.

Contact name: 
Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly

Implementing a federal Post-Secondary Education Act

| November 8, 2011

William Watson on post-secondary education

| September 26, 2011
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