Has the Ivory Tower of Higher Learning Lost its Lustre? Ask Panel Sponsored by York U. Centre for Practical Ethics

TORONTO, January 17, 2000 -- As partnerships between corporations and universities across North America proliferate, a panel of York University experts and students will consider the causes and consequences of this trend.

Hosted by York University's Centre for Practical Ethics and McLaughlin College, Pressures toward the Commercialization of University Research, Causes and Consequences is the third symposium in a series on Ethics in the University. The symposium, Thurs., Jan. 20, 1:30 -3 p.m., McLaughlin College, Senior Common Room (Room 140), York University, 4700 Keele St., will examine and address such questions as:

Why is the University no longer (if it ever was) an 'Ivory Tower'?

What is new about recent government-sponsored thrusts toward commercialization?

What are the consequences of these developments for the university as a multi-functional social organization and institution?

Why is the resolution of these problems bound up with the need to change our perception of students from clients, customers, or their dependents to constituent members of the university?

"Universities in Canada are being transformed from public institutions dedicated to the search for knowledge into markets for the pursuit of private interests," said York public administration and law Prof. H.T. Wilson, one of the symposium's panellists.

Chaired by York Prof. David Shugarman, Director of the Centre for Practical Ethics, the symposium will also draw upon the opinions and expertise of York University Schulich School of Business economics Prof. Graeme McKechnie, Master of Public Administration student Peter Alexander, and a student representative from the York U. Graduate Student Association.

Following the symposium, Wilson will read from his recently released book No Ivory Tower: The University Under Siege in the York University Book Store, York Lanes, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Both the symposium and the reading are free; all welcome.

A symposium on conflict of interest was held in October 1999, and one on sexual relationships between faculty and students in November 1999. The next symposium in the series, scheduled for February 2000, will examine international research settings and human rights.

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For more information, please contact:

Prof. H.T. Wilson
Public Administration Program
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 77896
htwilson@yorku.ca

Prof. David Shugarman
Director, Centre for Practical Ethics
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 77083
dshugar@yorku.ca

Ken Turriff
Media Relations Officer
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
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