"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule...There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just as such a document is not free of barbarism, barbarism taints also the manner in which it was transmitted from one owner to another. A historical materialist therefore dissociates himself from it as far as possible. He regards it as his task to brush history against the grain."
Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History."

Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 00:44:55 -0500
From: Mark Thomas
Subject: NGC, OGA and corporatization

Today Mike Harris met with the Council of Ontario Universties and various bank and corporate representatives to discuss the future of post-secondary education. The focus of his speech was that universities need to shape their programs to ensure that university students can get jobs in the 'new economy'. He said that ties with industry and the private sector need to be strengthened and that those programs that don't send students into private sector jobs should be eliminated. As an example of waste in the system, he noted that in Ontario there are 10 PhD programs in Sociology and 6 in Geography and students in these programs are not gaining the skills necessary to make 'meaningful contributions' to society.

(On a side note, 9 students were arrested prior to Harris' speech for disrupting the meeting. Interestingly, one of the 9 was a doctoral student in Sociology who was making what he thought to be a very meaningful contribution to society by opposing the corporatization of our academic programs.)

This message was identical to that presented at CAGS, where representatives from industry told deans of graduate studies that graduate students need to produce 'industry-relevant theses' and that graduate programs must develop curriculum that meets the needs of the 'new economy'. In other words, graduate studies should become corporate training grounds.

I see these meetings as a clear articulation of what has been a growing assault on graduate studies in particular, and post-secondary education in general. Basic research is not valued. Diverse curriculum is obsolete. Critical thinking does not produce meaningful contributions to society. A crisis has been created in the system through funding cuts, and now those that created the crisis are moving in to reshape the system with what is being characterized as the only solution. Our deans of graduate studies, our university presidents, and our boards of governors are complicit in advancing this attack on our public institutions.

I know our GM time is limited, but I think that NGC and OGA need to immediately begin discussing ways of confronting this attack and articulating our vision of what graduate studies should look like.

Mark
Chairperson, OGA

(and Phd student in Sociology)