U of S runs on corporate agenda

Sharma is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Saskatchewan. These days it seems that the success of an individual or an institution is measured by how much money they possess, can earn or, in the case of an institution, bring in.

When the context is that of a publicly funded educational institution such as the University of Saskatchewan, it is known that the provincial government’s support to the operations of the university is declining. Consequently, the university administration is soliciting funds from corporations and private donors.

Each unit on campus now has specialists to do this job. While private donors may make a donation with no strings attached, that is never the case with corporate bodies.

The corporations have agendas they slowly but surely attempt to fulfil either by influencing the direction the university is taking or will take, or the administrative programs it curtails, downsizes or encourages, or the increased use of technology at the expense of manpower in the name of “making efficiencies” and having sustainable programs.

The central administration, with its highly inflated number of highly paid bosses with an army of support staff, creates a sense of fear on the campus by repeating the message, in frequently held town halls and alarming email communications to faculty and staff, that “the worst is yet to come.”

By doing this, the administration is moving further and further away from the university’s mandate and its main stakeholders — the students and faculty.

There are many signs of this happening on the campus. All 45 firings so far have been of support staff, the most vulnerable and least paid group of individuals. No layoffs or “searching for efficiencies” at the level of senior administrators, deans, vice-deans, directors, etc., have occurred so far.

The announcement of a process involving academic program prioritization and finding workforce efficiencies, to be implemented on the basis of the recommendations of two task forces, really is an exercise in futility and a waste of time. The president of the university had initially wished to exclude students from these task forces, but had to concede ground on this in light of a strong student protest.

There is no need for the process of academic prioritization. More than sufficient data exist in the form of systemic program reviews undertaken by unbiased disciplinary experts on a regular basis. Why waste money, resources and time of the people who will serve on the task forces?

More recent evidence of corporatization of the university’s decision-making process is provided by the appointment of four new members of the University’s board of governors and the new university secretary, all of whom come from the corporate universe.

At the same time, the concept of a liberal arts education at the university is being fast eroded. Declining support for humanities, fine arts, social sciences and the library, the continuous rehiring of term appointees rather than making tenure appointments, a return to the high priority given to student numbers rather than first-rate faculty recruitment, and retrenchment of support staff (thus increasing faculty burden) all point to the corporate direction that the university administration is aggressively pursuing.

The bosses would certainly like to do more along these lines, but their hands are somewhat tied due to the existence of three unions on campus. Thank heavens for that.