U n i v e r s i t y o f M a n i t o b a’ s G r a d ua t e S t u d e n t M a g a z i n e February 2012
CUPE gets the boot GSA serves union with eviction notice Sa r a h Pe t z
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HE MANITOBAN (CUP) – After nearly a year of working side by side, the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) served CUPE 3909 with an eviction notice on Nov. 28. The office of CUPE 3909, which represents teaching assistants, markers, tutors and sessional instructors at the University of Manitoba, has been located on the second floor of University Centre in the GSA’s office space since Dec. 1 2010. The GSA offered the union their space, after they were evicted from their previous office in St Johns College, as a temporary office until CUPE 3909 could find a new location on campus. CUPE 3909 now has amatter of weeks to vacate the GSA’s space. GSA president Peter Nawrot explained that GSA needs the space to accommodate a new full-time staff member, and that the GSA is currently short on space for their executive members. “Space is at a premium in our office, our executive don’t even have enough terminals to work at when the executive are here,” he said. Nawrot pointed out that the space was originally meant to be a temporary location for CUPE. The GSA did not expect the union to stay for close to a year. “Our whole lease agreement here was based on the assumption that they would be actively seeking a permanent place,” he said. Nawrot felt that CUPE had not done enough to find an alternative location over the past year and he had suggested possible spaces for the union to relocate to. Having them stay in the space for a year was “in violation” of their original agreement, he argued. “I think that they’ve been just busy doing their work, that they’ve maybe not been as fully engaged in looking for a spot because that’s not what’s urgent on their current agenda,” he said. “It’s been a year, and I felt that it was a long enough time for them to find an alternative space.” Matt McLean, president of CUPE 3909, said he was surprised by the eviction notice because he was not aware of the GSA having any issues with CUPE being in the space for longer than was originally anticipated. “If that was an issue, we did not discuss it. I’m not sure where [Nawrot] got that from.” “The only time we talked about the lease in terms of when it would be terminated and whatnot was after [Nawrot] provided us an eviction notice,” McLean added. He
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University of Manitoba’s Graduate Student Magazine
Gradzette
c/o The Manitoban Newspaper Publications Corporation 105 University Centre University of Manitoba Winnipeg MB, R3T 2N2
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Editor: Sheldon Birnie Copy Editor: Leif Larsen Designer: Kevin Doole Contributors: Leif Larsen, Sheldon Birnie, Beibei Lu, Dean Rennie, and Sarah Petz. Cover: Dean Rennie. The Gradzette is the official student magazine of the University of Manitoba’s graduate student community and is published on the first Monday of each month by The Manitoban Newspaper Publications Corporation. The Gradzette is a democratic student organization, open to participation from all students. It exists to serve its readers as students and citizens.
‘Space is at a premium in our office, our executive don’t even have enough terminals to work at when the executive are here.’ — Peter Nawrot, GSA President
explained that CUPE has found it extremely difficult to find a permanent office location, as space is limited on campus. CUPE is now considering looking for space off-campus, but are concerned that it may adversely affect their members. Most of CUPE’s communication with its members is via email and telephone, but moving off-campus would make it more difficult for members to drop by the office in person, McLean explained. He also argued that many GSA members are also CUPE members, so the move will have an impact the GSA membership. “It would definitely be a step back for us to lose that presence on campus,” he said.
Photo by Leif Larsen
The magazine’s primary mandate is to report fairly and objectively on issues and events of importance and interest to the graduate students of the University of Manitoba, to provide an open forum for the free expression and exchange of opinions and ideas and to stimulate meaningful debate on issues that affect or would otherwise be of interest to the student body and/or society in general. The Gradzette serves as a training ground for students interested in any aspect of journalism. Students and other interested parties are invited to contribute. Please contact the Editor for submission guidelines. The Gradzette reserves the right to edit all submissions and will not publish any material deemed by its editorial board to be discriminatory, racist, sexist, homophobic or libelous. Opinions expressed in letters and articles are solely those of the authors. The Gradzette is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national student press cooperative with members from St. John’s to Victoria. All contents are ©2012 and may not be reprinted without the express written permission of the Manitoban Newspaper Publications Corporation. Yearly subscriptions to the Gradzette are available, please contact publisher@gradzette.com for more information.
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Researcher profile
Dean Rennie Alternatives to social fishery in Grand Rapids, MB Shel don Birnie
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here’s no other environment like a university,” says Dean Rennie, a master’s student in environment and geography at the University of Manitoba. “There’s so much to do and learn everyday, you’re almost over loaded with information. It’s exciting; It inspires you.” Rennie works out of the Environmental Conservation Lab under Stéphane McLachlan. His research — funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Manitoba Alternative Food Research Alliance — focuses on the indigenous fishery in Grand Rapids, MB. “We’re looking at the importance of fishing to the community,” Rennie told the Gradzette recently. “What we’re trying to do is find alternatives to the top down management approach that is [currently] in the fisheries, and to enable the growth of that community.” Many Indigenous fishers in Grand Rapids are considered “social fishers.” While fully employed during the fishing season, these fishers are still reliant on social assistance in the form of employment insurance during the off-season. “They have to rely on the government too much,” says Rennie. “There’s too many layers above them that make the decisions for them. We’re trying to find a way that we can work with them, have their voices heard for what their opinions are, and come up with policy changes to the way the fisheries are managed, to try to improve the livelihoods of these fishers.” Part of Rennie’s master’s project involves the creation of a multi-stakeholder pilot project that aims to improve the livelihoods of local fishers while reducing waste in the commercial fishery. “In the summer fishery, there’s two main target species: pickerel and white-fish,” Rennie explains. “Pickerel is more in demand, so the price of pickerel is higher. When fishers bring in their catch, they’re more likely to keep the pickerel and more likely ‘bush’ the white-fish.” While technically illegal under the current commercial fishing guidelines, “bushing” unwanted fish is the act of — literally — tossing unwanted by-catch into the bush. According to Rennie, “if they bring [the by-catch] in, they’re only getting say 60 or so cents a pound for the white-fish, but likely more than double that for the pickerel. Because they have such a marginal livelihood, they’re likely to go for the higher valued product.” Under the current quota system that Manitoba’s commercial fisheries operates
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under designates each fisher a maximum weight of fish they can catch and sell per season. However, the current system does not differentiate between species of fish, so, naturally, a fisher will want to make the most of his allotted quota. As such, while illegal, “bushing” is a regular and highly wasteful practice that goes unreported, and undocumented. “By-catch is a global problem in all fisheries,” continues Rennie, “but all the attention is brought to the offshore fisheries, the marine fisheries, where there’s species like dolphins and sea turtles being caught in nets. That brings public attention to the problem from NGOs, all sorts of people, because there’s these ‘feel-good’ species that are impacted. There’s very little research in the fresh water industry as to how much of this by-catch actually happens, how much waste it produces, and how it affects fish stocks.” Rennie says the idea for the pilot project he is currently working on came from a fisher by the name of Gerald McKay. Rennie first met McKay as an undergraduate student, while working with another master’s student up in Grand Rapids. McKay began telling him of the problems local fishers were having with the bureaucracy and organization of the fisheries, which piqued his interest. When it came time to apply for graduate school, Rennie got in touch with McKay again. According to Rennie, McKay had an idea to collect otherwise wasted by-catch and donate it to Winnipeg Harvest. “[McKay] had this idea maybe two years ago, and he tried to move it forward himself. He tried to approach government representatives, Manitoba Water Stewardship, Conservation, those kinds of organizations, but they shut him down.” Revamped as a multi-stakeholder proposal between the University of Manitoba, the Grand Rapids Fisherman’s Co-op, the Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce,
Photo by Dean Rennie
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Winnipeg Harvest, and the consulting firm McKay, Finnigan and Associates, Rennie hopes the project will be more appealing to government in its current form. “This proposal will have the fishers bring in the by-catch, the white-fish, in the summer, and that’ll be recorded,” explains Rennie. “The fisher will be paid half the market value of the fish and then Winnipeg Harvest will give them a tax receipt for the other half of the market value, so that the resource isn’t devalued. The fish will be transported to Winnipeg Harvest where it’ll be distributed to Manitobans that utilize the food bank system.” The project proposal would be implemented over the summer fishing season — June 1 to mid-July and Sept. 1 through October — for two years. “We’re hoping [to provide] about two lbs of fish per hamper, so, you know, it’s a good nutritional value add,” Rennie continues. “There’s benefit to the fishers, the empowerment of being involved in decisions surrounding their livelihood, being able to help collect data and feel a part of the industry, and not just a primary producer who is at the mercy of everybody else.” Rennie came to the University of Manitoba as a mature student. He and his wife had been working in South Korea, teaching English. “While we were over there,” he said, “everything changed. All of a sudden you needed a bachelor’s degree in something to be able to go back. So after our first year there we said, ‘Let’s go home, let’s get a three year general degree, and then we’ll get back over [to Korea], we’ll travel, keep doing this.’” However, soon Rennie and his wife both became hooked on the challenges and possibilities that education held for them. “The more we got into our schooling,” Rennie said, “the more we found it challenging and rewarding and so now I’ve been here for, I guess this is my seventh year now! Wow.” As part of his master’s project, Rennie is also exploring one of his passions: filmmaking. “Part of my research will include a documentary that will hopefully explain a bit about the landscape of what a social fishery is, the challenges they have and some of the adaptive responses we’re working on so they can be more involved in their industry.” Rennie and the Grand Rapids Fisherman’s Co-op will be presenting their pilot project proposal on February 25th at the Growing Local conference in Winnipeg. Do you want your research profiled in the Gradzette or know someone doing exciting work? Email editor@gradzette.com for more information.
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Photo courtesy Dean Rennie
Reflections on an international conference International Conference on Sustainability provided opportunities for grad students John Hu
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he 8th International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability was held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Jan. 10 through 12. According to the organizer, the conference was founded upon the principle that “concepts and practices of sustainability are best understood in a holistic way, as the relationship of environmental, cultural, economic and social factors.” From these core areas, professionals, academics and students presented in a wide-range of themed-sessions covering business sustainability; historical approaches to sustainability; urban planning and architecture; regional sustainability; social justice and equity; food and agriculture; community approaches; art and music in sustainability; water and sustainability education. For graduate students, a Graduate Scholar Award was made available with cash prizes to cover travel and conference expenses. This year alone, more than a dozen graduate students from around the world received the award — with a majority being PhD candidates. Examples of awarded graduate projects included Aboriginal forestry, green building materials, food security, nuclear waste management and community engagement. Graduate students were given the chance to moderate all parallel sessions, which further enhanced networking opportunities. However, due to limited room capacity of the venue and the sheer amount of papers accepted for presentation, there was limited space and time to develop connections within sessions. This year’s venue, UBC’s Robson Square campus, is located at the heart of downtown with easy fast-rail access from the airport and ample of shopping and dining opportunities in every direction. The beautiful underground structure includes a semi-open skating rink that lights up in electric blue after dark. Other major tourist attractions such as Stanley Park, Granville Island and Vancouver Chinatown were all short bus rides away. The combination of things to do, see, and eat might have had a negative impact on attendance; certain full-sessions having audience-sizes of as little as five out of
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over 400 delegates. Also, the quality of formal discussion and debate were not up to standards with the average academic conference. Geographic representation of delegates was highly skewed towards the United States, with over one-in-three coming from institutions within North America. Other delegates came from the UK, Southeast Asia (with a notable number of presenters from Thailand), Australia, and Africa. There was a noted absence of presentations from Scandinavia, Germany, and the Netherlands — countries that have long taken the lead in domestic and global sustainability. Networking opportunities for graduate students were further limited by the lack of diversity in the areas of sustainability represented; a great majority of delegates worked directly with sustainability education and sustainability of post-secondary institutions, which was reflected in the abundance of sessions on such themes. With regards to distribution between sectors, policy-makers were both largely absent from the conference, possibly due to the lack of policy-focused streams in the call for papers. Was it worth attending? From a personal perspective, this is the first conference I have attended which is linked to Common Ground Publishing, an organization with no clear ties to any universities, which hosts over two dozen conferences in different topic areas. With an increasing abundance of “academic activity” being conducted for profit-making purposes, my scepticism towards Common Ground was relieved when I learned that the conference managed to pull together impressive plenary speakers, a support team that was present at all times during the conference, and a true deal at one of the world’s most expensive cities, Vancouver. Cost for full registration, three buffet lunches, and an evening reception at the Four Seasons was US $300. For a grad student, the conference economical, and great at providing funding support with the opportunity to publish a full paper in their international journal after the conference. Next year’s conference will be held mid-January in Hiroshima, Japan.
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Walking the Talk Employment experience survey hints at ‘a divide’ among university employees L eif L a r sen
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n June 2011 the University of Manitoba performed its first Employee Experience survey, and while a majority of university employees indicated that they were satisfied with the U of M as an employer, part time academics took the opportunity to send the university a message. While 82 per cent of part-time academics reported that they were at least satisfied with the university as a work place, the majority felt negatively about being treated fairly regardless of rank or position, confidence in senior leadership and career advancement opportunities. According to Matt McLean, president of CUPE 3909, which represents many parttime academics, the results were “unsurprizing, but very telling.” “In all these categories time and time again part-time academics and sessional instructors are not in line with the rest of the university,” said McLean. “There is clearly a divide here.” He pointed to a lack of job security, low wages and employee benefits as some of the areas where his members feel the university could be doing a better job. One result of the survey McLean singled out was the 59 percent of part-time academic respondents who felt that senior leadership at the U of M did not “walk the talk.” When asked for examples of the university not walking the talk, McLean pointed to the university’s efforts to promote its work environment. “This university has really been promoting itself as an employee first choice. [ . . . ] But unfortunately, because of the way work is set up for sessional instructors, even when they teach five courses a year they don’t qualify for any benefits the way the collective agreement is structured.” He added that many sessional instructors feel that they are treated as “temporary employees,” rather than valued members of the community. When asked about the responses from part-time academics Rosalyn Howard,
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‘Time and time again part time academics and sessional instructors are not in line with the rest of the university’ — Matt Mclean, CUPE 3909 President
director, learning and development services told the Gradzette that the university doesn’t think they “necessarily understand their experience.” The Gradzette asked Howard if the results would encourage the university to change the way that it manages part-time academics. She said “the sample is too small to be confident we have an accurate picture,” pointing out that only 21 part time academics chose to participate in the survey. “With respect in particular to part-time academics, we would have preferred, of course, to have heard from more of them.” In explaining why so few part-time academics filled out the survey Howard said that many “hold full time positions elsewhere, and do not think of the University of Manitoba as their primary workplace.” A claim McLean disagrees with. “Forty years ago sessional academics might have just been a senior lawyer at a downtown law firm, wanting to give back by teaching a course,” says McLean. “Today there are legions of sessionals here at the university who have ben teaching for 15, 20 years. This isn’t a break from their normal job, this is a career.” McLean says that in light of these results, and the university’s growing reliance on part-time academics — approaching 50 per cent of instructors in some faculties, according to Mclean — it’s time for the university to walk the talk and heed the results of this survey. Something he will be encouraging them to do in the next round of CUPE 3909 collective bargaining.
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Photo by Leif Larsen