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
This issue:
CUPE 3909 members vote to reject university’s offer Embattled prof denied pay raise despite teaching awards GSA wins recognition of autonomy
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Freedom! GSA autonomy agreement signed by Leif Larsen
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fter decades under the “UMSU umbrella,” and much negotiation, an agreement has been signed which will see the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) recognized as being truly independent from UMSU. According to Peter Nawrot, the president of the GSA, this agreement has been “50 years in the making,” a sentiment echoed by UMSU president Camilla Tapp. “Depending on how you look at it, this agreement has probably been ‘in the making’ ever since there have been graduate student members of UMSU.” When asked why it has taken so long for the GSA to win recognition as an independent body, Tapp said that it has only been in the last 10-15 years that UMSU executives have had any desire to work towards this goal: “past UMSU executives have opposed any discussion of GSA autonomy, and it’s only been in the past five years that we’ve been able to make progress on this issue.” According to Nawrot, graduate students will see many benefits stemming from this agreement, but there will also be some challenges. ‘Depending on how you “It’s really defined us, because look at it, this agreement has now the university administration probably been ‘in the making’ recognizes us formally as an individual students’ group representing the inever since there have been terests of graduate students, separate graduate student members of from UMSU.” This, says Nawrot, will UMSU’ – Camilla Tapp take away the possibility of UMSU blocking GSA motions they oppose, allowing the GSA to more directly represent graduate students. Autonomy will also see the GSA gain more control over their spaces on campus, and — most importantly — their finances. “Under the old process the university would submit the funds to UMSU and they would remit them to us,” says Nawrot, who went on to explain that in the past there have been examples where GSA funds were withheld because of disagreements between the two organizations. Now the university will remit student fees directly to the GSA. Tapp says an autonomous GSA will also have a positive impact on undergraduate students: “we now have a full partner to work with on post-secondary education issues on and off-campus.” On the flip side, it will be more expensive to operate the GSA, since UMSU used to cover the GSA’s insurance costs. Furthermore, the GSA will now have to be audited by the Auditor General of Manitoba, which is more expensive than the private auditors the association used to hire. Further complicating the issue, according to Tapp, is the fact that because graduate student fees are now going directly to the GSA, UMSU will be losing out on money it uses to enhance the experience of both undergraduate and graduate students alike; but the UMSU President is confident that a sharing agreement between the two groups can be developed. Regardless of the challenges, Nawrot is confident that this agreement is in the best interest of graduate students, giving them a “clear and distinct voice on campus.”
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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 General inquiries and advertising Phone: (204) 474.6086 Fax: (204) 474.7651 Email: publisher@gradzette.com Editor: Noreen Mae Ritsema Reporter: Vacant Copy Editor: Leif Larsen Designer: Kevin Doole Contributors to this issue: Sheldon Birnie, Ashley Gaboury, Morgan Modjeski, Sarah Petz
The Gradzette is the official student newspaper of the University of Manitoba’s graduate student community and is published at the end of September, October, November, January February and March 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. The newspaper’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 approximately 65 members from St. John’s to Victoria. All contents are ©2010 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 for more information.
Contract rejected CUPE 3909 members vote ‘no’ by Leif Larsen
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n Friday, April 30 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3909, which represents teaching assistants (TAs), markers, tutors and student/sessional instructors, voted overwhelmingly to reject the university’s most recent contract offer. Of the members who voted, 97 per cent were in favour of rejecting the offer, which authorized the union to initiate a strike if they deemed it necessary. According to Matt McLean, the president of CUPE 3909, while the offer tabled by the university would have seen employees’ wages rise by 2.9 per cent for two years after a two year freeze, it did not go far enough to address concerns the union had over wage parody and working conditions. McLean says that CUPE 3909 members are the “lowest paid teaching assistants in any unionized medical-doctoral university in English-speaking Canada.” This contract would have seen the employees he represents paid as much as $1 less than those at Dalhousie University in Halifax — the second lowest paid TAs. John Danakas, the director of the U of M’s public affairs department, counters this argument, saying that “the University of Manitoba pays its TAs, who are students enrolled at the university, more than any other university in the province.” Aside from wages, McLean says that CUPE 3909 members were also not happy with the disparity between the number of hours they worked and the number of hours they were paid for. According to McLean, the union’s members are often asked to work overtime, without compensation. “One member in particular told us they had worked 50
hours more than they had been paid — which is simply not acceptable.” Guaranteed hours are also a hot-button issue for CUPE 3909’s membership, with employees seeing significant cuts to the number of hours they can work compared to previous years. “I’ve spoken According to McLean, the to many members who have had the union’s members are often hours in their conasked to work overtime, tract literally cut in without compensation. half over the past year, while working the exact same course with similar enrollment. This has had a major impact on not just our members’ incomes, but on the quality of education at the University of Manitoba,” says McLean. The next step in the negotiation process will be a series of meetings between the union and the university, mediated by a provincially assigned conciliator. McLean hopes that the university chooses to revise their offer, which, according to McLean, was presented as a “final offer” when it was tabled by the university in April. Both sides say that they want to avoid a strike if possible, but are ready to face the consequences if a deal cannot be met. According to McLean, “a strike remains a possibility if the university fails to address [CUPE 3909’s] needs.” In the event of a strike, McLean hopes that the university would not bring in outside labour, as it did when University of Manitoba Security Services employees went on strike in Aug. 2010. Danakas says that the university “will work to negotiate an agreement and avoid any disruptive labour action,” but “in the event of labour action, the university makes it a priority to ensure the continuation of operations to the extent possible.
GSA renovation contest winners chosen The winners of the GSA lounge renovation contest consisted of two teams. Alon Weinberg and Rachael Alpern’s submission as well as Onilee Zaborniak and Maggie Khounthavong’s submission are both going to be used as part of the GSA lounge renos. More details about their plans will follow in the next issue.
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Researcher Profile: Rod Lastra Colonial expansion has resulted in dramatic changes to environmental conditions throughout the world — in particular, forestation. by Ashley Gaboury
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od Lastra, a graduate student at the University of Manitoba, recently sat down with the Gradzette to discuss his PhD thesis “Determining the Ecological Mechanisms of Forest Encroachment Within the Aspen Parkland of Western Canada,” which he successfully defended this past April. “Encroachment,” said Lastra, is the “invasion of non-native species or the invasion of woody species” into a particular area. In this case, he studied the invasion of aspen onto North America’s native prairies. Aspen are a clonal species, explained Lastra, and it is incorrect to call each thin white stem a tree. Instead, a group of stems will be connected by a single root structure and together form a single clone. “These guys [the stems] are short lived; they live for about 80-120 years depending on the fire cycle,” said Lastra. “The below ground parts can exist, at least in Western Canada, on the order of 6,000-9,000 years; these are very long-lived species.” According to Lastra, colonial expansion has resulted in dramatic changes to environmental conditions throughout the world — in particular, forestation. “Basically, you have grassland areas [and] you remove fire, which is a really important modifier in the system to maintain the forest at bay. What’s going to happen is that these forests are going to start encroaching on these open systems.” Woody encroachment is a huge problem, according to Lastra, from both an economic and ecological perspective. Lastra said that from an economic standpoint, encroachment is responsible for a loss of viable pastures and agricultural fields around the world. Encroachment and the suppression of fire is also important from an ecological perspective, said Lastra. He said it has resulted in the degradation of biodiversity of North American prairies, of which, he said, less than one per cent remains intact. Interested in the concept of encroach-
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ment, Lastra decided to pursue a thesis based on trembling aspen, what he called the most critical species in Western Canada and one of the most important tree species in North America. He studied aspen in both Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba as well as Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan. Within these parks, Lastra said that there are a handful of small northern grasslands left intact and aspen are invading each one. Lastra decided to research why and how these aspen were invading so that these systems could be better managed. From 2003-2009, Lastra monitored over 1,400 aspen stems, mapping out every live stem in four aspen clones. Each year he went back to see if the stems were alive, how much they had grown both vertically and in girth, as well as what kind of damage was done to them. He found aspen clones that were either invading into the prairie or were not. His first question: Why? Of those invading, Lastra said they were doing one of
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two things. One group was growing very vigorously, very densely and healthily. The other group was growing rapidly but experiencing die-back. His second question: Why was he seeing both? The answer to his first question came down to the formal biology of the organism. Fire, he said, will rejuvenate an aspen stem. “As soon as a fire comes and sweeps through an area and kills all the stems, new shoots will be initiated very vigorously and they’ll grow back up after a fire,” explained Lastra. “That’s the way these things have evolved, that’s what they’re really adapted to.” Remove fire and you will have die-back from only a couple of stems. This die-back, according to Lastra, will initiate the growth of new stems off the root. It is during these episodes when the clone starts to expand into the prairies and into open savannah systems. When examining the two types of invading aspen — the vigorous and healthy group and the sickly group that is dying back — he noticed a lot of herbivory with the sickly group. Herbivory, explained Lastra, is the loss of stem tissue by large mammals such as elk, moose and deer. In order to determine why the sickly group was being
eaten back in large numbers and the vigorous group was not, Lastra examined the leaf chemistry of both types of invading aspen. He found that the vigorous group — growing slow but dense — was allocating much of its resources to defence compounds. The other group was not. “No longer is it [aspen] adapted to grow fast and to grow super, super dense when fire is present. In the absence of fire you better be able to allocate resources for defence otherwise you’re not going to make it,” said Lastra. “The ones that are doing very, very poorly are not producing almost any defensive compounds. What happens is that the ungulates — the elk, deer, moose, insects — are attracted to them, they eat them. They’re very easy to digest.” Lastra explained that within national parks there is not only fire suppression but also an unnatural shift in the density of animal populations. This has caused an ecological shift in terms of the selection pressures aspen are exposed to. The take home message from his research is that within the last 15 years, human-induced changes to the environment have resulted in a potential evolutionary shift in the species, said Lastra. “Potentially now we’re selecting for traits that the species historically wasn’t adapted. Growing slowly and allocating lots of resources towards defence historically was not an advantage. Now it is,” he said. Lastra went on to say that aspen are experiencing massive die-back events in Western Canada, most of it being caused by the changes humans have imposed on the environment. “We have aspen that are dying out because there is no fire, and they’re dying out in large numbers. We have aspen that are doing well as long as there is no fire. There is literally a shift in the system, so we have to be very careful when we try to restore these natural areas and when we try to manage encroachment.” As for national parks, Lastra said we cannot let them do their own thing; we now have to carefully manage them. “In knowing part of the answer you come closer in being effective in trying to understand and potentially being able to manage and restore those things. That’s also important if we want to conserve biodiversity for future generations.”
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‘What they didn’t te med school’ Dr. Gabor Maté’s message to nursing students by Noreen Mae Ritsema
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he faculty of nursing recently hosted Dr. Gabor Maté as the Margaret Elder Hart Distinguished Visitor. Maté has had an impressive medical career, including time as a family practitioner, Medical Coordinator of Vancouver Hospital’s palliative care unit and a doctor in Vancouver’s troubled Downtown Eastside. He is also the author of several books dealing with stress, attention deficit disorder and parenting respectively. His most recent book is called In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and deals with addiction. His presentation in the Helen Glass Centre for Nursing was delivered in front of close to 150 people, more than the room could seat, as people had to stand at the back of the room and sit along the sides of the room to hear his talk. But it was worth it as Maté began by explaining that there is a gap between formal medical practitioner training and intuition. There is a very “top-down” approach to medicine that omits the complex lives and experiences of those seeking medical help. According to Maté, “information must flow both ways,” but medical practitioners are not taught to listen effectively to patients. In North America, there are three main explanations for illness: poor genes, bad lifestyle choices and idiopathic reasons, also known as unexplainThere is a very ‘top-down’ able reasons. All approaches to treatment are then based on these three dominant perspectives and this can be limapproach to medicine that iting, explained Maté, because the underlying premises omits the complex lives and assume that the mind and body can be separated, that experiences of those seeking people can be separated from the rest of their lives. This is where Maté’s bio-psycho-social perspective medical help. comes in, indicating that the mind, body and environment that people live in are inextricably linked. The interconnection is so profound that he really sees it as absurd that he even has to convince people of the connection. Instead, he thinks people should be trying to show evidence that there is not a mind-body connection. Observing that cortisol, a hormone that the body secretes in response to stress, is one of the most widely used drugs in today’s medical system, he suggests that stress is then the lowest common denominator in most illnesses. This is significant because stress is not commonly considered to be a factor relating to illness by the medical profession and also because over time, cortisol is known to suppress the immune system. Given this connection between stress and illness, emotions and relationships then play a very central role when in comes to health. Maté explained that “the issue is not emotions, but whether
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they are expressed.” The open expression of emotion supports the immune system. He went on to show how some of dominant society’s values are conducive to stress — such as taking care of other people before ourselves, a rigid sense of duty to others and an unwillingness to disappoint others. In this sense, “what we value in others is often what kills them.” When it comes to relationships, emotional relationships are one of the most dominant factors in all of our lives. If relationships force us to suppress our authenticity, we are really suppressing ourselves, which can lead to illness. Our bodies will literally show us answers if we are unwilling to address problems voluntarily. Maté underscored the need to personally listen and express ourselves, and translated this to the work of medical practitioners as well, saying that listening, open inquiry with patients and encouraging emotional expression is key: “you need to be authentic if you want others to be authentic with you.” Though not taught to consider a bio-psych-social perspective in med school, Maté now believes that a true picture of health cannot be taken without a holistic lens.
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GSA supports two national campaigns taking aim at Harper government by Morgan Modjeski
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he University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) has put their support behind two national campaigns aimed at preventing tax cuts for big corporations and subsidies for oil companies. The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition (CYCC) who are targeting the Harper government for giving oil companies subsidies and the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) who are criticizing Harper for giving tax cuts to big corporations say these kind of breaks need to stop. “We’re not protecting our future [from an environmental perspective] when we’re investing in oil companies,” said
to prevent deficits, but at the same time gives corporations tax breaks across the board. Mike Luff, spokesperson for the NUPGE said these breaks are hurting Canada’s social services industry and the economy as a whole. Negotiations between the federal and provincial governments focusing on federal funding transfers for healthcare, postsecondary education and social services have started as the current transfers and agreements expire Jan. 2014, and right now the Feds are not putting much up for grabs, said Luff. “The federal government is coming to the table saying, ‘We don’t have any money. We have a deficit and that is our priority.’ What we’re saying is there’s lots of money, but it’s a matter of choices.” Luff explained that if the Conservative ParThe campaign, called All Together Now, accuses ty delivers on the promised corporate tax cut, it the Harper government of cutting funding to social will result in giving away $10 billion dollars in programs to prevent deficits, but at the same time tax breaks to corporations. “It’s simply a transfer of wealth from public gives corporations tax breaks across the board. services to rich corporations,” said Luff. “That’s Cameron Fenton, National Director of the CYCC. “We’re a political choice.” actually actively destroying it.” Harper however, argues that these tax cuts will help Fenton said the environment and the Alberta tar build jobs and support families. sands should have played a bigger role in the recent federal “Our ‘Here for Canada’ low-tax plan is designed to election but noted that both politicians and media avoided complete Canada’s economic recovery, protect and create the issue and concentrated on other talking points like jobs and provide economic stability for businesses and healthcare and defence. families,” said Harper in a recent press release. “We will “It speaks to the fact that the current federal governachieve these goals through our plans for training, trade ment doesn’t want to talk about the tar sands [ . . . ] they’re and keeping taxes low.” actively on the side of oil companies rather than people,” A spokesperson for the GSA said that both the CYCC Fenton said. and the NUPGE campaigns are extremely important ways The CYCC have been bombarding the Conservative to get post-secondary education and public service at the office with a massive number of phone calls in an attempt top of the federal government’s priority list. to explain their concerns to Stephen Harper, but so far the “Everyone in school will eventually graduate and be a “phone mobs” have been unsuccessful. part of the workforce so it’s a struggle for the future,” said The NUPGE is also putting pressure on the Harper Emmanuel Rotimi Ojo, vice president (external) of the government for giving big corporations tax breaks saying GSA. that this money could be used more efficiently. The NUPGE represents 340,000 members, and the The campaign, called All Together Now, accuses the CYCC have roughly 3,500 members across the country. The Harper government of cutting funding to social programs GSA has more than 3,000 members at U of M.
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Students living on campus seek more rights Working group to address concerns by Sheldon Birnie The province of Manitoba announced in March that they will be reviewing, alongside students and post-secondary institutions, regulations regarding on campus tenancy. Currently, students who live in residences in Manitoba are not covered under the provincial Residential Tenancies Act, and are therefore not guaranteed the same rights as tenants living in residential units across the province. According to Family Services and Consumer Affairs Minister Gord Mackintosh, the issue was presented to the provincial government by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) earlier in the year, upon which his department began looking into the matter. “Our government is committed to providing secure and affordable living environments for all Manitobans, including students living on Manitoba campuses,” Mackintosh said in a provincial news release. In March, the province announced that they would create a working group that will include student representatives living on campus, as well as post-secondary administration, the Council on Post-Secondary Education and the Residential Tenancies Branch. RepreStudents living in on-campus sentatives from residences in Manitoba are not the Univerguaranteed the same rights sity of Manitoba Graduate as tenants living in residential Students Assounits across the province. ciation include Jennifer Chen and Monica Martinez. “We are excited to work closely with the Manitoba Government and other stakeholders to ensure that students living in on-campus residences have a positive experience,” CFS representative Alanna Makinson said, “while also ensuring that their rights as tenants are protected.” The working group will look to address the needs and concerns of all parties, and will also look to other provinces where students living in residence enjoy varying degrees of provincially legislated tenancy protection. Meetings will begin in the coming weeks. According to Roshnelle Inari, a graduate student at the
University of Manitoba living on the Fort Garry campus, “I chose to live in res this year because of the safety aspect.” Coming from out of province for a two-year program, Inari did not want to buy a house or spend weeks searching for accommodations in a city she was not familiar with. “I know a few other graduate students living in residences,” Inari says. “Most live in Arthur V. Mauro, and most are from out of province or international students but generally most people within my residence are first year undergraduates.” Inari says that her biggest concern about living on campus is the cost. According to the Manitoban, “Students living in University College, Authur V. Mauro and Mary Speechly pay between $4,997 and $8,136 a year, with payments in June, September and January,” rather than monthly rental payments, something the On Campus Residential Tenancy Act could address. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, other issues arising from lack of provincial protection include privacy concerns, as administrators of student residences can enter living quarters or even be evicted with little or no notice. Residential administrators can also place restrictions on visitors or guests coming into their dorms or suites. Through the working group process, the province, as well as other stakeholders, intend to address these issues and provide students living on campus with the same rights as those living off campus.
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Lukacs denied raise Receives teaching award for second year in a row by Sarah Petz
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hough it has been months since the hearing for his court case with the University of Manitoba over academic standards, math professor Gabor Lukacs received some unpleasant news on his pay stub recently: he would not be receiving his annual raise. The $2,068 salary bump was part of the university’s collective agreement with its faculty members, which also allows the university to deny the raise if the professor’s performance is deemed unsatisfactory. Lukacs explained that while he received a letter informing him of the decision, the letter didn’t elaborate on why he was denied his salary increase — simply stating that it was because of “unsatisfactory performance.” Lukacs suspects it is due to his ongoing court battle with the university. The professor was suspended without pay for three months in 2010 after he sued the U of M over a decision to award a PhD to a student who had not completed a comprehensive exam requirement. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Deborah McCawley decided to reserve her decision on whether the university was justified in this decision, and whether Lukacs had the right to sue at the hearing for the case held Jan. 20. No decision on the case has yet been rendered. “Regardless of whether that’s legally possible or not, from a common sense point of view, it’s like a double jeopardy,” Lukacs said. “It’s awkward to punish someone twice for the same thing, even if you believe that person has done something wrong, which I certainly deny.” Under the collective agreement, faculty members must receive a letter from the head of their respective faculty or department outlining the reasons for why they did not receive their raise. Lukacs says he first found out via his pay stub, and later received a letter. Dean of science Mark Whitmore explained that Lukacs had been sent a letter from his office. “I don’t think there’s any connection with the timing; that was not intentional,” Whitmore said of the way Lukacs found out about the denied salary increase. “That was just the way it happened.” Arbitration is set to begin in the next few weeks over a grievance filed by the University of Manitoba Faculty Association over Lukacs’ suspension. Regardless of the university administration’s opinion of Lukacs, it is evident that his students support the embattled professor; recently he received the Students Teacher Recognition Award, an award he received last year as well.
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Lukacs said that while he felt extremely happy to receive the award, he thought it was concerning that he received an award for outstanding teaching while being penalized by the university financially. “After all, the university is about teaching and research. That’s why we are here. That’s why this province is spending millions of dollars on this university. Quite frankly, if someone does a good job of both, they should be left alone,” Lukacs said. John Danakas, director of public affairs for the U of M, said that while he could not comment on Lukacs’ case, he noted that generally the university does not give annual salary increases when an employee’s performance is deemed unsatisfactory. “It’s probably not unusual, at any organization, that if a staff person is suspended, that might be related to their performance. I don’t think it would be, at any organization or institution [ . . . ] uncommon that suspensions and unsatisfactory performance are associated,” said Danakas. When asked to comment on how a teaching award would reflect on a faculty member’s performance, Danakas stated that “Teaching is clearly important and a valued part of a professor’s performance.”