The University of Ottawa fired Denis Rancourt, a physics professor, renowned researcher, and IWW member on March 31, 2009, while he was speaking at an academic freedom conference in New York City.

The university sought to dismiss him on the basis that he had awarded high grades to a graduate level physics class, which Rancourt says he did in order to remove competition and performance as they are obstacles to learning. The university claimed that Rancourt’s marking damaged the institution’s credibility as an academic institution.

Rancourt has said that the university’s board fired him before an April 1 deadline to submit a legal brief in his defense and that it ignored his submission of his students’ exams as proof that he was evaluating students properly. The university disregarded the union’s collective agreement and the grievance procedure by firing Rancourt without allowing him due process in his defense.

The Association of Professors (APUO), a registered trade union that represents university faculty, has announced it will launch an inquiry and it will likely appeal the firing in court.

The University of Ottawa in Canada is planning to fire Denis Rancourt, physics professor, IWW member, and renowned researcher, today, March 31, 2009 .

The university claims it is firing Denis because he announced that all of his students would get A+ grades on the first day of the physics class so that they could get on with learning, rather than compete and perform for grades. The university claims this educational approach damages its reputation and credibility as well as that of its students. In short, grades equal credibility.

The IWW General Defense Committee Local 6 (GDC Local 6) rejects this pretext as an exaggeration that does not justify the university’s repressive approach, which is a threat against academic freedom and education workers’ rights.

More information about Denis’ case is online at the Academic Freedom and Governance at the University of Ottawa weblog http://www.academicfreedom.ca/

Finally on 17 March, staff receive an email from Head of Adult Skills and Learning, Chris Minter, who is “pleased to announce” certain details of the privatisation of Leicester Adult Education College.

Minter tells us that this is “an exciting new opportunity to diversify the use of the college's facilities and income streams and will provide an excellent resource that fits well with our strategic priorities around employability.” In this new multi-agency initiative, Highcross Development Employment Hub is IN, Art and Design is OUT! Art and Design staff will be moved to inappropriate accommodation, some of these workers may well lose their jobs. So, non-vocational education gets the boot, while the kind of jobs training and advice which can be placed literally anywhere in the city gets prime position at the college.

You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that something rotten is going on at Leicester Adult Education College. With job losses; staff being re-located; skilled people disappearing; restructuring, with staff having to do more than one job; people who’ve left not being replaced� it all adds up to one thing - Leicester Adult Education College is being set up to fail.

The Incredible Shrinking College

We’ve seen courses being streamlined, other courses disappearing. We’ve already seen the closure and privatisation of the Creative Writing School. The Art Department is visibly shrinking with the loss of one of its three rooms, and now the loss of yet another.

Saatchi & Saatchi, it isn’t!

Bay Area IWW members are involved in the following struggle:

Originally posted to indybay.org

Our first day on strike was extremely successful, despite the owner’s attempts at intimidation by video taping us. Only two out of nine day-time teachers went to work. The school succeeded in hiring one replacement worker, but after we talked with him, he decided not to return! This shows the tremendous potential for support that exists throughout the ESL community.

Dozens of students stayed out also, many of them joining us on our picket line and several of them spoke at our rally. We should note that while they were speaking, the school's six-figure Executive Director was snickering and laughing – showing his contempt not only for his employees, but also for his “customers” – the students who pay the freight at SFIE.

Other workers – union and non-union alike came out to our first picket, and we have the commitment of others to continue.

PLEASE SUPPORT US
Spread the word!
Join our picket line!
Donate to our strike fund!

SFIEteachers [at] yahoo.com

Bay Area IWW members are involved in the following struggle:

On Monday, March 17, at 8:30 a.m. a strike will begin at San Francisco Institute of English (3301 Balboa, corner of 34th Avenue in SF's Outer Richmond District) and will continue until the following demands are met:

• Return of fully-paid health care that was removed in 2004 with the promise of its return when financial conditions improve, which they have -- in addition, this past week SFIE sold another school property that had been on the market for $1,395,000.
• An across-the-board 30% increase in wages, with automatic future cost-of-living-adjustments because there have been none for over 12 years.

Please join our picket line in front of the school building, as well as contribute to our strike fund (e-mail back for details).

This week will mean a return to campus for thousands of University of New Mexico students beginning their spring semester. Meanwhile, two former UNM employees will come back to UNM not to resume the jobs they loved, but to protest their recent terminations. They will gather with community allies, coworkers, and members of the IWW at the new George Pearl Hall located on the corner of Cornell and Central. There they will speak out about the lack of respect that UNM management has for university employees and what happens when workers speak up about health and safety issues.

Mike Swick had worked for UNM for 19 years when he was forced into early retirement. Mike is a former library facilities coordinator as well as a cofounder of the United Staff UNM union.

By John J. Cronan Jr - originally published on ZNet, December 26, 2007