Universities Have Forgotten Their Purpose

One of the main reasons I do not contribute any money to either of my alma maters is the fact that it has become obvious over the years that universities have forgotten the reason they exist. While it may come as a surprise to the ‘visionaries’ who have been busily building their empires over the decades, the base mission of the university is, or should be, teaching excellence, not the forging of partnerships with businesses, not the building of grander and grander buildings, not the endless fundraising efforts, and certainly not the proliferation of already bloated academic bureaucracies (i.e., $500,000 a year presidents, multiple vice-presidents, deans, etc., etc.)

Now that these institutions are facing greater than usual financial pressures, what is their solution? Not to pare down non-essentials (see the above bloated academic bureaucracies), but, of course, to cut teaching staff and increase class sizes. Organizational behaviour is so predictable, not to mention so destructive to the well-being of the organization. I saw the same misguided and short-sighted antics during my 30 years as a high school teacher, when boards would spend outrageous sums on non-classroom personnel (“You have to pay top dollar to attract top people,” they would tell us) while begrudging us the smallest of increases.

I am reproducing below an article from today’s Globe and Mail that details the latest folly of these academic ‘leaders.’


Staff cuts to boost class size on campus

Services hurt as universities strapped for cash

Elizabeth Church
From Monday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Monday, Jul. 27, 2009 03:52AM EDT

A wave of staff reductions at cash-strapped universities will mean larger classes and fewer services for students at campuses this September.

The budget squeeze – the result of falling investment income and rising costs, especially for pensions – has left many universities scrambling to find millions of dollars in savings for the coming school year. With salaries accounting for the lion's share of budgets, job losses are the inevitable result, school leaders say. That's led to a range of actions to reduce head counts on campus, including layoffs, buyout offers, the cancellation of teaching contracts and hiring freezes.

“You've got to know these discussions are going on at every university in this country,” said Harvey Weingarten, president of the University of Calgary, who recently warned that as many as 200 jobs would be lost on campus this fall. Dr. Weingarten said efforts would be made to limit those cuts to areas that have the least effect on students, but he said with so much of the budget spent on salaries and benefits, staff reductions are the only way to meet the province's requirement for a balanced budget.

While many schools say it is too soon to put a firm number on job losses, others are in talks with unions or have already taken action.

At the University of Guelph, as many as 100 teaching contracts and 30 posts for teaching assistants are in question. The exact cuts will depend on course demand and student numbers, a university spokesman said. Earlier this year 145 staff at the university accepted an early retirement package.

The University of Western Ontario was one of the first campuses to implement reductions, offering a buyout package and a phased retirement option this spring, followed by the layoff of 55 staff.

“I think it's fair to say the system is under distress,” said Jim Butler, vice-president of finance and administration at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. Laurier is using one-time provincial funding to help bridge this year's $8.8-million funding shortfall, but also is cutting casual workers and posts through attrition to make ends meet. The measures will mean the elimination of some smaller classes. “If there is a class of six people in it, we will not be running it,” Mr. Butler predicted.

There will also be fewer campus jobs for returning students. Cuts have already been made at the Special Constable Services, a 24-hour on-campus security hub that last year employed 32 students to work as dispatchers.

The centre responds to student emergencies, whether it's a stolen bike or a bar brawl at the campus pub. During the school year, student dispatchers work six-hour shifts in teams of two, answering phone calls, dispatching officers during emergencies, and keeping an eye on the 236 CCTV cameras on campus.

This fall, the centre will hire 16 students, with only one working per shift.
Second-year business student Jodi Martin was a student dispatcher last year and used her earnings to help pay for tuition. She was hoping to keep the position throughout the summer but was discouraged when her manager informed her of the staffing reductions.

“I was really unimpressed by the fact that they were cutting that,” she said, adding that the centre was actually redesigned last year to accommodate two students per shift. “Especially since they had drilled it into us how important it was that there was two people there for regulations and for being able to do the job properly.”

Other schools are floating proposals for unpaid leave. Lakehead University in Thunder Bay is attempting to require staff and faculty to take days off in December and the idea of unpaid “Queen's Days” was suggested by the administration at Queen's University recently, but was rejected by faculty.

“Clearly all this will inevitably have a significant impact on how we deliver programs,” said Patrick Deane, vice-principal academic at Queen's. Mr. Deane said many, but not all, contract faculty will not have their appointments renewed, and proposals for early retirement packages are being discussed.

While universities say the cuts are necessary, faculty groups are attempting to gauge the severity of the situation, with some questioning the need for drastic action and warning about the effect it will have on quality.

“It's a muddied picture,” said Jim Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. “We are trying to separate out legitimate claims of financial hardship from less legitimate claims, but it is not easy.”

Mr. Turk said it is too soon to see trends in the reductions. While some schools are cutting contract faculty, others are using them as a less costly replacement for departing tenured professors. “It's an evolving story,” he said.

As the story develops, faculty members such as Mark Jones, an English professor at Queen's University, are troubled by the departure of talented scholars who have been told they will not be needed next year.

“It's very upsetting,” he said. “There are tremendous losses here.”
Over the past two decades, Prof. Jones said, he has watched seminar classes double or even triple in size and introductory courses swell from 50 to 200 students. He fears what further cuts will do to course offerings and the ability of the department to offer a full program.

Shona Holmes - Part 4

Despite the reluctance of private media to publicly challenge Shona Holmes' veracity about her condition and prognosis, the Hamilton Spectator today ran a story about a woman with the same last name who is receiving a flurry of phone calls very critical of Shona Holmes' lending herself to the American right wing for propaganda purposes. The paper finally reveals (undoubtedly after much soul-searching) that Holmes had a cyst, not a tumour, removed at the Mayo Clinic. I have taken the liberty of reproducing the story below:

Couple getting abusive calls meant for Canadian health critic

July 23, 2009
Carmela Fragomeni
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR
(Jul 23, 2009)




I am NOT Shona Holmes.

Waterdown resident Palmira Holmes wants angry callers to know she is not the same Holmes from Waterdown whose problems with Canadian health care have made her the U.S. poster girl for forces opposed to President Barack Obama's health-care plan.
Palmira Holmes has been inundated with phone calls from people trying to express their fury over Shona Holmes' decision to become the face of an aggressive American TV ad that slams Canadian-style health care.

Airing in 50 states as Shona's Story, the ad has Holmes explaining: "I survived a brain tumour, but if I had relied on my government for health care, I'd be dead."
Palmira Holmes says "it was like being bombarded" in the last few days as critics called constantly, thinking they'd reached Shona Holmes. Palmira's number is listed as S. Holmes for husband Stephen.

Callers have shouted, called her a liar and tried to shame her, but they are venting to the wrong person.

"We are not related. I don't even know her," said Palmira. "I wasn't even aware this was going on until people started calling me."

It isn't a surprise the other Holmes family is getting calls. Shona Holmes has ignited an issue of clear emotional importance.

Canadian media websites that have carried items on the ad have registered more than 1,000 critical online comments since Monday. A key area of discussion for critics is whether the facts about Holmes' case are accurately portrayed.

"It's unclear to me exactly what her condition was, and why she was put on the waiting list," said Kenneth Sherman, national chair of Democrats Abroad, an organization of American expats who live here but still vote in the U.S.
"No matter what her situation was, it's the worst example of the Canadian system, not the norm."

Holmes came to public attention in 2007 when she and another Ontario resident launched a lawsuit against the Ontario government, alleging undue wait times.
Her statement of claim, filed in the Ontario Superior Court, says Holmes began to get headaches, disturbed vision and other symptoms in March 2005, but was told she had to wait more than seven weeks for an MRI, over four months for a neurology consultation and over six months for a consultation with another specialist.

The MRI in May 2005 "showed an 8-9 mm tumour" and subsequent tests "confirmed a significant loss of vision in both eyes," the statement of claim says.

Concerned by the projected wait for treatment, Holmes had the symptoms evaluated at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, which identified a Rathke's cleft cyst, a fluid-filled sac that grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain.

The statement of claim says the Mayo Clinic urged Holmes "to have the cyst surgically removed immediately to avoid the risk of permanent blindness and death."
That operation took place in Arizona in August 2005. Her lawsuit against Ontario is on hold until a hearing this fall to try to recoup the $100,000 cost from OHIP.

Shona Holmes has said she feels so strongly about faults in the Canadian system that she had to act when contacted by the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, which opposes government involvement in health care. The group is among many lobbyists working to derail Obama's plan.

Sherman says Democrats Abroad -- which supports Obama -- is so incensed by misrepresentations of the Canadian system that it will run a counter campaign.
"Most of us members, like myself, have had insurance coverage in both systems, so we know the pitfalls as well as the benefits of both," Sherman said. "Americans here in Canada feel we have a unique tale to tell. We're going to share that with letters and phone calls to our congressmen and back to hometown newspapers ..."

Meanwhile, Palmira Holmes has had to warn her eight-year-old son not to answer the phone. Palmira said the family can't even change their number because they run their business from home.

"I just can't shut it off."

She has called Hamilton police to find out what she could do and is waiting to hear back.

"I'm just stressed and terrified."
cfragomeni@thespec.com

Shona Holmes - Part 3

Finally, someone asked the questions that need to be asked of Shona Holmes. But guess what? Those who are practicing real journalism are working for our public broadcaster, the CBC, much reviled by the right wing as a terrible drain on the taxpayer, and not needed because we are so 'well-served' by private broadcasters. Of course, were that true, those hard questions about her story would have been asked, wouldn't they?

To hear the interview, click here and download the podcast of tonight's edition of "As It Happens."

Shona Holmes - Part 2

Just a brief note here. Someone from the local media read my blog and requested an interview about Shona Holmes. Despite the fact that the interview was at least 10 minutes long, it was condensed on the news to about 10 seconds; none of my comments about this woman's misrepresentations were used, only a few brief comments about my late brother-in-law's treatment.

I suspect the reporter who interviewed me had the best of intentions, but that the ruthless editing was done by the 'powers that be' who take the safest, most cautious and conservative route in their news coverage which, if they ever really thought about it, is the opposite of what their role is expected to be in preserving a healthy democracy.

I just found another website that takes a very critical look at Ms Holmes. Check it out if you get the chance, and try to get the word out to people about her untruths.

Shona Holmes – Brain Tumour or Cyst Survivor?

I was very disappointed by the media's superficial coverage of Shona Homes, the Waterdown woman who has aided the American right wing by filming a commercial in which she describes herself as a ‘brain tumour survivor” whose life was saved because she used the U.S. private system to attend to her health problems. In allowing herself to be used by those U.S. vested interests who oppose any hint of public health care (even though it is the only Western industrialized country that leaves its citizens to the capricious mercy of the private insurers, and seems unbothered by the fact that 50 million Americans have no coverage), there is one major problem: her story as reported isn’t quite true.

A quick visit to the Mayo Clinic website reveals her actual condition, Rathke's cleft cyst, described as a “rare, fluid-filled sac [that] grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain and eventually can cause hormone and vision problems.” Nowhere is it described as potentially fatal, a clear contradiction of Ms Holmes’ claim in the commercial that within six months she would have been dead if left to the vagaries of the Canadian health system.

I feel especially upset by the propagandizing nature of her commercial due to the fact that last year my brother-in-law died of brain cancer. The truth is that from the moment he was diagnosed (days after he had his initial seizure) to the time he died, he received exemplary and timely care from a team of dedicated specialists employed by our allegedly flawed system in Ontario. Unfortunately, the nature of his brain cancer, multiforme glioblastoma, the same suffered by Ted Kennedy, meant a fatal outcome was inevitable.

In my view, despite her anxiety and suffering, Ms Holmes should be ashamed of herself for undermining Barrack Obama’s efforts to bring some humanity to a system that is badly in need of it, and calling into disrepute a Canadian system that we would all be much worse off without.

Tim Hudak – The New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader

Tim Hudak, 41 and a former Ontario cabinet minister, was recently elected the new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Endorsed by former Premier Mike Harris, in my mind the most evil and divisive political leader in Canada’s history, Hudak seems intent on regaining power for the party by resurrecting the same tactics that so divided so many Ontarians during Harris’s rule. Spouting catch phrases such as ‘middle class values,’ and suggesting that he would cut up public sector contracts because they are too rich, Hudak, who has never held a job outside of politics, seems to assume that there is still an appetite amongst the electorate for the politics of disenfranchisement and division, politics that play to the worst of human nature.

In the leadup to the convention, the general wisdom was that centrists such as Christine Elliot could never lead the party back to power, being too closely allied in many ways with the policies of the existing Liberal government under Dalton McGuinty. And therein lies the problem with politicians today - if the only reason to choose Hudak is to increase the chance of returning to power, doesn’t that bespeak a moral vacuum? I would argue, of course, that this bald grasping for power for power’s sake is endemic in our system today, not limited to the Conservative Party by any means.

Margaret Wente, with who I rarely agree, has an interesting column in today’s Globe and Mail that examines the politics and strategy of Mr. Hudak. I have taken the liberty of reprinting it below:


Only a political junkie could care about the fate of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party - a bunch of old white guys so lost in the woods they make Stephen Harper's crowd look enlightened.

To bring you up to date, they just had a leadership race. Not one of the candidates addressed the economic tsunami that will define the province for years to come. Instead, the front-runner chose to fan the culture wars by lustily attacking Ontario's Human Rights Commission. The small-town base applauded. Anyone else might ask: Who cares about the culture wars when the economic heartland of Canada is being disembowelled?

The election of Tim Hudak as leader of the Official Opposition is a rare piece of good news for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Mr. Hudak has styled himself as the reincarnation of Mike Harris, a name that evokes fear and loathing among most of the province's voters. People remember Mr. Harris as a dose of Castor oil - necessary, but deeply unpleasant. It is not an experience they'd care to repeat.

Nonetheless, Mr. Hudak thinks that old-time medicine might go down well again. He stands for "hard-working Ontarians" and "middle-class families," while the McGuinty Liberals stand for "massive tax grab."

By narrowing their base, the Conservatives took exactly the wrong message from their previous leader's failure to make an impact. John Tory was a Red Tory with bad timing. He opposed a moderate premier in good times. Mr. McGuinty projects an image as a dull but honest guy, and his government has generally avoided major screw-ups. The economy was booming, and voters saw no reason to rock the boat. Mr. Tory's political failure was widely blamed on his nice-guyness, along with his unpopular support for private-school funding. But it was prosperity that did him in.

Mr. Tory has little love for his successor, who campaigned for his job the entire time he had it. Mr. Hudak, 41, is nothing if not ambitious. He's been a career politician since he was first elected at 27 - not necessarily a plus, in my view. At least Mr. Harris spent some time as a golf pro.

In public, Mr. Hudak is a bit robotic - bright, glib and highly scripted by his band of Harrisites. His wife, Deb Hutton, was chief of staff in the Harris government. He is not unpersonable, but he's not personable, either. He has a habit of baring his teeth in an alarmingly phony smile, as if he's about to devour Little Red Riding Hood. Whether he's capable of substance is not known.

I'm not a fan of Mr. McGuinty's wishy-washy nanny-statish liberalism. But he is geekily enthusiastic about ideas, even though a lot of them are half-baked. He thinks seriously about forging a prosperous postindustrial model for Ontario. He surely knows that, before the next election in 2011, the province will be grappling with an unemployment rate of at least 10 per cent and even more horrendous deficits than it has now. He'll have to raise taxes and cut spending. So will anyone else who winds up in the job.

The reason to bother with Mr. Hudak is that he may well be premier one day - if not next time, then the time after that. All governments get long in the tooth, and this one is well into its second term. It is also sailing into a perfect storm not of its own making. If people get mad enough, they'll vote for Donald Duck.

That alone may be enough to get Mr. Hudak elected. But if he's halfway smart, he'll realize that the 5,600 diehards who elected him as leader are the party's past. They are the province's past, too. Ontario's future won't be forged in the aging, fading, small white towns like the one he grew up in. It will be forged in the vibrant knowledge belt of Southern Ontario, and in multiethnic, creative, culturally liberal Toronto. My advice to Mr. Hudak is to work the next Pride parade. It might broaden his horizons. It might even loosen him up.

Neuroplasticity and the Arrowsmith Program

There is an interesting article in today's Globe and Mail on a course offered by the Toronto Catholic School Board that is in danger of being eliminated. Called the Arrowsmith program, it is based on the concept of neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change its structure and function:

Unconventional program for students with learning disabilities may be on the chopping block

KATE HAMMER

From Monday's Globe and Mail, Monday, Jun. 22, 2009 03:33AM EDT

Through two hours of tears, frustration and repetition, Brendan Westermann would memorize his Grade 4 spelling list each week.

But when he woke up the next morning, the letters would be jumbled and later, in class, he'd fail his spelling test again.

"Usually I'd get half the words wrong," he said, wrinkling a bronzed nose speckled with freckles.

Brendan and his mother, Cora Westermann, sometimes ended up in tears following marathon cramming sessions. After Brendan went to bed, Ms. Westermann would surf the Internet searching for programs for children with learning disabilities.

Brendan was diagnosed as gifted-dyslexic, and it wasn't until two years later, in November, 2008, that Ms. Westermann and her husband, Paul Westermann, found a way to make the tears stop.

They started driving Brendan from their home in Uxbridge, Ont., to Toronto, where an alternative course called the Arrowsmith program is offered through the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Brendan, 12, began attending Grade 6 at Holy Spirit Catholic School, and performing daily exercises aimed at improving his working memory.

Before long, the crying stopped.

Brendan began finishing his homework in less time, reading books on his own for fun, and enjoying school.

"The program allowed him to bypass his problems and access his intelligence," Mr. Westermann said.

But when Brendan completes his first year at Holy Spirit's Arrowsmith program this week, it could be his last.

In order to balance next year's budget and bring the school board out of the red, the TCDSB is looking to cut a handful of programs, including Arrowsmith.

Overspending led to a takeover of the board last year by a government-appointed supervisor, and the fate of the program has slipped through the fingers of the board's trustees.

A provincial supervisory team will decide the fate of the program at a meeting Wednesday.

With a $1.5-million boost to the special-education budget expected next year, some trustees and parents are concerned that the future of the program may be decided more by ideology than by dollars.

About 65 students participated in the program this year at a cost of just over $201,265.

"It's a miniscule amount of the overall money we spend on special education," said John Del Grande, a TCDSB trustee.

"This program has become more of an ideological battle as a opposed to a money or a student value issue."

The Arrowsmith program represents a radical departure from traditional approaches, which generally involve compensatory methods such as letting a child with poor handwriting use a laptop, or a child with poor reading comprehension take a test orally.

The program is anchored in a concept called neuroplasticity, which refers to the brain's ability to change its structure and function.

Through daily activities aimed at exercising weak neural pathways - such as tracing shapes while wearing an eye patch or recalling symbols - Arrowsmith teachers believe students' brains can be trained to overcome 19 specific learning dysfunctions.

"I know of no program anywhere in the world right now that works as well," said Norman Doidge, a psychiatrist and faculty member at the University of Toronto, and author of The Brain That Changes Itself, a bestselling book about neuroplasticity.
"There's no reason it can't be administered in public schools. They always have special education in public schools and the teachers only have to undergo a few weeks of training."

Frank Piddisi, superintendent of Special Services, said a $17-million special education deficit for the 2008-2009 academic year is one reason it can't be administered at the TCDSB.

Another reason, he said, is the fact that $175,715 of the $200,000 price tag goes toward licensing the seven schools that offer the Arrowsmith program.

"Without the licensing fee the cost would be incidental almost," he said.
The program was developed about 30 years ago by Barbara Arrowsmith Young.

Independent schools in Ontario, Saskatchewan and the United States offer the program but most of them carry a daunting price tag.

The private Toronto Arrowsmith school costs about $20,000 a year, a prohibitive amount for Debbie Clark, a single mother with two daughters.

Ms. Clark's eldest daughter, Victoria, is in her third year of the program at the TCDSB. Her mother describes the improvements in the 12-year-old's reading comprehension skills as "a miracle."

But without $20,000 a year to put her youngest, Amanda, in the private school, she fears her daughter may never get the opportunity her older sister has had if the TCDSB program closes.

"I really feel that if Amanda doesn't go through Arrowsmith, with her anger and her anxiety [in the classroom], I'm very scared for her future," Ms. Clark said. "I think the program should be available to everyone. These are our kids, they are our future, it does fix their brains and we can't put a price tag on them."

"The bottom line is that the board has to balance the budget," said Emmy Milne, a spokeswoman for the TCDSB. She added that the Arrowsmith program isn't being targeted, and other important programs may get the axe.

The Westermanns are prepared to take out a loan and commute to an Arrowsmith school in Peterborough in order to continue Brendan's education.

"I think it means that it gives him equal opportunity compared to other kids in the classroom and that's all I want for him, equal opportunities, not special accommodations," Ms. Westermann said.

"If Brendan wants to be an astronaut or a bricklayer I just want him to be able to lay bricks or fly jet planes just like anybody else would," Mr. Westermann said.

***
Brain-training drills
Arrowsmith students within the Toronto Catholic District School Board dedicate about half the school day to the academic curriculum, and the other half to brain-training exercises. The program is built upon the concept that students can overcome their learning dysfunctions by exercising the weakest parts of their brains.
ANALOG CLOCK DRILLS

Students improve their ability to relate symbols by reading multi-hand clocks that appear on a computer screen. Each of the clock's hands mark fractions of a second, seconds, minutes, hours up through centuries and so on. Students are challenged to read up to hands on more clocks with increasing accuracy over shrinking periods of time.

TRACING SYMBOLS
Students are asked to wear an eye patch and trace foreign letters and symbols. The patch is worn over the left eye, which communicates directly with the right hemisphere of the brain. This helps the exercise target the brain's left hemisphere for fine-motor skill and symbol recognition.