News
Read the latest news in BC post-secondary education.
IWD 2015: Women’s rights and workers’ rights – we need more of both
It was at the turn of the 20th century that International Women’s Day (IWD) had its early beginnings in North America. At the time, it was part of a mobilizing effort by union and community activists who were demanding changes to the appalling working conditions in New York’s garment industry, an industry where women were…
Budgets are about choices
Budgets are about choices and the 2015 BC budget is no exception in that department. The frustration for post-secondary educators, their students and their institutions is that the choices made in this year’s budget fall well short of the priorities needed to improve conditions across the BC post-secondary education system. While the budget documents are…
2015 BC Budget Underwhelms as Post-Secondary Education Funding Forecast to Decline
“On so many fronts, this budget is a real disappointment,” said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators. “For our colleges, universities and institutes, the provincial operating grants will decline from 2015 to 2016. That’s a bleak comment on how much the provincial government is prepared to invest in the future of our…
Re-imagining post-secondary education: Opening to Learning Conference focuses on progressive alternatives
When it was first proposed by convention delegates, the concept of a major conference on post-secondary education was envisioned as a way to begin changing the public debate on post-secondary education policy by bringing together a broad spectrum of faculty, community and student voices to hear how our institutions have changed. On January 24, 2015…
ESL and ABE Students get a lump of coal this Christmas
For almost a year the provincial government has been promising some news about its funding commitment to English Language Training programs across the province. The news was supposed to address the glaring shortfall in provincially sourced support for ESL programs delivered by public post-secondary institutions. The pressure to make good on the province’s commitment to…
Remembering December 6, 1989
It’s a grim anniversary, but one that needs to be remembered. Twenty-five years ago, on December 6, 1989, fourteen women were murdered at the École Polytechnique de Montreal. Although the massacre is regarded by criminologists as an example of a hate crime against women, it is remembered in the broader community as a stark example…
FPSE’s Presidents’ Council Endorses Irene Lanzinger for BC Fed President
“The decision from our Local Presidents was unanimous; we are voting for Irene Lanzinger as President of the BC Federation of Labour,” said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators. “Irene has the track record of proven leadership and activism that our members want to see lead the BC Fed in the years…
Fair Employment: It’s time for action
We see it on every campus; bright, talented, committed faculty who work from contract to contract with no security of employment, and with it, little or no access to the benefits of regular full-time work. Yet increasingly these contingent faculty have become the operational priority of more and more post-secondary institutions. In many colleges and…
Name change is no solution to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
This week Premier Clark waded into the ongoing debate about the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) with her version of a solution; start by changing the name. Her suggested solution is troublesome on many fronts and the fact that the Premier includes her government’s proposed re-engineering of post-secondary education in the same broad sweep of…