Starting in 2014, York students can expect to find alternate (or teaching) stream professors in all faculties at York.
The alternate stream of professors, whose main responsibilities are teaching and providing a large number of hours per week in the classroom, previously only existed in the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Fine Arts, and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies.
Rhonda Lenton, vp academic and provost, says the change was made in response to demands by contract faculty for more job stability and to attract qualified professors to the university.
“There were some academic units who had been asking for a teaching stream appointments,” says Lenton, who supports the decision because a lot of contract faculty members were leaving to other universities for better options.
York currently has two streams for faculty members: the alternate and the professorial stream. The professorial stream’s responsibilities include research, teaching, and service to the university, with less of an emphasis on teaching.
Lenton believes the change will have a positive influence on York as a whole, giving professors flexibility in teaching and research, while offering students a better learning experience.
Lenton says opening the alternate stream option to all faculties will offer students an enhanced learning experience, which is better for the entire university.
Faculty of Science Professor Michael DeRobertis echoes Lenton’s opinion, stating the expansion will be a good idea as long as this decision does not result in alternate stream professors teaching more courses than is normally expected of each professor.
“The faculty that I’m in, there are only a couple of alternate stream people, but they are phenomenal professors who are really dedicated to teaching,” says DeRobertis, who believes the Faculty of Science benefits from having the alternate stream professors teaching introductory courses and professorial stream professors taking on fourth-year courses.
The York Federation of Students, however, believes expanding the alternate stream was done more as a cost-cutting measure than as a commitment to a high quality teaching structure.
Gayle McFadden, the vp campaigns and advocacy at York says when it comes to alternate stream education, students need to be aware that teaching-only staff will generally be sessional faculty, generally hired for one school session, and will probably face the same challenges sessional faculty do now.
“With next to no job security and disparate curricula, we will continue the trend of overworked and underpaid faculty in our classrooms,” says McFadden.
Victoria Alarcon
Assistant news editor
