Ryan Moore, News Editor
Featured image courtesy of Alexia Lawson, Arts Editor
A former graduate student is questioning York’s transparency and governance procedures, citing the disappearance of governance documents from the York and the Faculty of Graduate Studies websites.
Steve Reisman, now a resident of Troy, New York, has come forward with his experience dealing with the FGS.
“It appears that FGS has been rewriting academic regulations behind FGS Council’s back, and has put itself in a strategic position of controlling access to the historical records which would reveal evidence of their violations,” says Reisman.
“Rules can change suddenly without warning and without any guarantee that the changes were approved by the necessary legislative body, whether it’s FGS Council or the Senate,” he claims.
“We’ve witnessed a silent, de facto coup d’etat, a shift from public governance to private management.”
Excalibur presented Reisman’s allegations to York.
Janice Walls, York media, contacted the FGS, stating the past 10 years of FGS Council documents and formal program regulations are online, noting the minutes go back 10 years.
However, Reisman suggests there are discrepancies throughout the years.
In addition, hard copies are in the FGS office and freely available to students, according to Walls.
York University Graduate Students’ Association Resource Coordinator, Evan Johnson confirms that an executive member at YUGSA put in a request for some specific information on March 3, and received a response on March 4, saying that they would look into it. But they have not received any follow-up from FGS since.
Reisman says FGS has made the historical records of Council and its Committees unavailable to students except through direct request to M. Michael Schiff in the Office of the Dean.
“This is simply unacceptable,” Reisman says. “Graduate students have a right to access these documents when they require them, not only when it is convenient for the Office of the Dean.”
This is especially problematic at the current moment, when this lack of access is obstructing student investigation into the details surrounding the unapproved alteration of academic regulations, he adds.
“By obstructing access to these documents, the Office of the Dean has effectively sequestered evidence of the changes made to academic regulations and protected itself from more thorough investigation by students and faculty.”
“I am therefore calling for the immediate transfer of all FGS Council records (and the minutes from its committees) to the university library and archives to provide the open accessibility dictated by FGS Council, and also to protect the integrity of the historical record from manipulation by corporate officers and their staff at the university.”
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