Anna Voskuil | News Editor
Featured Image: Several departments have voiced their frustration with the administration regarding its handling of the strike. | Azeb Yusuf
On May 1, the 456th Board of Governors (BoG) meeting overviewed a multitude of workplace-related policies, York’s budgeting trajectory, tuition, and conceptual building designs.
Due to unavailability of the Investment Committee Chair, details regarding the Statement on Investment Policies and Procedures will be deferred to the next BoG meeting.
Just outside of Kaneff Tower, where the meeting occurred, CUPE 3903 members surrounded the building in protest.
“CUPE members were there in solidarity as part of a larger project of organizing against York,” says Julian Arend, CUPE 3903 Unit 2 Vice President.
On May 11, a number of professors from various faculties, as well as the YFS, unanimously passed a vote of “non-confidence” in York’s senior administration led by the BoG and President Rhonda Lenton. The vote is a motion which states a person in position of authority may no longer be fit to hold their position, pointing to reasons such as decision-making that a number of members feel may be detrimental.
According to Barbara Joy, Chief Spokesperson and Director of York Media Relations, “non-confidence motions are non-binding expressions of a small group’s opinion.”
“Non-confidence votes were the initiatives of those particular groups as academic organizations, not as part of a labour campaign by the union,” says Arend.
“In particular, the non-confidence motions from the various faculty associations invoiced large numbers of YUFA members, and similarly the Sociology Undergraduate Student Association is not affiliated with CUPE,” he continues.
Agnès Whitfield, a professor in the English department, claims: “Approximately 95 per cent of York students and their programs are not represented.”
Whitfield points to recent results in the non-confidence vote: “So far, four faculty councils—Glendon, Education, Environmental Studies and LA&PS—two student associations—YUGSA and YFS—and numerous departments and departmental student associations have adopted votes of non-confidence in the Board of Governors and the senior administration at York.
“The Department of English, where I teach, adopted almost unanimously the vote of non-confidence I proposed on April 18.”
She points to a recent campaign, Agnès for President, wherein she describes her platform as such: “it includes key measures to restore
democracy at York, and to return to our fundamental purpose as an educational institution exemplifying at every level our social and environmental justice values.”
