SFU Community Coalition » News Release

Presentations to the SFU Finance Committee and Board of Governors

ccosta — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:16:52 +0000

On Tuesday March 24, the SFU Community Coalition presented our concerns to the Board of Governors Finance Committee.

Myka Tucker-Abramson (graduate student and TSSU member) represented student concerns, and Michael Ling (Senior Lecturer and member of SFUFA’s Executive Committee) discussed the impact of the 2009/10 budget on faculty and teaching staff. Both speeches were excellent.

Click here for Myka Tucker-Abramson’s talk to the Finance Committee – March 26, 2009.

[Check back for a link to Ling's speech.]

Following the Finance Committee meeting, on March 26th over 50 members of the SFU community attended the Board of Governors meeting, where the Finance Committee acknowledged the presentations by Tucker-Abramson and Ling, reflecting that the speeches were thoughtful, important, and well articulated. The Board acknowledged the many visitors in the room, noting the attendance concerned budget issues.

As a student representative sitting on the Board, Kevin Harding did an excellent job shedding light on the discrepancies between the proposed budget and what’s happening on the ground at SFU. Natalie Bocking shared the vocal concerns of SFU’s studentry. Both student representatives voted against the budget.

The SFU Community Coalition continues to work together as a united body that supports well-funded high-quality education for students, humane and efficient working conditions for maintenance and administrative staff, and a balanced workload, rights and sufficient resources for faculty and teaching staff. Together we strive for a better learning environment at SFU.

PRESS RELEASE: SFU Community Calls on Province to Follow Through on Throne Speech Promises

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:00:49 +0000

Burnaby— In response to the recent provincial budget, a coalition of students, staff, professors, teaching assistants and other community members at Simon Fraser University warns that the rhetoric of the recent provincial budget does not appear to be supported by real funding.
Following up on the overwhelming success of a February 4 rally against previous cuts, which was attended by over 1000 people, the coalition is hosting a public forum today to talk about the budget’s impact on the SFU community and how we can move forward in the struggle to protect public education from continued attacks.

The Forum features speakers Robert Clift (Executive Director, CUFABC), Cris Costa (Graduate Student Society, Action Committee Chair), and Kevin Harding (SFU student Senator and member of Board of Governors).

“The throne speech call education ‘the best economic development program ever invented’ and yet the Liberal budget continues its attack on public education in terms of real funding,” said Scott Drake of the Teaching Support Staff Union. “At the end of the day, this is an election budget in a time of economic crisis.”

While there is a $2 million dollar increase this year, this money is being used to handle increased enrolment and is tied to specific programs. Moreover, the projected revenue sources of the provincial government are precarious in nature. The budget, in fact, projects a decrease in actual funding over the next three years.

“At the President’s Annual Forum on February 25th, SFU President, Michael Stevenson called the ongoing cuts to faculty positions an appalling prospect. The elimination of positions means over-worked professors and teachers. It means a decrease in the value and quality of education at SFU,” said Cris Costa, Chair of the Graduate Funding Action Committee.
“The budget situation is already impacting the real quality of education at SFU,” said student representative Kevin Harding, “we’re losing instructors, class are being offered less frequently, class sizes will likely increase, and we’re facing cuts to scholarships, awards, and bursaries. Not only will it be harder to get the classes we need to graduate, but it will be harder for students to afford to take classes.”

The impacts of Budget cuts are already being felt. According to one member of Polyparty, a bargaining council of various unions representing Trades, “buildings are crumbling.” Roofs are leaking, tiles are breaking off, bathroom stalls need replacing, and there is mould everywhere.

“SFU remains an excellent university. The budget situation threatens our hard-won achievements in teaching, research and community involvement, but it’s not too late to reverse the damage,” said Dr. Bob Hackett, President SFU Faculty Association.

-30-

For more info, contact
Sean Carleton 778.782.4735
Cris Costa 778-782-3899
Kyall Glennie 778.782.4540

PRESS RELEASE: 1000+ rally against underfunding and provincial cuts to SFU

admin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:41 +0000

BURNABY– An unprecedented 1000 students, staff, faculty and community members rallied today at Simon Fraser University demanding restored funding to SFU in the provincial budget being tabled February 17.

Sponsored by seven associations and unions representing all students and almost all staff and employee groups of SFU, the rally featured 80 people holding numbered signs, representing the 30 faculty and 50 other staff positions being terminated in the coming fiscal year as a result of the cuts.

“We’re here to let the provincial government know that we will not watch silently as our education falls through the cracks,” said Natalie Bocking, External Relations Office of the Simon Fraser Student Society, at the rally. “We are here to send a message that they can listen to us now, or they can listen to us in May, when we will be taking the quality and affordability of education to the ballot box!”

“This rally has proven that the SFU Community can work and pull together in a
common cause – to save this university and the public post-secondary
education system in British Columbia from underfunding,” said Joann Field, President of CUPE 3338 support staff workers at SFU.

“We’ve started the ball rolling,” said Graham Lyons, Secretary of the Graduate Student Society. “We gathered to let Victoria know what we want in the budget in two weeks, that a commitment to post-secondary education is not only necessary but demanded by British Columbians.”

Raw video and photographs from the rally are available at ftp.sfss.ca.

- 30 –
For media inquiries please contact:

Joann Field, President
CUPE 3338 – Support Staff at SFU
778.782.3887 field@sfu.ca

Dr. Bob Hackett, President
Simon Fraser University Faculty Association (SFUFA)
778.782.3863 sfufapre@sfu.ca

Natalie Bocking, External Relations Officer
Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS)
778.782.6561 / 778.991.4463 ero@sfss.ca

Graham Lyons, Secretary
Graduate Student Society at SFU (GSS)
778.782.3899 secretary@sfugradsociety.ca

Scott Drake, Coordinator
Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU)
778.782.4735/604.760.201 coordinator@tssu.ca

PRESS RELEASE: Students, Staff, Professors & SFU Community rally against provincial funding cuts

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:00:05 +0000

BURNABY – In an unprecedented community-wide rally today, students, staff, professors, teaching assistants and other community members at Simon Fraser University called on the BC government to restore last year’s cuts to promised operating funds for universities and colleges in its upcoming budget.

“If the funding formula for universities is not adjusted to allow for a significant increase in funding to all post-secondary institutions, within three years there will be no true, public universities left in B.C.,” said Joann Field, president of CUPE 3338.

“I have been a professor here since 1984,” said Dr. Robert Hackett, president of the SFU Faculty Association, “and I cannot recall a coalition of this breadth united around a single policy goal – adequate funding for post-secondary education in BC. We expect enrolment to increase during the economic downturn, and we should be planning for growth, not retrenchment.”

“The Campbell government’s last minutes’ axing of the university’s funding has created a crisis at SFU where administration is cutting positions, increasing workloads and students are hit by a collapse in the quality of their education,” said TSSU coordinator and PhD student, Scott Drake.

Following meetings in December with Advanced Education and Labour Market Development Minister Murray Coell, the SFU Community Coalition is looking for restored funding in the BC provincial budget being tabled February 17.