What the York are you?

Last week I was invited to sit at a round-table to help envision a future strategy for York University. From what I know, this round-table was one of three that the president's office had put together to gain insight from a variety of qualified (you had to apply) stakeholders.

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For anyone unfamiliar with York University, let me fill you in (for those that know York, skip to the next section). York University is one of three universities in the greater Toronto area. It employs nearly 50,000 people and has an operating budget of nearly $800M. It is the least accessible of the three universities in the GTA. It is the middle child - middle in age, middle in size. Students of York come from the poorest families of all University Students across Canada. In recent years, the university has been plagued by labour disputes - One in 1997 lasting eleven weeks (only the 2nd university strike in Canadian History) and one in 2008, lasting 85-days after which a $250,000,000 class action lawsuit has been filed for damages.
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Excited for the opportunity to flex my brand-building muscle, I put out a few feelers to my network to see if anyone had any insight on what York University meant to some of them or some of their colleagues. I searched social media sites for associations of current, former students, and the public at large. I wanted opinions, in the hopes that they would force the president and the future VP of University Relations to act. It's my belief that you can't predict where you're going without a view to the past. What was York's value proposition?

I received a variety of answers to my questions, but mostly they revolved around statements like: "The strike really hurt them", "They used to have a great history program", "shitty football teams", "concrete jungle", "dictatorial", and a "lost liberal arts focus." Clearly, there was some dissent.

So I considered myself armed and ready for this round-table - a chance to sit with the Prez and a handful of other stakeholders. (As a sidenote, I was the only alumni to apply to sit on the panel - heavy, eh?)

The discussion began with Budget talks. Some 3.5% of funding is being cut and the professors in the room wanted to ensure that their college (Glendon) was not going to suffer worse than any other of York's Colleges.

From there, we got on to discussing research. It became very apparent that Dr. Shoukri's vision for York centres around its growth as a research-heavy institution. This idea was immediately met with some resistance as the older professors were not at all interested in researching, but more in teaching.

Here's essentially why York wants to be a leader in Research:

1. A researcher/professor teaches an undergrad course, and a graduate course. The researcher engages in conversation with the students and can ensure that the curriculum benefits his/her research domain.
2. The researcher's will leads him/her to set up the Institute of ________ and starts to position him/herself and the school as thought-leaders in _________. The school and the researcher get great publicity out of the endeavour.
3. More students flock to the school because this institute of _______ has some ties to their future aspirations.

Make sense?

The current York Professor-Student model looks like this:










Not a lot of work for the professor.


The proposed York Professor-Student model looks like this:











Much more work for the tired professor.

The Change can happen, but it won't be successful if it's revolutionary. It'll have to be evolutionary - through hiring practices that reflect the strategy of the university.

So - want to be hired on at York? Show them an interest in RESEARCH.

(we're moving on - and I appologize for how long this is - that's why it's taken so long to post)

From there the discussion turned (inevitably?) to Collective Agreements. First was the security employee. Then the custodial worker. Between the two of them, they commandeered the conversation. Allegations were flying - of bullying in the workplace, threats, and work-environment influenced drug-use, undue stress, depression, lack of authority - these two were matching grievance for grievance in a back-and-forth until I thought I was going to lose my shit.

And the President? He accommodated them. Everyone else at the discussion sat in their seats awestruck as he noted and commented on all of their concerns. Soon enough, the round-table had run its course, and the President was leaving.

And with that, as I was leaving with a handful of the other round-table members, it became very apparent that York will not become a viable Research-heavy university. Instead, York will continue in its determined path to not ruffle feathers, condemning itself to being the "default university" by its inability to effectively deal with its employees.

So I propose the York University Institute of Failed Labour Relations as the first of the York Institutes to come out of Dr. Shoukri's proposed strategy. Happy 50th, York.

Just a thought.