Education unions and student organizations from Quebec and English Canada have joined forces to support a new dedicated federal transfer for post-secondary education. In a letter issued earlier this month to provincial ministers of education, CAUT, the Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d’université, and the National Union of Public and General Employees, called on the provinces to press Ottawa for increased university and college funding through a new standalone transfer.

Governance and cultural issues at First Nations’ post-secondary educational institutions will be examined at a national symposium in November sponsored by the University of Regina Faculty Association’s aboriginal advisory group, in conjunction with the association and CAUT.

A new university research chair program unveiled by the government of Ontario is coming under fire from the province’s academic community.

Once again CAUT president Loretta Czernis has come through with an insightful piece ("Inspire Students with Straight Talk," Bulletin, Sept. 2005), typical of her columns. However, it is difficult at public institutions to keep up the high level of intellectual commitment she so eloquently espouses. When my university (Regina) was getting going in the 1960s, our mission statement was headed by a quotation attributed to Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” The mission statement that followed put flesh on those bare bones. Today, both are gone. Probably too much for the Philistines to accommodate. Pity! But on a more cheerful note, the more academics buy into the frame of mind that Czernis puts forward, the more the university will fulfill its mission, and, in time, hopefully, turn from the fate so brilliantly warned against in John Ralston Saul’s 1995 Massey Lectures The Unconscious Civilization. Let’s hope for the best.

The largest union of post-secondary teachers in Ireland is urging the government to reject the recommendations of an OECD review of the country’s tertiary education system.

We have often been told that post-secondary institutions are inherently hierarchical. However, after a century of struggle to democratize higher education, it is becoming clear that the most fruitful model for the future is a co-operative institution in which the discovery and dissemination of knowledge and creative activity are the common endeavours.

I want to address two fallacies — that "white people have no right to interfere in First Nations business" and that First Nations leaders "should be allowed to learn from their own mistakes."

In testimony last month before special House of Commons and Senate committees, CAUT called for the repeal of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act.

CAUT is accepting recommendations for the 2006 Sarah Shorten Award. The award, established by CAUT in 1990, recognizes outstanding achievements in promoting the advancement of women in Canadian universities and colleges.

A study released last month by Statistics Canada shows that big hikes in tuition fees have meant far fewer students from middle class families are attending medical, law or dentistry programs.

In the last 20 years, higher education in the United States has been eroded by massive reliance on temporary academic labour — professors without tenure or the prospect of tenure, paid a fraction of the salaries of their tenured colleagues, working without benefits, offices, or research assistance, and often commuting between several campuses to make ends meet

The study of history in Canada has a history of its own, and its development as an academic discipline is a multi-faceted one

"The women’s movement saved my life," acknowledges Judy Rebick, "as it did for thousands of women of my generation. I hope that I have done it justice." (p. 270) She has, abundantly so. In a remarkable and innovative book which reads like an oral history in print, Rebick weaves together interviews conducted with more than 80 activists, both widely acclaimed and little known, which she punctuates with contextualizing "big picture" essays and reflections based on her own extraordinary experience.

More than 100 participants gathered at the University of Western Ontario in June for CAUT’s second contract academic staff conference. "Moving Forward: Achieving Equity for Contract Academic Staff" brought together per-course, limited-term and full-time academic staff from universities and colleges across Canada to discuss issues affecting academics who work on a temporary or part-time basis.

Doctoral student David Nielsen has been named as this year’s recipient of the J.H. Stewart Reid Memorial Fellowship from CAUT.

Canada’s privacy commissioner has found that government anti-terrorist measures since Sept. 11 have threatened privacy and civil liberties. In her annual report to Parliament, Jennifer Stoddart noted numerous examples of the federal government’s security concerns overriding privacy rights. She cited the Public Safety Act, brought in last year, that allows the government to force air carriers, without warrant, to turn over information on their passengers.