Action and mobilization strategies from members’ drop-in meeting on program suspensions, Feb 20, 2025

108 members attended.  This is a summary of the ideas members shared in developing YUFA’s push-back against program suspensions at York.

• The program closures announced in early February make clear that the university’s core values are under attack.  Following on many years in which DEDI priorities, Indigenous and Black cluster hires, and equity leadership have been central to York’s self-image, the announcement that new student enrollments are to be suspended in Indigenous Studies, Gender & Women’s Studies, Sexuality Studies, Spanish and Latin American Cultures & Societies, Portuguese & Luso-Brazilian Studies, Global History & Justice, and other “core value” programs of special interest to equity-seeking students starkly reveals York’s hypocrisy.  Administration documents state that an exception for program cuts could be made for programs that are “mission critical” for the university.   What does that mean, if not Indigenous Studies and Gender & Women's Studies?
  
  
• Members have asked for ongoing YUFA meetings where colleagues in affected units can discuss and share notes on program suspensions and strategies.YUFA has set up a zoom link for drop-in meetings on Thursdays at noon, good for the rest of the term:
  
  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88685236236?pwd=RSGmfdriSdSMFQb2wp2RjJxoIdyxtd.1 
  
  If colleagues prefer to meet at a different time/day, we can change this.
  
  
• YUFA will hold a Special General Membership Meeting soon.  This will allow members to pass motions, hold votes on our action plan, and/or a non-confidence vote.
  
  
• YUFA is setting up a webpage for a central repository of information, stories, and shared documents related to restructuring.  
  
  
• Members interested in joining our mobilization team, and/or who have stories about how their unit is affected by restructuring, are asked to email [email protected]   and  [email protected]
  
  
• Members suggested that YUFA organize a teach-in, workshop and/or a written summary about what to do in the face of program enrollment suspensions:  tactical steps to fight back.  This is coming up soon and will be announced early next week.
  
  
• The YUFA Senate caucus will meet on Monday February 24 at 2:30.   All  YUFA Senators and interested members are welcome.  Email [email protected] for the zoom link.  Senate next meets on Thursday, February 27.
  
  
• YUFA’s Rank and File Communications Committee is organizing for regular press releases and a strong social media campaign.   If you are interested in joining this committee, please email [email protected]
  
  
• We need to investigate and challenge the political rationales behind why specific programs are being closed (gender, sexuality, Indigenous studies, other programs with intersectional equity implications).  What is the agenda behind this?  Why are centralized student recruiting staff advising prospective students not to apply to certain majors, and making switch suggestions before students apply? Since there seems to be covert, duplicitous central advising, who is making these decisions?   Some programs are also apparently being made responsible for their own recruiting.
  
  The argument that STEM, computer and media studies, and engineering are popular with students, who may believe these fields lead more easily to employment, is contradicted by OIPA tables showing that York Arts &  Social Science graduates have employment rates two years post-graduation that are equivalent to those of graduates in math and computer science. https://www.yorku.ca/oipa/quick-facts/undergraduate-employment-rates/
  
  
• We also need to cost the cuts and demand accountability and transparency  regarding the assumptions and calculations behind these questionable decisions.   How does limiting undergraduate admission to program after program improve the university’s bottom line?   When programs have jumped through hoops to restructure themselves collegially, and then still find themselves on the chopping block, what are those workload costs and who’s paying?  What are the implications of undergraduate program cuts for related graduate programs, bridging programs, organized research units, faculty research, York’s reputational standing, libraries such as the Nellie Rowell Library, and other important pillars of the university as a whole?  The savings, if any, seem to be largely due to YUSA members losing their jobs: and either their work goes undone, meaning students have fewer people to support them, or administrators attempt to offload their work onto YUFA members.  How is this seen as “efficient?  Drastic changes are being imposed without risk analysis or damage control.
  
  
• This is part of a broad Ontario, Canada-wide and international pattern where employers are spending lavishly on upper-administration salaries and real estate, while cutting workers’ jobs and salaries to pay for it. Nous and other consultants’ strategy is to fight collegial decision-making. This connects to the broader structural issue of neoliberalization of public universities, deterioration of public education, and threats to democratic governance that go far beyond universities.
  
  
• To fight this, we need to articulate a clear counter-narrative that includes a positive vision, and to  implement a strategy that involves labour and student solidarity across the campus, along with provincial and national support networks. “Unpause the pauses.”    “Fight the manufactured crisis.”   “We are the voice of the solution.” 
  
  It’s a solution that understands universities as not for the few, but for the whole population; our research, partnerships, and public contributions broadly benefit society as a whole.  This is a story of success and resilience, leading into the future with confidence, not fear.   We are protecting and furthering York’s reputation of standing up for equity, critical thinking, respect across diversity, decolonization, and progressive change.  We refuse to accept the top-down, short-sighted elimination of programs that have a key role in building equitable societies for the future, in public universities, for the people.
  
  
• Our overall strategy thus includes: 
  
  • Motions to rescind the program suspensions in Faculty Councils, Senate, and other public meetings
  • Outreach to student organizations and other unions at York
  • Petitions and letters of support from all our national, international and local constituencies, alumni, retirees, York donors, and allies
  • Rallies (like the one on Feb 22 at Doug Ford’s constituency office, 2428 Islington Ave., 1-2 pm), open forums (like the one on March 5, 3-5 pm in HNES 140), picketing and interrupting “Business as Usual”
  • Further political action within and beyond York University if and when necessary
  • Teach-ins, drop-in meetings, shared documents and stories, press work, social media campaigns, website messages, research and analysis, broader-scale solidarity and networking as outlined above.