Patrick White
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Apr. 13, 2010 12:23AM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Apr. 13, 2010 12:24AM EDT
Facing the spectre of imminent job loss, faculty at Canada’s only aboriginal-run university hope to stir national passions in their favour by doing what they do best.
They will lecture.
While students at the Regina-based First
At a celebration of the school’s academic research on Wednesday, teachers will lecture on topics ranging from the geometry of teepees to songbirds to native plants. It’s part of an effort to persuade Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl that the university is a serious academic institution that deserves to have its funding restored.
“Minister Strahl has made some degrading comments about the university in the last few months and he’s really off base there,” said Jesse Archibald-Barber, an English professor at the school who will give a lecture comparing Mr. Strahl with Duncan Campbell Scott, the head of Indian Affairs between 1913 and 1932 who championed native residential schools. “This conference is a response to those remarks and him calling into question our academic integrity. We have the largest concentration of first nations PhDs in the country. It’s frightening to think that could just dissipate.”
The school holds regular events to tout its research prowess, but this one will take on a decidedly sharper tone. In addition to Dr. Archibald-Barber’s critical assessment of Mr. Strahl, the executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers will lecture on his view that the federal
“Unless the government restores full funding to the First Nations University it is going to die, and it’s too important to allow that to happen,” James Turk said Monday. “I get the sense that they have no interest in keeping it alive.”
Mr. Strahl terminated an annual federal grant of more than $7-million earlier this year after a series of management scandals exposed problems in the school’s governance model.
The Saskatchewan government cancelled its funding as well, but reversed its decision when the head of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations – the organization that oversees the school -- unleashed a series of long-awaited governance reforms: purging its board of political influence, firing administrators and agreeing to hand over financial management duties to the University of Regina and outside auditors.
“They have made some dramatic changes,” said Mr. Turk, whose organization was the first to openly criticize the school for its chronic governance problems. “The federal government is essentially saying because you were bad in the past we’re cutting you off. It dishonestly gives the impression that those problems still exist.”
Both the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and the national Assembly of First Nations have taken a gentler approach to dealing with Mr. Strahl on the issue – shunning criticism, seeking conciliation, avoiding anything that might provoke the federal government further.
“Our approach is to be outspoken and direct, calling a spade a spade,” Mr. Turk said. “This government has shown that it only reverses itself when there is enough heat on it, as with the recent Guergis and O Canada decisions.”
Last week, the school began laying off casual and support staff.
“Faculty layoffs are coming,” Dr. Archibald-Barber said. “That’s what we’ve been told to expect. That puts us all in limbo. We’ve been backed into a corner.”