Welcome

Real Academic Planning (RAP) is a public site dedicated to safeguarding academic quality at Queen’s University and by extension in all of Ontario’s post-secondary education.  It belongs to Queen’s faculty and students and assumes the principle that academic ends are best served by open and honest public discussion and by transparency in record-keeping.  This site is open to all viewpoints (see below for information about posting).

Faculty Statement in Support of Feminist Enquiry, Association, and Activism (28 March 2014)

As circulated on campus lists, 28 Mar. 2014:

We, the undersigned faculty at Queen’s University, believe in and strongly support feminist enquiry, association, and activism in all societies where people’s status is demeaned on the basis of gender. Feminism has a long and complex history.

Should Queen’s Dissolve the Senate Committee on Creative Arts and Public Lectures? (16 May 2013)

By Mark Jones, posted 16 May 2013.

A notice of motion buried in the 330-page April agenda for Queen’s Senate would have Senate dissolve the Committee on Creative Arts and Public Lectures (SCCAPL) at the end of May (see appendix to this post for the notice of motion).  

Mark Jones, Faculty Attrition, Administrative Expansion (30 April 2013)

According to Provost Alan Harrison, Queen’s reduced faculty positions by 47, or  5.8%, while increasing administrative positions by 5, or 12.8%, between 2007 and 2012.  

The Provost was recently asked in Senate about recent additions to the Administrative complement, in view of recent faculty attrition.  

Queen’s Senate Urges GSEC to Rescind New Times-to-Completion Policy (30 April 2013)

Based on an email sent by Samantha King to campus lists, 2 May 2013:

On Tuesday, April 30, Senate passed the following motion on Times to Completion for graduate students at Queen’s. Several speakers spoke passionately and convincingly in favour of the motion, which was passed without amendment.

That Senate urge the Graduate Studies Executive Council (GSEC) to strike a broadly based Task Force to seek practical ways to facilitate timely completion

New Draft for Academic Plan on Virtualization and Online Learning (18 April 2013)

The Senate Academic Planning Task Force (SAPT) has posted its second draft for Queen’s Academic Plan on Virtualization and Online Learning.  The first draft was posted on March 22.  For comments on the first draft, see here.

Ariel Salzmann, An Open Letter to Dean Brouwer and the School of Graduate Studies (4 April 2013)

As sent to Dean Brenda Brouwer and copied to community lists, 4 April 2013.  Posted by permission.

This year the Department of History made a valiant effort to recruit an exceptional graduate student. The student  applied to our Ph.D. program specifically to work under my supervision. My colleagues and I did our best to enhance the department’s offer, realizing that we would be in competition with other universities for this talented young scholar. After many weeks of wavering, the student finally wrote to our Graduate Chair explaining that although his first choice remained Queen’s, he simply could not refuse a comprehensive package from a university that possesses a very strong and well-established Middle Eastern Studies program. Fresh from this disappointment, I learned with utter disbelief that the GSEC had voted for a policy that further undercuts–indeed for all intents and purposes destroys–our ability to recruit top students, particularly in international fields.

Mark Jones, Clarification of the “Course Variants” Motion (31 March 2013)

The Curriculum Committee (CC) in the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) has circulated a memo to Undergraduate Chairs about “course variants” (see appendix, below).  The memo refers to a motion I brought before the Faculty Board (FB) in December:

Resolved that all courses and course-variants (e.g., courses modified from their original or on-campus formats so that they may be listed or advertised as online, as distance, as blended, or as taught in shortened duration for Queen’s-Blyth or other off-campus venues) for which the Faculty of Arts and Science grants academic credits must be (or have been) examined and recommended by the Curriculum Committee and approved by Faculty Board.

The CC memo introduces two errors about this motion that I wish to correct:

Gradgrind: Queen’s Cuts Time Allowances for MAs, PhDs (19 March 2013)

By Mark Jones; posted 19 March 2013.

Yesterday a message to graduate students announced a new policy on Time Limits for Completion of Programs.  

New Questions about Online Learning (26 February 2012)

Some recent articles and studies raise serious questions about the uses of online learning in college and university (updated 4 May 2013):

Mark Jones, Questions Concerning Proposals for Course Redesign (13 February 2013)

From the Arts and Science Faculty Board Agenda for 13 February 2013.  For the  response, see the Minutes, pp. 8-11.

Questions for Dean MacLean, Arts and Science Faculty Board, February 2013

from Mark Jones, Department of English

Units in Arts and Science have received repeated “Calls for Proposals for Course Redesign,” i.e., for conversions to online and “blended” formats (the most recent is posted here).  I have four questions concerning these invitations.

Mark Jones, Data Check: Recent “Evidence” in Support of Blended and Online Learning (27 January 2013)

The Arts and Science webpage for “Blended Learning”[1] claims that

A 2010 meta-analysis of more than a thousand empirical research studies showed that learning outcomes for students taking blended courses were significantly better than those of students receiving purely face-to-face instruction. The mean effect size in studies comparing blended with face-to-face instruction was +0.35, p < .001.

Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., Jones, K. (2010). Evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning. Center for Technology in Learning, U.S. Department of Education.

This claim is misleading in several ways. 

Arts and Science: Call for Proposals for Course Redesign Project (24 January 2013)

Emailed to departments as a pdf document, Call for Proposals3 Jan 2013, 24 January 2013.  Italics and boldface are in the original.  See also Associate Dean Ravenscroft’s earlier mailings of February and May 2011 and February 2012.  Note that the present memo does not cite the “research study” invoked in paragraph 6, and thus offers no evidence for the “statistically significant increase,” etc.  When asked about this, the Dean’s Office responded that the results have yet to be reviewed and the report has yet to be compiled.

Faculty of Arts and Science
Call for Proposals for Course Redesign Project
January 2013

We are pleased to announce the third phase of the Arts and Science course redesign project.

Queen’s-Blyth Worldwide: A Faculty Discussion with Vice Provost James Lee (23 January 2013)

On 6 November 2012, a group of Queen’s faculty (Annette Burfoot, Karen Dubinsky, Marc Epprecht, Petra Fachinger, Emily Hill, Jennifer Hosek, Mark Jones, David McDonald, and Adèle Mercier) met with Vice Provost James Lee, Tom Gallini (Queen’s-Blyth International Assistant, International Programs Office), and Jenny Corlett (International Programs Office) to discuss concerns about the Queen’s-Blyth Worldwide (QBW) program.

Podcast: Digital Boon or Digital Doom? The Virtual Future of Higher Education (16 January 2013)

The panel discussion “Digital Boon or Digital Doom?” moderated by Ira Basen (University of Western Ontario, 16 January 2013), including panelists

Luis von Ahn, Carnegie Mellon University
Elizabeth Hanson, Queen’s University
Doug Mann, Western University
Jonathan Schaeffer, University of Alberta
George Siemens, Athabasca University

is now available as a podcast:

http://content.fims.uwo.ca/Public/Ira%20Basen/EE4Output/default.html

Mark Jones, Comments on the Most Recent Academic Planning Survey (19 December 2012)

The new “Survey for Quality Assurance in Online Courses” (reprinted at the end of this post) is a mess.  An academic planning survey should be designed to gather views and information useful for policy recommendations.  This one looks more like it’s  designed to gather ammo against recent efforts to send blended, online, and other course variants to the Curriculum Committees.  At any rate, it is going to be useless for gathering information.

Graduate School: Whether to Go (Sources) (5 December 2012)

Compiled by Mark Jones, December 2012, with subsequent additions.  Suggestions welcome.  

As universities seek to increase graduate admissions and at the same time to reduce full-service tenure-track faculty employment, a question arises, particularly for students specializing in fields where the major source of post-doctoral employment is academic: why pursue a higher degree?  This post provides references to (mostly) recent sources on this question.  Most of it is not pleasant reading, but it should be made available somewhere for students considering graduate degrees. 

Mark Jones, Open Letter: Response to Principal Woolf re Apology to Michael Mason (27 November 2012)

Dear Colleagues:

An update on the letter of apology for Professor Michael Mason:

It was published in the Globe & Mail on 19 November with a column by James Bradshaw.  The National Post also reported it on 19 November, and the Kingston Whig-Standard on the 20th.

Mark Jones, Two Motions for Faculty Board (26 November 2012)

Submitted to the Agenda Committee, 26 November 2012, for the 7 December agenda of Arts and Science Faculty Board.  The first motion was debated and referred to the Curriculum Committee (a similar motion to submit all courses for curriculum committee approval was defeated in Senate in October (Senate Minutes, October 2012, pp. 10-12)).  The second motion failed.  

1. Resolved that all courses and course-variants (e.g., courses modified from their original or on-campus formats so that they may be listed or advertised as online, as distance, as blended, or as taught in shortened duration for Queen’s-Blyth or other off-campus venues) for which the Faculty of Arts and Science grants academic credits must be (or have been) examined and recommended by the Curriculum Committee and approved by Faculty Board. 

Open Letter to Michael Mason: We (Queen’s University) Apologize (19 November 2012)

As published in the Globe & Mail online, appended to James Bradshaw, “Professors sign letter criticizing Queen’s University,” 19 November 2012.  This letter is still being signed on ipetitions.  The version below has been updated to include recent signatures.

Dear Professor Mason:

In a Report issued on September 20, 2012, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) claimed that Queen’s Administration violated your Academic Freedom, “abused their power and acted in disregard of the wellbeing of one of their teaching employees.”

SGPS Appeal: Holiday Assistance Program (9 November 2012)

As emailed to campus lists by the Queen’s Society of Graduate and Professional Students, 9 November 2012:

With the holiday season fast approaching, a number of our students face additional hardships. In particular, students with dependents struggle as they are home with their kids trying to study for exams and prepare for a holiday celebration of sorts. This year (our second year running the program), the SGPS is trying to empower student parents and relieve some of this winter stress! 

PSAC 901 Responds to CAUT Report on Michael Mason (1 November 2012)

PSAC Local 901, representing Graduate Teaching Assistants and Teaching Fellows at Queen’s, has posted two critical responses to the CAUT Ad Hoc Investigatory Committee Report on the situation and treatment of Dr. Michael Mason in the Department of History at Queen’s University. 

Peter Christie, “A fear of stories” does a disservice to our university (1 November 2012)

As published in the Kingston Whig-Standard, 1 November 2012:

A few years back, American Scientist magazine published an essay urging people whose job it is to explain the world—scientists, in this case—to stop being afraid of stories: narrative is often distrusted as the stuff of fiction and fairy-tales, writes American Scholar Roald Hoffman, but it is indispensable to both the work of discovery and the job of making facts make sense to others. “In the act of explaining something,” he argues, “we shape a story.”

The essay would make good bedtime reading for those at the helm of Queen’s University:  in their recent dismantling of the university’s Writing Centre, Queen’s administrators are diminishing the one place on campus where, for the past quarter century, students of every discipline have come to learn that “explaining something” is about more than just-the-facts-ma’am.

QJ: Policy in the works for undergrad TAs (19 October 2012)

By Julia Vriend.  As published in Queen’s Journal, 19 October 2012.  See also Doug Nesbitt, President, PSAC 901, “Assisting Professors” (Letter to the Editors), Queen’s Journal, 23 October 2012.

AMS launches investigation into outdated policies for Queen’s undergraduate assistants

The policy for undergraduate student teaching assistants (TAs) is under investigation by the AMS due to concerns of transparency and potentially inaccessible protocols.

Highlights from the CAUT Almanac of Post-Secondary Education, 2012-13 (9 October 2012)

The CAUT Almanac “documents the most current statistical information available on the status of post-secondary education in Canada,” using Stats Canada and other data.  Each chapter of charts and tables is prefaced with “Highlights,” as quoted below. 

Responses to MTCU’s Discussion Paper (5 October 2012)

Responses to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ (MTCU’s) discussion paper, “Strengthening Ontario’s Centres“:

QJ: Dissolving Queen’s-Blyth abroad (5 October 2012)

Queen’s Faculty Letter printed in Queen’s Journal, 5 October 2012. To sign this letter, see:  http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/qbw/.  For the list of further signatories, see http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/qbw/signatures.  See also Jim Lee, Letter to the Editor, QJ, 19 October 2012, and Patrick O’Neill, Blyth Information for Heads (Feb. 2011).

Members of Queen’s faculty have concerns regarding educational partnership

Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures, but they don’t always result in good choices.

A case in point is Queen’s recent decision to partner with a private tourist education company to offer university credits overseas. Little more than an expensive form of edu-tourism, these Queen’s-Blyth Worldwide (QBW) courses infringe on academic integrity, reinforce colonial stereotypes and privatize post-secondary education.

Two Questions for Faculty Board (2 October 2012)

As submitted by Mark Jones for the October 12 Agenda of Arts and Science Faculty Board:  

Two Questions for Dean Alistair MacLean

Respectfully submitted by Mark Jones, Dept. of English

1.  The CAUT Report on Queen’s University’s treatment of Dr. Michael Mason (http://www.caut.ca/uploads/CAUT_AHICReport_Mason_QueensU.pdf; see also  http://qufa.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/1638/#more-1638 for links to discussion in the press) traces the problem in part to deficiencies in Queen’s Harassment Policy and Human Rights Policy, in part to administrative confusion about “when these policies are to be followed and which […] is most appropriate to address specific cases” (Report, pp. 11-12).

Adèle Mercier, Mindless Editorial Drivel (29 September 2012)

Letter to the Editor, sent to Queen’s Journal by Professor Adèle Mercier, Department of Philosophy, on 29 September 2012, in response to editorials of 28 September 2012.  (The Journal did not publish the Letter.)

[RE: “Abstract Realities,” “Needless Spending,” Sept 28]

Dear Editor,

Christine Overall is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is one of the most innovative philosophers anywhere. For her work to be summarily dismissed as irrelevant by such thoughtless, hollow and patronizing platitudes as: “There is value to philosophizing on certain topics, but the arguments presented by Overall are too abstract and inapplicable to carry any significant weight in modern society”, repeated in an orgy of vacuity: “While philosophizing on these questions can be interesting, Overall’s argument ultimately has very little sway in the real world” –is unworthy of the mouthpiece of an institution of higher learning.  It embarrasses us all.

CAUT: Assault on labour rights and post-secondary education (21 September 2012)

For this important post please see QUFA Forum.

Mark Jones, Toward a Response to “Strengthening Ontario’s Centres” (19 September 2012)

Emailed to Provost Alan Harrison on 19 September 2012, in response to his call for submissions. Slightly revised for posting.

Dear Provost Harrison:

Thank you for your invitation for input on the Ministry’s discussion paper, “Strengthening Ontario’s Centres…” (SOC).  Like many of my colleagues, I have difficulty taking at face value the Ministry’s stance that SOC is just a “discussion paper” or that the Ministry is genuinely receptive to critical response.  What I have seen of the Minister’s own response to critical comments (at Fanshawe College last July) ranged from defensive to dismissive.  The paper itself is vague where it should be specific, were it truly designed to advance discussion.  Given this situation, I write an abbreviated response and trust that others will address what I do not.

Elizabeth Hanson, The Fantasy of Online Education (18 September 2012)

Letter to CBC Radio in response to Ira Basen’s documentary, The Big Disruption: Universities in the Digital Age (The Sunday Edition, 9 September 2012).  Posted by permission.

To CBC Sunday Morning

As a professor in an Ontario university I listened with great interest to Ira Basen’s probing and thoughtful documentary last Sunday concerning on-line university teaching, an issue that is currently roiling universities. I found plausible the program’s conclusions that certain subjects, particularly non-verbal ones, can be well taught virtually but that those involving reading and critical thinking are less amenable to virtualization, and that, in any case, good on-line teaching will remain labor intensive, not least because of the work involved in valid assessment.

However, in focusing solely on these pedagogical questions, I think Mr. Basen missed the real story here

Mark Jones, Heads Up on Ontario’s Aims for Post-Secondary Education (13 September 2012)

A Provincial “discussion paper,” “Strengthening Ontario’s Centres of Creativity, Innovation and Knowledge” (SOC), was issued by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) on 28 June 2012, and was followed up with a series of “consultations” (really more like promotions*) in July and August.

OCUFA Memo on SMA’s (23 August 2012)

By Mark Rosenfeld, Executive Director of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA); as emailed to member associations, 23 August 2012.

Re: Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) Strategic  Mandate Agreements for Ontario Universities and Colleges

I am writing you today to provide some background information and identify emerging issues related to a new MTCU initiative of which you may have heard. On August 7, Deputy Minister Deborah Newman wrote to Executive Heads and Presidents of community colleges and universities asking them to submit Strategic Mandate Agreements (SMAs) proposals by September 30, 2012.

OCUFA: Ontario Government Launches Consultation on University Reform (5 July 2012)

As sent to members by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations  on 5 July 2012 and subsequently posted:

On Thursday, June 28, 2012, OCUFA President Constance Adamson and OCUFA staff met with Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities Glen Murray. The purpose of the meeting was for the Minister to present a discussion paper on reform to Ontario’s postsecondary sector, “Strengthening Ontario’s Centres of Creativity, Innovation and Knowledge: A discussion paper on innovation to make our university and college system stronger”.  Minister Murray also outlined a consultation process on the discussion paper which will take place throughout the summer of 2012, in which OCUFA will participate.

OCUFA, Reality Check: Online education is expensive when you do it right (4 June 2012)

From the OCUFA Report, emailed by Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations to members on 4 June 2012.

It is not cheap to provide a high quality university education online. At first glance, the operating expense per student appears lower at the Télé-Université du Québec (TÉLUQ) and Athabasca University than at traditional universities. Accounting for enrolment profile, the same is true for Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in BC, which has a physical campus and hosts BC’s Online Learning Agency.

Drilling deeper, online education is less of a bargain. The weighted average cost per student at TÉLUQ and Athabasca is 11 per cent higher than the on-campus per-student cost in Ontario.

Access Copyright: Who has signed, who has not (31 May 2012)

First posted 31 May 2012. Updated 9 June 2012.

As of 7 June, UBC, Athabasca, Windsor, Winnipeg, York, New Brunswick, and Waterloo have announced that they will not sign with Access Copyright.  To follow this list see Ariel Katz’s blog post, “Fair Dealing’s Hall of F/Sh/ame.”

Queen’s Journal: Students accuse public agency of misconduct (28 May 2012)

By Holly Tousignant.  As published in the Queen’s Journal, 28 May 2012.  See also the readers’ comments on the QJ site and “Motions” in May Senate Notes.

An Ontario government agency was accused of academic misconduct last month after two Queen’s graduate students claimed a report they authored appeared on the agency’s website containing changes they hadn’t agreed to.

Queen’s Journal: Student strikes raise concerns (28 May 2012)

By Isabelle Duchaine.  As published in the Queen’s Journal, 28 May 2012.  

Rising tuition costs across the country need to be evaluated to ensure quality education

For over 100 days, students in Quebec have been marching, chanting and boycotting classes in protest of a $1,625 tuition increase spread over five years.

Mark Jones, Comments on the “Business Case to Grow Distance Enrolments in the Faculty of Arts and Science” (25 May 2012)

re:  http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/sites/default/files/Business_Case_Final.pdf

The “Business Case to Grow Distance Enrolments in the Faculty of Arts and Science,” which was declared by the Provost to be confidential in early March, was recently released in response to a FIPPA request.[1]  One cannot expect a “Business Case” to be exciting reading.  It can be interesting, nevertheless, to dip into a world where educational experts say things like “Each student who takes a course outside Queen’s is a lost revenue opportunity.”[2]

David Murakami Wood, Open Letter on Access Copyright (24 May 2012)

From a campus email, 24 May 2012.  Posted by permission.

Dear all,

I don’t usually do this, but I am sending you this message to encourage you to write to the Provost, Alan Harrison, and the University Librarian, Martha Whitehead, to ask them not to sign Queen’s up to the restrictive, expensive and unnecessary Access Copyright license.