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vol.3 Issue 6

November 13th, 1996

ONTARIO PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
CUTS THREATEN GAINS MADE BY

WOMEN PROFESSORS

OTTAWA (CUP) - As an
undergraduate student in
the 1970’s, Marymay
Downing pushed the
University of Toronto
administration to create a
tenured position for the
women’s studies program.
After intensive lobbying
along with other students,
she triumphed and won the
position.

But 20 years later; as a
women’s studies professor,
Downing is on the losing
end of gender-equity
battles. Cuts to education
funding led to
elimination of one of the
classes she taught at the
University of Ottawa last
year.

A part-time professor who
relies only on the courses
she teaches at the U of O

Under the Covers

Page 3 - News! Hot from
the Canadian University
Press!

Page 4 - Editorial
commentary by Paul
Berard!

Page 6 - Letters to the
Editor! A response to last
issues Editorial column!

Page 8 - Pit Page! Get fit!
Get shapely! Get your
information here!

the

for income, Downing had
hoped to one day become a
full-time professor, but she
knows the present political
climate won’t allow it.

“Almost everyday I get on
the bus thinking, there’s no
future for me here, I should
leave academia,” she said.
“Tt’s just my love of teaching
women’s studies that keeps
me here.”

All over Ontario, women
professors are facing a
barrage of cuts that threaten
the modest gains they have
made. the provincial
government has refused to
renew a $120 million Faculty
Renewal Program
established in 1986 to fund
new tenure positions for
younger faculty, especially
women.

In its nine years, the

Page 11 - A foreign
exchange trip to warm and
sunny Jamaica!

Page 12 - The start of our
first L/G/B/Q supplement!
Get more information
inside!

Page 13 - Soyndcheck by
Lauren Bacon! Alternative
albums, alternative
lifestyles!

Page 15 - Poetry Page one
of two for the L/G/B/Q
issue!

program helped increase the
number of full-time women
professors by nine per cent
according to the Council of
Ontario University. Women
professors now make up just
over 20 per cent of Ontario
professors, and the number of
senior ranking women
professors has more than
doubled, from 260 to 594,
making up 11 per cent of the
total number of professors at
Ontario university.

On top of the termination of
the Faculty Renewal
Program, the government has
also scrapped employment
equity legislation and
directly cut over $400
million from Ontario’s
colleges and university.

Instead of being satisfied
with small steps, women
professors may now be

Page 16 - Womyn's Work
column for the issue!

Page 17 - Vince Top Ten
Alternative Lifestyle
column and the second of
our poetry pages!

Page 18 - PIRG and John
McFetrick's Memos from
the Isolation Ward.
combine to complete the
supplement!

Page 19 - Cartoon by our
resident cartoonist for the
month!

Education.

Webaholics: The your co
Next-Generation of Couch absolute’

Potatoes

forced to take steps
backward. They no longer
worry that they won't be able
to change the male-
dominated system they’ve
become accustomed to
working in. Instead, they
wonder if they’ll even
continue to be a part of it.
The government admits that
cuts to education are hurting
women professors.
“Sessional and part-time
workers are being let go,
[they are] mostly women,”
said Diane Crocker, manager
of the universities policy unit
for the provincial Ministry of
“We’re now
downsizing, there’s nothing
being done,” she says, adding
there’s nothing in place to
encourage the hiring of
women professors.

Jennifer Story, women’s

representative for the
Canadian Federation of
Students, says the
government doesn’t care
about hiring women
professors. “It’s clear,” she
said, “by their decision to
ditch employment equity,
[which] doesn’t cost a lot of
money.”

Story is also concerned
about the number of women
professors with tenure. The
number actually decreased
from 1992 to 1993,-the last
year in which the COU
tracked the progression.
Story says that women
professors deserve job
security. :

“[Women] need that to
teach effectively - you can’t

see where that-tink

£663.35.

By Doug Smith—

“jend your—

when you’re trying ‘to find
another course to teach
because you need food on
your table.”

The lack of women
professors, and the threat to
their positions, scares some
female students. They say
women professors are
important because they act as
role models.

Holly Morrison, a women’s
studies student at Trent
university, says women
students are discouraged by
the vast majority of male
professors.

“What does that say to me
as an undergraduate woman?
[If I want to be a professor]
why am I going to do 10
more years of school if I’m
not going to get a job because
80 per cent of professors are
men?” ‘

At the undergraduate level,
women students are a
majority. But they are
outnumbered by male
students in masters degree
programs and make up an
even smaller percentage of
the students enrolled in
doctorate programs,
according to COU statistics.

As a graduate student in
women’s studies at York —
University, women’s Centre
coordinator Carla Ribeiro

says the lack of Women _

con't on page 3