This is why I love Twitter.

Twitter is truly the best. I posted this Open Letter to Councillor Minnan-Wong and Councillor Holyday today and I also posted it on Twitter--or, rather, tweeted it. The letter decries the sexist and bullying behaviour of Councillor Minnan Wong, Councillor Holyday, Councillor Mammoliti, and Mayor Rob Ford during the Deputation of Toronto Women's City Alliance representative Jennifer Arango.

Not too long after it was sent off by the little blue bird we got some responses, specifically responses about the author. Apparently @Sattva01 thinks the author is a nutcase.

There isn't really any mention of the content of the letter, namely the completely sexist behaviour of some Toronto City Councillors, just a lot of talk about the author not being able to teach at York University-- which was once true.


Tasia Alexopoulos, the author of the letter, was indeed banned from teaching at York University. We've written about it and reproduced a talk Tasia gave at York University, with two tenured Professors, about her experience of being fired. You can read that HERE.

The case was also written about here, in Steel Bananas Art Collective Magazine, by the talented Devon Wong who is now off doing his Masters in English.

Tasia also spoke about her experience being fired at a York University Human Rights Centre Conference with colleague Hans Rollman where they workshopped on "Diversity vs. Normativity: Systematic Barriers to Classroom Dialogue and Inclusivity."

Tasia has an(under construction) profile on Academicfreedom.ca and glowing Teacher's Evaluations from the students she was allowed to instruct before being summarily fired, wrongly, by York University.

And finally, on April 1st, the ban on Tasia's teaching was lifted when her grievance against the University was settled after almost two years. You can read about that here on Activist Teacher.

So, to answer your question @Sattva01, Tasia Alexopoulos is truly a nutcase. Thank you for pointing that out to us.

new blog alert!

there's a new blog out there that you should read, because it's good!

"In Place of Death" is the new project of university of ottawa student and troublemaker Joseph Hickey

the blog seems to be mainly about education, which hickey knows a lot about.

here's an excerpt, go read the rest:

"As honest T.A.’s we need to identify and eliminate the obstacles that interfere with creative and authentic learning: remove the needles and the electric clamps. Drop the red hot iron and cut through the wires. Act out against the grading system that is shredding your own mind and the minds of your students. Transform from torturer into teacher."

this, i like.

"denis rancourt gives A+ to everybody because he loves us all equally!"

to add to my most recent post about marc kelly:



we're also with denis rancourt. A+ for eeeeeveryone!!!!

"bring the doubters on, they don't matter at all"

yesterday marc kelly gave a talk at the university of ottawa about his experience of being banned and trespassed from campus and being unable to complete his final three courses required for his degree.

according to the ottawa citizen(FINALLY some press):

"[Marc Kelly] was a research assistant to Denis Rancourt, a professor who was suspended -- and later fired -- by the university in December 2008 after he gave grades of A+ to every student in an advanced physics course.Around the same time, Kelly was arrested at a university senate meeting while attempting to videotape the proceedings. He was charged criminally with disturbing the peace and barred from campus, but those charges were dropped in December 2009. In February, he was arrested on campus and charged with trespassing. He will appear in court June 2."

u of o watch reported that 200 students showed up to see kelly talk yesterday and even though allan rock was "out of town" the press+high attendance= pressure to let kelly finish his degree.

also, in other news, why are university presidents always out of town????

i think allan rock needs to pop in the new justin bieber album, chill the fuck out, and drop all of this marc kelly nonsense. seriously, we're with marc kelly.

the university of ottawa: it's kind of like the borg.. only less sexy.

Sometimes when you're a student and you stand up for what you believe in while simultaneously insisting on transparency and accountability within your institution, you get suspended/expelled/arrested/charged/deregistered from school/told to change universities.

Such is the case of Marc Kelly vs. the University of Ottawa(and Allan Rock, presiding douchebag extrordinaire).

Originally, Marc was expelled from a physics project course by the u of o faculty of science after a "behind closed door" decision, who argued that his project was not physics. this led to a broader discrimination case. since November 2008 Marc Kelly has been arrested and re-arrested, then arrested again.

Marc was recently asked to leave the University of Ottawa and finish his degree elsewhere. even though the Crown decided to drop all charges against Marc he was denied registration at the University of Ottawa and banned from campus. he was arrested this week on campus, buying tea.

Below is a video of his recent arrest and you can read, in detail, about Marc/academic freedom/the University of Ottawa here--> u of o watch.

Getting arrested in January and being forced down into the snow, not so much fun.

"students were generally self-confident and bold "

a great article written by denis rancourt, published in the Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education:

canadian education as an impetus towards fascism

"Observing the Canadian (Ontario) educational system from the inside, both as a student and as a teacher and also as a researcher of education, I witnessed a dramatic transformation of the student persona (over the span of approximately 30 years.) I infer a deep transformation in the young person’s psychology."

read the entire article here.

"facebook you're the one, you make spying so much fun!"

well this is just embarrassing.

the latest news in the denis rancourt saga is the uncovering of some extremely seedy student involvement.

in other words, spies!!!

in these blogs (here) we wrote about the involvement of maureen robinson, a student who was being paid by the university legal counsel to spy on professor rancourt.
(anyone who knows anything about universities and their legal counsel isn't going to be surprised here. consider how much york university recently spent on "top notch" legal counsel will mcdowell in their battle against professor david noble--a figure that the university refuses to disclose.)

what we didn't realize then was the lengths to which ms. robinson was going to get her "information" on dr. rancourt.

according to ottawa independent media ms. robinson engaged in the following methods for her "job":

• she recorded(covertly) conversations of others. she created a FAKE facebook identity(Nathalie Page) to covertly join activist student events and discussion groups.
• she used this fake account to make enquiries about protest events.
• she created a fake gmail account(based on her fake facebook account) to make enquiries.
• made false pretence enquiries to outside editors of blogs and outside conference organizers.
• sent approximately 100 emails back and forth between herself and university legal counsel.

so first of all, facebook has a policy about making fake accounts in its facebook statement of rights and responsibilities. in fact, they have policies about a lot of the shit this student did.

(from the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities)

"3. Safety
We do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it. We need your help to do that, which includes the following commitments:
10. You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory. "

AND

"4. Registration and Account Security
Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account:

1. You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission. "

toss in that maureen robinson is a student journalist and you have one sick and twisted plot against a professor.

it's too bad that ms. robinson didn't decide to put her reporting skills to good use. instead, she will forever go down in university politics history as a mole, a snitch, as an affront to the institution of student journalism, used as a pawn by a university that clearly doesn't give a shit what happens to her.

it's sad kind of, to think of what universities have done to students. but who knows, maybe ms. robinson's major aspiration in life was to become a spy.. in which case, she should reconsider because she really isn't very good at it.

more here: "between a rock and a... well, you know." yayacanada
full text of professor rancourt's grievance: http://rancourt.academicfreedom.ca/Data/Documents/grievances/G-25-grievance-covert-surveillance-Nov-22-2009.pdf

back to school? enjoy!

in honour of the new school year i'm re-posting something from march, 2009 with a few updates.

eventually, i was fired from my position as a t.a for giving too many good grades--apparently. one month before my students sat their exam i was summarily executed as their teacher and a new phd student was hired to finish their year for them.'

anyone who has taken a full year course at any educational institution can imagine the toll this must have taken on the students--first year students--who had the same teacher all year and all of the sudden were forced to start fresh with someone who didn't know them, hadn't had the entire year to learn their personalities and work, and who probably wasn't interested in getting to know them or educate them.

there's an appeal in the works--although the university has decided that taking five times longer than what their own policy dictates as their deadline is a good idea.

but anyways, if you give or receive grades you might be interested in the grading policy of a high ranking university professor.

welcome back to school, suckas.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

pretty much everyone thinks that, in school, if you work hard enough you'll be rewarded for it. that, if you do what you're being asked, you'll get a decent grade.

guess what. that's a dream. apparently grades are actually meant to "weed students out who shouldn't be in universities". students in humanities and social sciences are especially screwed when it comes to marks, because in these fields it is virtually impossible to get a perfect grade.

and why is that? in sciences and maths when you answer the question correctly you get 100%, simple as that. unlike the humanities and social sciences, hard science and math have actual answers. disciplines like women's studies, sociology, political science, history, etc have a more flexible approach to answers because we recognize that the answer is more or less relative and that nothing can be identified as a simple "truth".

that being said it is extremely easy for profs and teaching assistants to hide behind such relative marking, such flexibility and "reflexiveness", as an excuse for using marking as a means of wielding power, of punishing students for not thinking/writing/working in the same ways that their teachers do, and of simply protecting their own comfortable position in the hierarchy that is the university.

simply put, students who don't conform to a teacher's expectations will often face a bad grade as a result. professors and teaching assistants can use bad grades to decide which students do/do not "belong" in university. marking is a form of institutional gate keeping and is regimented in such a way that "progressive" educators can hide behind the university grading scheme and not question their own complicity in its sexist, racist, and elitist logic.

this is an actual quote from an email i received about grading:

"2. USING C AS A REFERENCE POINT: BASELINE GRADES

i) I think it would be useful for you to think about baseline grades (see clip below from TA handbook). So begin by asking whether the student has done more or less than what is expected for a C"...... I suggest in the future you start from the C grade (average for most students), and grade in relation to it."

"It is also the case that an A+ grade tends to indicate to students that there are no areas in which the student could improve."
"in a B assignment, a student has done all parts of the assignment and followed instructions."

so essentially an A+ is impossible because students are never "perfect".

so what if your pedagogical approach to education is that students thrive on positive reinforcement, that motivating their dedication with a good grade(even if they aren't perfect) is more effective than punitive marking?

well, too bad! the marking scheme says A+ is perfect and we must obey the almighty marking scheme.

what if after a three month strike your students come back to class and they're still into it. they're getting the material, they're excited to be in tutorial and in class, they're applying what they're learning to their lives and they feel energized and excited? and so you decide, hey, you guys studied your asses off for this midterm, you haven't missed any classes, you had to hand in a shit load of assignments in the two weeks before the midterm and yet you still come to class attentive and ready to learn so i'm going to reward your learning with marks that reflect all of this?

well, be prepared for a lot of resistance because marks are the currency of academia and as we all know: mo' money=mo' problems.

marks do work for the university and if you screw with this(regardless of how effective it is for your students--because universities don't actually care about whether or not students learn) you will be punished.

what is most important to universities is that things remain as normative as possible:

"if you have a profile that differs excessively from the ‘normal profile’ , please consult with me immediately and certainly before you hand back grades or assignments, so we can look at your assignments together."

having a grading profile that differs "excessively from the normal profile" doesn't mean that you've done a great job teaching and that your students deserve high marks. it means you're a fuck up. it means you could possibly be trying to undermine everything the professor is doing. it also means you're lazy. the normal profile means everything is as it should be, or as my students have been learning, "just the way it is".

well, if there's one thing i'm glad i've taught my students it's that "just the way it is" doesn't mean it's right. they get this.

and for anyone who might actually believe in teaching assistants having any kind of marking or pedagogical autonomy:

"The final grades are to be determined by you[the professor] and any anomalies have to be investigated. I have had a problem with new tutors not grading according to York standards in the past and have had to have these reviewed. It is the tutor's job to submit the grades and grade breakdowns to you for your approval.”( a recent communiqué from Larry Lyons, the Undergraduate Co-ordinator in Social Science).

so professors get to lecture for 2 hours per week and teaching assistants do the majority of work in the course: the one on one office hours, answering emails, the marking, the ACTUAL teaching. however, the professor remains completely in control of the final grades and feels entitled to harass and intimidate their teaching assistants in order to maintain a "normal" profile at all costs.

universities, professors, and teaching assistants who engage in this kind of normative grading for no reason except that its "just the way it is", i have a great idea:

let's just get rid of teaching assistants all together and from now on robots can mark papers and teach students. this way you can have your cookie cutter approach and result as well as make your exorbitant salary without the messy hassle of having to deal with "people" and their crazy ideas about marking and teaching.

conservatives + university administrators + yorku= same old story..

george w. bush famously said:

"there's "an old saying in tennessee-i know it's in texas, probably in tennessee-that says, fool me once, shame on-shame on you. fool me-you can't get fooled again."

we don't always all agree with a lot of what bush did, or any of it, but i think we can all agree that he's right on this one. maybe once we get fooled, we should stop getting fooled by the same thing over and over and over.

case in point, as always, york university.

according to CNW, some intrepid students secured emails through a freedom of information request which revealed the conservative(surprise!) MP peter kent, MPP peter shurman, and "senior york university administrators" had been interfering in the york federation of students election(yfs) this year.

the yfs election was no picnic. it was tense and some people played dirty but in the end it seemed that the right person had won and maybe all would be well at yorku for a little while longer.

we all knew that certain people had certain affiliations with certain administrative offices, but maybe we didn't realize the extent to which certain people were involving themselves in a student election.

according to the report:

"During the elections, Robert Tiffin, York University's Vice-President Students, warned the students' union not to disqualify candidates who were caught violating the elections rules because the University and members of Parliament "werewatching the election closely." MP Peter Kent was later found to have assigned a key staff member to intervene in the election on behalf of a team of candidates. Both politicians appeared to ask if York would throw out the results, despite no evidence of wrongdoing or any authority to do so."

what the fucking fuck?!

the president of the YFS, Krisna Saravanamuttu, stated:

"The York Administration and members of the Conservative Party have no right or authority to interfere in the elections of the students' union simply because they disagree with student criticisms of their policies... University administrators and Conservative politicians interfering in student elections is like an employer attempting to select union representatives. Their objective in silencing opposition is quite obvious here."

sing it, Saravanamuttu.

apparently the emails revealed "persistent inquiries from key political staff on behalf of mpp shurman and mp kent about the results" of the YFS elections but what is most troubling is that this isn't really an isolated incident but is just another development in a series of incidents involving politicians and the university.

earlier this year, a conservative mp was recorded giving a talk to students on how conservative students could set up "front groups" on campus that seemed progressive but really use them to
advance the conservative party agenda and undermine actual progressive groups on campus.(read more about that ----> still think we're paranoid?)


Saravanamuttu also stated that "students have the democratic right to choose their own representatives without the university administration and the Conservative Party interference... tax-payers would be pretty shockedto learn that their money is being used in this way."

i agree, but also, students and taxpayers need to start demanding action when their democratic rights and tax dollars are being overturned and abused.

i think robert tiffin's request that a party breaking the election rules not be disqualified is enough to demand his resignation over.

i also think that the conservative party should be answering for their seediness and interfering.

robert tiffin: rjtiffin@yorku.ca

president shoukri: presidnt@yorku.ca(yes, it's spelled without the 'e')

MP peter kent: kentp@parl.gc.ca

MPP peter shurman: http://petershurman.com/home/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=3

stephen harper: pm@pm.gc.ca

email tiffin and shoukri, ask why they think it's acceptable or at all appropriate to interfere in a student election. why is it alright to not demand that participating parties follow election rules?
why do they feel like they can do this with impunity?

email kent and shurman, and ask them the same thing. what makes them think they have any right to be involved in a student election at york university? do their children attend the university? my guess is that, no, they don't. so maybe they can explain it to us.

email stephen harper and ask why he's let the conservative party get so out of control and what he plans to do about it.

i'm with george w. bush on this one: fool us once, that's your fault.. but, once we've been fooled, you can't fool us again.

b'nai brith at it again...

i just received this in my inbox...

"

*QUICK ACTION ITEMS below ... Please distribute widely*

Dear colleagues,

You may have heard by now that both B'nai Brith and CIJA have launched a very public campaign denouncing the upcoming "Israel/Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace" to be held on Glendon campus(YorkU) from June 22-24, 2009.

Most recently, B'Nai Brith has asked Minister Gary Goodyear to review the SSHRC funding of the conference (see B'Nai Brith statement at the end of this e-mail). The Minister has responded by asking SSHRC to consider conducting a second peer review of the conference funding application!

For other examples of how this attack on the conference is being waged, see the CIJA site (Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy):
http://www.cicweb.ca/scene/2009/05/cija-statement-on-upcoming-york-university-conference/
... and an article in yesterday's National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1675953

CALL FOR ACTION: Support academic freedom! Challenge these attacks on academic conference!

1) Write to York University President Shoukri. Congratulate him on his strong stand in support of the conference and academic

freedom (though he also denounces the academic boycott of Israeli universities more generally). Tell him that you do not agree with CIJA.

E-mail: PRESIDNT@YORKU.CA (NOTE: There is no second "e" in this e-mail address; it is not a typo)

2) Write a letter to Minister Goodyear. Tell him that you object to a second peer review, and ask him to account for his actions.

You may also wish to say that you support CAUT's call for his resignation (http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2009/10/c4859.html)

He can be reached at GOODYG@PARL.GC.CA

3) Attend the conference. Program and registration information can be found at: http://www.yorku.ca/ipconf/

4) Write a letter to the Globe and Mail, responding to today's article (200 words or less). E-mail LETTERS@GLOBEANDMAIL.CA
Here is the link to the article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/goodyear-questions-mideast-forum-funds/article1175909/

5) Sign Faculty4Palestine Open Letter to defend academic freedom and freedom of speech on Palestine in Canadian universities and

colleges. Go to www.caiaweb.org/faculty (click on red icon to view petition). To sign, send an e-mail to faculty@caiaweb.org

NOTE: For all letters, please add BCC: to mappingmodels@osgoode.yorku.ca (to make conference organizers aware of your support)

******************************************************
B'NAI BRITH
COMMUNITY ACTION ALERT
REGARDING UPCOMING YORK UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE
QUESTIONING ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST

B’nai Brith Canada has brought to urgent attention of the Government the sponsorship by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of an upcoming June 22nd-23rd conference at York University titled, “Israel/Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace”. As many of you know, this conference being held under the guise of academia is in fact a blatant exercise in anti-Zionist propaganda. Its entire thrust calls into question the Jewish State’s very right to exist, and promises to be a veritable ‘who’s who’ of anti-Israel propagandists.

We were disturbed to learn that the SSHRC, a federal agency that is answerable to Parliament and which reports directly to the Minster of Industry, was listed as a lead sponsor on the conference’s website, contributing both moral and financial support.

Subsequent to our appeal to the Government on this matter, the Hon. Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, released a statement on the conference that is reproduced below. While the statement stops short of announcing a funding withdrawal, it does bring into question the SSHRC’s continued support for the conference.

Statement from the Hon. Gary Goodyear

OTTAWA, June 5, 2009 – The following is a statement from the Hon. Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, on the conference at York University entitled, “Israel/Palestine: mapping models of statehood and prospects for peace”.

“Our government is committed to the principle academic independence and the independent, arms-length, peer review process for assessing applications for research grants.

“It has come to my attention that following a recommendation of a peer review board earlier this year, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council provided $19,750 under its Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences Program to a conference at York University entitled “Israel/Palestine: mapping models of statehood and prospects for peace”.

“Approval of this funding was based on an initial proposal that did not include detailed information on the speakers at the conference. Since funding was provided, the organizers of the conference have added a number of speakers to their agenda.

“Several individuals and organizations have expressed their grave concerns that some of the speakers have, in the past, made comments that have been seen to be anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic. Some have also expressed concerns that the event is no longer an academic research-focussed event.

“Therefore, I have spoken to the president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to bring these concerns to his immediate attention and asked that Council give them full consideration. In particular, I asked that the Council, once they have seen this information, to consider conducting a second peer review of the application to determine whether or not the conference still meets SSHRC’s criteria for funding of an academic conference.”

ACTION ALERT – WRITE TO MINISTER GARY GOODYEAR

Convey your thanks and appreciation to the Minster for his request to the SSHRC that it reconsider its support for this conference in light of the serious concerns that have been brought to light.

Urge the Minister to direct the SSHRC to immediately withdraw its funding from this sham of a conference that seeks to delegitimize the Jewish State and its supporters here at home.

Please send a blind carbon copy of your letter to B’nai Brith Canada at bnb@bnaibrith.ca

Office of the Hon. Gary Goodyear
117 Confederation Building
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
T: (613) 996.1307
F: (613) 996.8340
E-mail: goodyg@parl.gc.ca

B'nai Brith Canada has been active in Canada since 1875 as the foremost Jewish human rights organization. To learn more about its advocacy work and diverse community and social programs, please visit http://www.bnaibrith.ca.

"

will president shoukri please shut the fuck up?

i was up at york today and i grabbed the latest issue of yorku magazine for something to read on the subway ride home.

yorku is a pretty glossy and expensive magazine for a university that claimed money trouble in order to get out of paying its employees, but york isn't exactly a 'walk the walk' kind of institution.

every issue there is something outrageous and ridiculous in this magazine--mostly in the letter from the president at the beginning of each issue.

in this issue president shoukri's article is called "coming together" and is about how it's been such a hard year with the economy, the strike, and the racism but we still have a lot to be proud of--like our most recent batch of graduates.

for the moment i'm not even going to touch the title... according to shoukri convocation time(spring) is a time to "come together as a community, as a family." It only makes sense, he writes, that we "build the kind of university we want, and to treat each other as want to be treated."

it's been a long, shitty year at yorku. this is something we can all agree on. but i resent shoukri's attempts to paint over the difficulties of this year with this kind of bullshit about togetherness and community.

shoukrie writes that "this has been a challenging year, in more ways than one: a lengthy labour disruption, the difficult economic climate and student behaviour that has been, at times, less than collegial."

i agree, it has been a challenging year, but what i don't agree with is what he writes next.

"One of my priorities is to help rebuild a sense of community, and I believe that dialogue is key to building a sense of community-with unions, student groups, staff, parents and stakeholders alike. It's surprising how far civil discourse can take you. It's hard to turn your back on someone with whom you have a good working relationship."

so when thousands of copies of an alternative student newspaper were blatantly destroyed by two individuals who were caught on tape doing so and you refused to comment on, engage in,or condemn these actions that was your way of rebuilding community?

when you ignored requests for discussions by your students and staff for three months during the strike then held a town hall meeting in which you blamed us for the lack of communication, that was another community building tactic?

when you appointed the incoming dean of the largest university faculty in canada under false pretense of his academic achievement, then blamed it on your subordinates, then went after university professor's private emails who rightfully called what you were doing academic fraud, this helped our community rebuild and heal?

if you don't give a shit about community building, then don't hide it behind this wishy washy rhetoric about civil discourse, dialogue, and community building. we all know that the university is more interested in pleasing its corporate stakeholders and other political lobbies than it cares about building any kind of working dialogue between anyone.

it is going to take real work, really hard work, to bring together the different voices on campus. it's been a divisive and difficult year but what's most important is that we not just sweep these issues under the rug for the sake of moving on. there are serious problems at york, and im not just talking about the strike. freedom of speech and academic freedom are under attack, our right to privacy is being eroded, corporate interests are steering the decisions of the administration, and the widespread exploitation of graduate students and contract faculty has become essential to support the rapid expansion of the university.

shoukri writes that "york is a dynamic university, still young and still evolving; we have great strengths and even greater potential" and this is totally true. york is young and has historically been a dynamic and political place. the challenge is trying to enact positive change in the face of the shallow, insipid, and spineless nature of the administration who would sell us down the river for a pharmaceutical company pay out or a free chauffeur.

so let's just be honest, shoukri and the university don't really want us "coming together"because that would mean that all parties are getting something out of this encounter. instead, york and shoukri are employing a more selfish technique which leaves the rest of us feeling frustrated, unsatisfied, and used.

"your soul for a place in the sun"...

there was a really great interview with denis rancourt on rabble.ca yesterday(listen to it here!). denis was fired from the university of ottawa for giving away too many high grades(according to the university). he was a tenured professor and his firing raises a lot of important questions about what tenure even means right now and whether or not it's providing the kind of security needed for academics to be free of reprisal for political or pedagogical 'deviations'.

"Denis Rancourt was fired in March ostensibly for his practice of refusing to grade students in his classes. He explains what he believes is the politics behind his dismissal"





a statement from denis:

"Most students agree to give up their independence of thought and enquiry and to serve the insane system of due dates and senseless assignments in exchange for the certificate (the degree). Most students give up four vital years of their lives in order to be certified persistently obedient. This certificate, in turn, gives students access to a privileged position in the wage hierarchy and professional social status. It’s a trade. But the certificate is not just a certificate. It requires survival and that, in turn, requires both adopting the ideology of the profession (for professional, science, and engineering degrees) and self-indoctrination to drive out the natural impulse to learn (often called setting priorities or time management). Your soul for a place in the sun."1


sign the petition: http://rancourt.academicfreedom.ca/component/petitions/?view=petition&id=4