Bulletin Archive

In 2014, Capilano University was embroiled in a heated series of protests and debates over the administration’s plan to eliminate a number of academic units as part of a sweeping set of budget cuts. George Rammell, a studio art instructor […]

“Why do you need to buy these books?” A professor of English at the University of Manitoba was recently asked this simple question. One might be forgiven for thinking it was posed by a curious young child. But you’d be […]

Will C. van den Hoonaard & Ann Hamilton (eds). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2016; 480 pp; ISBN: 978-1-44262-608-9. Earlier this year I was complaining to a colleague that my university would not let me submit a project for ethics […]

Microaggressions have become the subject of intense scrutiny on university and college campuses. While today’s focus has only recently emerged, the literature on microaggressions dates back to the late 1960s. It was Dr. Chester Pierce, an African American psychiatrist, medical […]

L.M. of Halifax writes: I have been asked by my dean to attend an informal meeting to discuss a “matter of concern” related to my institution’s respectful workplace policy. What should I do? David Robinson answers: Before doing anything, talk […]

In your book Bibliometrics and Research Evaluation: Uses and Abuses, you essentially tear performance indicators apart. What are your main arguments? Whether we’re talking about impact factors, the h-index, or academic rankings, evaluation isn’t really the issue. We’ve been evaluating the […]

« Pourquoi devez-vous acheter ces livres? » Une professeure d’anglais à l’Université du Manitoba s’est fait poser cette question surprenante dernièrement. La question venait d’un enfant curieux, me direz-vous. Pas bête, mais faux. Car la question était le résultat d’un […]

L.M. d’HALIFAX écrit: Mon doyen m’a demandé d’assister à une réunion informelle pour discuter d’une « préoccupation » relativement à la politique de l’éta­blisse-ment sur le respect au travail. Que devrais-je faire? David Robinson répond: Avant tout, communiquez avec votre association de personnel […]

A self-proclaimed “pro-science” government, a federal review of support for fundamental science, a major revamp of a controversial reform of health research grants, a new. $900 million federal fund for “big science” — with those big changes in the political […]

‘Tis the season of consultations. Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government wants to know what people think about a great many things. A recent count, taken from the government’s Consulting with Canadians website, puts the number of official consultations in progress at […]

Steven Salaita. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2016; 254 pp; ISBN: 978-1-60846-577-4. This book’s biggest surprise comes near its end, when Salaita confirms Israeli right-winger Naftali Bennett’s claim that Palestinians keep missile launchers at home. “[T]he missile launcher room is the […]