CAUT hosts forum on government funding in Ottawa
April 21st, 2009
The Canadian Association of University Teachers will be hosting a forum in Ottawa this Thursday, April 23 to discuss the impact of federal funding (or as the title of their press release states, editorially, underfunding) provisions on university research in the health, natural, and social sciences. Three researchers will be featured:
- W.R. Peltier, University Professor and Professor of Physics, and Director of the Centre for Global Change Science at the University of Toronto
- Ryan T. McKay, Scientific Director of the National High Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Centre at the University of Alberta; and
- Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Professor of Political Science at Simon Fraser University.
The forum will form part of the CAUT’s biannual national council meeting, and will be at the Chateau Laurier at 2:30pm. More information can be found in their announcement.
The CAUT forum will (rightly) be interpreted by the government as vested interests whining about their own constituency. If the research community wants to make real progress with this government, it needs to engage the general public, communicate the benefits of research, stop trying to publicly embarrass the government (it won’t work even though it sells papers) and build constructive dialogue. This government has made mistakes but rubbing these in will just lead to more entrenchment. That doesn’t mean making empty platitudes, but the point has been made already. It’s time to move into constructive thinking – even if the government appears not to be listening.
Indeed, continued whining in public may easily turn into a backlash from the many thousands of Canadians who have recently lost, or fear losing, their jobs. The other political parties realise this too so we won’t find them coming to our defense. The research community must avoid becoming the weapon that others (journalists, opposition MPs) use to whip the government as we’ll be the entity receiving the subsequent wrath.
Thanks for your insightful comments, Jim. I hope you won’t mind that I’ve reprinted them as a blog post, as I think you raise important points that deserve widespread consideration.