gazette@watserv1.waterloo.edu ( Chris Redmond - Internal Communications Office ) (11/22/90)
Text from the UW Gazette, Wednesday, November 21, 1990. (I was told yesterday by one of the organizers of the petition that the number of signatures, described in this text as "at least 150", is now in excess of 200.) "EQUITY": Petition contrasts it with "ability" in academics A petition opposed to "employment equity" in the hiring of professors has been signed by almost one-fifth of UW's faculty members and is on its way to Ontario premier Bob Rae. It's the latest aspect of a hot campus debate over various forms of "equity", proposals and plans to promote the hiring of women and such other groups as disabled people, visible minorities and native Canadians. A second focus for the debate in recent days has been a request from UW's provost for each academic department to set "targets" for the number of women faculty it will hire in the next few years. The provost suggested that vacancies should be filled by women in at least the same percentage as women appear among PhD graduates in that disicpline. And there has also been controversy over the process for choosing a dean in the faculty of arts. After all the women (and many of the men) who had been nominated for the post declined, the search committee decided to look outside UW, in the hope of having at least one woman as a serious candidate for the deanship. But the petition has given professors opposed to "equity" measures a way of stating their opinions, and "at least 150" had done so by the middle of last week, according to philosophy professor Dr. Judy Wubnig, who helped organize it. She said it had been started by herself, Dr. Allan Nelson of political science, and Dr. Peter Silveston of chemical engineering, and had been sent to every faculty member, drawing support from practically every department. The petition says that "The only proper consideration in faculty employment is the individual's ability to promote knowledge; and the only criteria of ability to promote knowledge are the possession of knowledge itself and demonstrated skill in its pursuit and communication.| "Neither race nor national origins nor sex nor handicaps, nor any other of the infinite traits of human beings are such criteria." Thus, the petition says, its signers oppose a brief from the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, "requesting legislation to require employment of university faculty on the basis of race, ethnic group, sex, and handicaps, calling it "employment equity'." But a statement from OCUFA, issued last week, denies that any such brief has been sent to the government. Instead it points to a short motion passed by the OCUFA board at a meeting in September: "That OCUFA urge the new government to develop and adopt comprehensive employment equity legislation which includes mandatory goals and timetables." There is a big difference between "goals" and "quotas", the OCUFA statement says, since goals are set by the employer and meant to be "realistic and achievable", whereas quotas are "arbitrary" and ignore considerations such as "the existence of a qualified pool of designated group workers". OCUFA also has a pair of policy statements -- one on the hiring of women as faculty members, issued in 1986, and one on employment equity for visible minorities, disabled people and native people, also approved by the OCUFA board at that September meeting. The 1990 policy was written by a committee which included Dr. Mark Nagler of UW's Renison College. OCUFA notes that UW, like many other universities, is already committed to "employment equity" through the terms of the Federal Contractors' Program. Although there is no provincial law on the subject, a federal program does require institutions with major federal contracts -- including Waterloo -- to say what they will do to promote access for four "disadvantaged" groups (women, disabled people, natives and visible minorities). That program is what lay behind the provost's request a few weeks ago to have academic departments set targets for hiring of women faculty over the next nine years. An employment equity program for staff positions has not been announced yet, but personnel director Catharine Scott has said it would likely include such measures as wider advertising of vacant jobs, to make sure that members of non-traditional groups had a chance to apply. She also said that targets, not quotas which must be filled, are the intent of employment equity. Whatever government is calling for it, the signers of the petition are opposed to employment equity, which they say "would establish mandatory employment inequity| individuals would not be treated as they deserve according to their merits." The petition adds: "The justification given for quotas is that employment policies for university faculty based on race, ethnic origin, sex, and handicap are unfair and should be eliminated. "We emphatically agree that such policies are unfair and should be abandoned by any who follow them. That is precisely why we oppose requiring quotas, which contradict the very principle they are supposed to support."