The University is in transition: tenure for teaching staff has become the exception, tuition is rising, class sizes are expanding, while at the same time SFU is building new campuses and branding new programs as it claims to have no money. How do we make sense of all of this? What are the relationships between rising tuition and student debt, and public and private funding, and what do they mean for the role of our University? Drawing from a number perspectives, this panel addressed the effect of privatization and cuts on public education, and the role universities have historically played as cultural institutions.

University of Western Ontario professor gives talk on the history of universities as political spaces and the contemporary moment of neoliberal university restructuring.

Alison Hearn-Part 1

Alison Hearn-Part2

Vancouver activist and scholar speaks on the logics of university restructuring, and specifics of how this narrative is rolling itself out in Vancouver.

Myka Tucker-Abramson

Simon Fraser University student analyzes his experience working in research and coop programs through the school.

Jeff Knaggs

University instructor and labour historian speaks about the growing reliance on sessional and contingent workers in the increasingly two-tiered pedagogical labour force in post-secondary education.

John-Henry Harter--Part 1

John-Henry Harter--Part 2