Native students protest; university says don't worry

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Members of the Aboriginal student population at the University of Saskatchewan held a couple of demonstrations in early April because they are worried by funding and hiring practices within the university and, especially, the department of Native Studies.

The students fear corporate funding, specifically the million dollar donation - which was intended to provide a "home away from home" for Aboriginal students -by Alberta's Nova Corp. to the university's First and Best fund raising campaign, is being used for other purposes.

Bob Dodds, a student at the university, told Sage it appears the administration is taking funds related to Aboriginal studies and using the money for other purposes. He is concerned the Aboriginal students will not benefit from the donation.

The Indigenous Students Council is carefully watching how the university will handle the hiring of sessional lecturers in the Native Studies department. Students are worried that with the exodus of Dr. Patricia Monture-Angus (due to sabbatical) and Ron Laliberte (educational leave), there will be no sessional lecturers of Aboriginal heritage.

Many of the students believe it is to their benefit to be taught by Aboriginal people in order to obtain a true Native perspective of the subjects taught. They say that having non-Aboriginal people fill these positions creates the risk that a Euro-centric interpretation of the issues will prevail.

Head of the department of Native Studies, Dr. Jim Waldrum, said he has not received official notification from either Monture-Angus or Laliberte confirming their leaves of absence.

"It is the mandate of the department to try and fill vacant positions with qualified Aboriginal personnel if possible," he said. "However, due to the collective bargaining agreement now in place and the agreement with CUPE [the Canadian Union of Public Employees], which represents the U of S sessional lecturers, this may not always be possible."

This was confirmed by Dr. Sylvia Wallace, the university's associate vice-president (academic). Wallace said the university is well aware of the importance of having Aboriginal instructors within the department and does everything possible to achieve this goal. But she admitted that on some occasions the university's hands are tied by union contracts. Wallace also pointed out that the university is now in the process of advertising for an "Aboriginal scholar" to fill the tenure position in the department left vacant by the departure of Dr. Frank Tuff.

Addressing the issue of funding, Maureen Gammell, executive assistant to the president of the university, emphatically denied rumors that the Nova grant is being used for other purposes.

"In fact, the opposite is true," she said. "At present, the Nova funding has not been touched and is sitting in an interest-bearing trust account awaiting a joint decision from both the administration and the Indigenous Student Council on how best to allocate the funds."

Heather Magotiaux, the director of communications for the university, explained why the money has not yet been put to work.

"The million dollars received from Nova in itself is not enough to construct a separate building where Aboriginal students can feel comfortable to carry on with their traditional practices. And with the cutbacks in both federal and provincial funding, the possibility of this happening in the near future is slim at best," she said.

Both Gammell and Magotiaux acknowledge that, due to demographics alone, Aboriginal people will play an important role in the future of the university.

They say the university's administration recognize the importance of providing space where Aboriginal students can study as well as interact with others.