Letter from Faculty of Arts faculty to UBC-V's senate on SEoTs

We are Faculty of Arts teaching staff who are concerned about the UBCV Provost’s decision to continuing holding student evaluations of teaching (SEoTs) “as usual” this term.  There is nothing usual about the conditions for teaching this term and we do not believe that this decision is in the best interest of the teaching staff at UBCV.  The ability of individuals to undertake the burdens of the switch to online teaching differs according to individual circumstances and these burdens have been placed particularly heavily upon the most vulnerable members of our teaching complement, who have both a larger number of courses to teach and a smaller pool of financial resources to absorb additional burdens like the cost of high-speed internet or other equipment they need for their courses.

Moreover, the Provost’s reasoning in which he claims that “we [sic] believe it will be useful to gather student feedback on their experience of the transition to online” is concerning.  This is not a goal for SEoTs contemplated in the Senate policy for SEoTs, the SEoT questionnaire was not developed with this goal in view and will not yield reliable or valid data on that topic, and there are many aspects to the student “experience of the transition to online” that go beyond their experience in (and thus their evaluation of) individual courses and their instructors. If gathering student feedback on the transition to online teaching is the University’s goal, it must develop a dedicated instrument for this purpose.

The Senate meets in special session on 8 April to discuss covid-19-related matters.  We urge that you place a discussion of this decision onto the agenda for that meeting.

Open Letter on SEoT to UBC-V's Provost.

Dear Andrew,

I note your memo on SEoT for UBC-V instructors that was relayed via my department.

In that memo is the suggestion that there is valuable data to be collected on the transition to online delivery – emergency remote teaching. There may indeed be data waiting to be harvested, yet this instrument  was not designed to do that task.  

The individual option for instructors that you have provided is problematic. One of my colleagues recently shared their thoughts via a department list serve raising concerns about the implications for a faculty member to not use this term's records – wondering out loud how that would be interpreted and understood in reviews if others did include them.  

The data you are looking for on the transition could have been rolled out in a way that left evaluation of teaching off the table. The technical modification of those forms is not that complicated (or at least that is what I have been told by the technicians previously). 

At this juncture, where so much is in turmoil, so many of us with family, friends, associates affected adversely by the pandemic and it’s spill over effects, it seems that running yet one more evaluation during this time takes on the appearances of an act of unkindness.  As instructors we have been asked, and many of us have taken a lead on encouraging others, to act with compassion. We have made modifications, accommodations, and allowances. We have worked to pay attention to our students' needs. 

For example, in one of my courses where we are reading an ethnography and viewing a film of working in a food processing plant one student explained that they couldn’t get past the first page of the book. They were surprised at their response – I excused all of the subsequent assignments. Another wrote apologies for missing a virtual class from their phone as their parent was being admitted to an emergency room.  Another had given up their rental accommodation because economic uncertainty due to the pandemic and our virtual class fell on their moving day. And on these stories go. In the best times I work out alternative projects or other accommodations, but in this case asking these students to continue to do make-up work strikes me as an act devoid of compassion. The harm caused by continuing the SEoT, however valuable the data may be for you, outweighs any perceived benefit.

I am compelled to urge my own students not to complete these evaluations as I can find no importance in doing them at this time.  Furthermore I encourage my colleagues not to facilitate or support the implementation of SEoT either.

With warm regards,

Charles

Aligning with UBC's Indigenous Strategic Plan - guidelines for academic units

UBC's new Indigenous Strategic Plan contains 8 goals and 43 specific action items.  I have discussed the implications and importance of this plan at the level of the overall university, this commentary looks at specific actions items that academic units and departments might focus on. I am doing this from the vantage point of my own department, Anthropology at UBC-V.

Our department describes it self has having a caring, inclusive 'culture.' 

This underlying context should set the department up for a strong and effective engagement with implementing the Indigenous Strategic Plan. It doesn't however, address the historical complicity that anthropologists and anthropology have had with colonial dispossession of Indigenous peoples.

Anthropologists have a long history of 'collecting' Indigenous belongings under problematic contexts. The core data and substance of anthropological theory making of anthropology has been built out of Indigenous knowledge and tradition. Our department at UBC has a long history research in Indigenous communities and, more recently, with Indigenous communities. Any action moving forward should reflect an awareness of our departmental and disciplinary history, our need to redress our past, and a reworking of our practices and policies to reflect the future oriented vision of the Indigenous Strategic Plan.

Among the strategic plan's action items are at least ten that a department might have some capacity to act upon and effect local changes over.  I label these 'potential areas of growth.'  There are three additional action items that UBC Anthropology has already met or exceeded.

This year the department of anthropology at UBC-V set up a special working group to identify ways of realigning and improving departmental practices and policies to bring them into compliance with the TRC's Calls to Action.  As part of this process the department is holding a workshop Monday March 9th (open to faculty, staff, & graduate students) to identify three priority areas to work on in the coming year. This summary and grouping of action items is prepared as a resource for the workshop.

The action items from the Indigenous Strategic Plan are listed below under two headings. The numbers beside each item corresponds to the action items' number in the plan.

Potential areas of growth

2. Ensure that all faculties and cross-university strategies identify Indigenous engagement and the advancement of Indigenous peoples’ human rights as a specific strategic area of focus and commitment.

6. Complete a public report on the findings of an institution-wide study that identifies UBC’s participation in the implementation of Crown colonial policies.

14. Provide Indigenous peoples who are engaged in research with equitable and timely compensation that recognizes the significant value of their participation to the research process and outcomes.

15. Undertake a university-wide curriculum review to ensure Indigenous histories, experiences, worldviews and knowledge systems are appropriately reflected across faculties and programs and are fully compliant with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action

17. Provide equitable and timely financial compensation to Indigenous people who support the Indigenization of curriculum.

21. Dedicate spaces for Indigenous students, faculty and staff to practice and celebrate their cultures.

23. Implement an Indigenous procurement strategy which prioritizes the provision of goods and services from Indigenous businesses and vendors.

25. Develop an Indigenous representative workforce and advancement policy, which identifies targets for annually increasing Indigenous faculty and staff on both campuses.

27. Integrate competence in teaching Indigenous content and working with Indigenous students and colleagues into all university job descriptions.

38. Review all university policies and operational practices to ensure they support the recognition of Indigenous peoples’ human rights, and the equity and inclusion of Indigenous students, faculty, staff and community members.

Meeting or exceeding

13. Co-develop research protocols and community-specific ethical research guidelines with interested community partners to ensure students and faculties are approaching research opportunities with communities in a respectful and formalized manner. This includes the imperative of free, prior and informed consent and protocols on the ownership, control, access and possession of Indigenous data.

16. Ensure all academic programs, undergraduate and graduate, include substantive content in at least one course which explores Indigenous histories and identifies how Indigenous issues intersect with the major field of study of the faculty.

18. Partner with Indigenous communities locally and globally to develop accredited post-secondary Indigenous knowledge programs that can be delivered in communities and on-campus.