The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education will stop admitting students to its bachelor of education program in 2015.Kenneth C. Zirkel/Getty Images/iStockphoto
The lawyer representing the dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education says his client has been unfairly targeted by some of the school's faculty for carrying out decisions made by university administrators and the provincial government.
Last month, dozens of faculty passed a motion asking the U of T administration for Dr. Julia O'Sullivan's removal before her term ends this summer.
She "may be only a messenger and decisions have been made by the university and by government. The dean is charged with communicating those decisions. … Public castigation at that level is offensive and could cause reputational damage," said Brian Grosman, a senior employment lawyer and former law professor.
Last year, the school announced that it would no longer offer bachelor of education degrees and grant only master's degrees. The move minimized the negative impact on its revenues as a result of Ontario increasing the length of undergraduate teacher education to two years with no increase in per-student funding. The glut of graduates was largely responsible for the government's decision to increase the length of the program in a bid to make universities consider and streamline their offerings.
No OISE faculty positions were cut as a result of the decision, but administrative staff positions were reduced. The faculty motion came in part due to objections over how the reorganization was carried out. Yet Dr. O'Sullivan should not have been blamed for the end of the bachelor's program, Mr. Grosman said.
He is assessing if there are grounds to launch legal action against any of the parties involved in the controversy: faculty and the faculty association, the staff union, or the wider university administration.
"This is not a matter where the faculty is opposed to the reappointment of the dean. This is a matter where a motion is put forward and publicly asks that the dean be fired. That is a highly unusual and radical step to be taken."
At the time it was announced, other education faculties across Ontario objected to the agreement between U of T and the provincial government. Many universities that offer B.Ed's said they would have attempted to convert their programs to master's degrees if they had known that was an option.
Aspiring teachers face a market with little prospect for jobs – 40 per cent of new teachers in Ontario could not find a single day of teaching in their first year after graduation.
For OISE, "the financial impact on [its] budget from the changes announced by the provincial government in June 2013 is $3.2-million annually," said a U of T spokesperson.
The cuts that were made to administrative staff at OISE were a combination of buy-outs and layoffs, but many of those affected were eligible for reappointments elsewhere, said Paul Tsang, the president of Local 1998.
"From the staffing perspective, we've done well for the members at OISE … From the faculty perspective, faculty are supposed to be involved in academic decisions," Mr. Tsang said.
An online petition to "Save OISE" was started by the local in response to that perceived lack of consultation as well as other issues within the faculty, he added.