A letter signed by over 200 University of Guelph graduate students was presented to the university on Thursday outlining the concerns felt regarding the universities transparency, decision-making process and proposed plan for the upcoming semester.
The graduate students’ letter was sent to the U of G's senior leadership and the board of governors.
The letter states the undersigned graduate students at the University of Guelph feel “the process has not appeared to prioritize the health and wellbeing of our community, it has not been transparent to all levels of the campus community, and when we have stood up and voiced our concerns in several venues, we have been dismissed or ignored.”
Concerns voiced include the graduate students receiving a lack of communication from the university following town hall meetings held on April 1, April 6 and June 17.
The graduate students said the responses were vague and inadequate.
“The responses to these concerns at the townhalls were extremely lacking: questions were moderated, many were not addressed despite being asked multiple times, and the answers given for most questions did not seem to offer any information not already available on the university or public health websites,” the letter reads.
“I think right now we are going to see what they do and hopefully we see some changes in time for the semester to start,” said Katherine Drotos, Ph.D. candidate in integrative biology and co-author of the letter.
The penning of the letter began in April, and having gone through several iterations, was put forward to the graduates’ student association.
Following a meeting, changes to the letter were made and the letter was sent out for endorsement by the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) before being distributed to the university.
“I’m not satisfied with the way that everything has been handled over the past year, especially within the past few months, and I think we need to see a demonstration or some kind of accountability that the process will change,” said Drotos.
On the issue of communication from the university to various groups on campus, the letter says the students have felt there appears to have been different channels which have led to confusion, stress, and distrust.
“We have been aware of these disparities through conversations with our graduate advisors and other colleagues. To give an example, the faculty get a memo (that contains information that affects everyone) and the staff and graduate students do not receive it, thereby meaning we are unaware of some update or decision unless faculty happen to mention it,” the letter reads.
Drotos said upon sending the letter, Ben Bradshaw, associate professor and assistant vice-president of graduate studies, acknowledged the letter and said that the students would receive both an implicit follow-up and an explicit follow-up from him later.
She also received a reply from the board member it was sent to who said they would send it around immediately to the other members and urge them to look at it in advance of their next meeting.
“I feel really bad for the undergraduate students because they didn’t deserve this. Even if they’re not going to feel a lot of the effects we're feeling their semester still could have been so much better than this,” said Drotos. “So many faculty I know have been working really hard to make their courses interesting and make them pandemic resistant, and it’s just, they haven’t gotten nearly the support they should have to make those courses as amazing as they could be.”
University of Guelph spokesperson Deirdre Healey said in an email the university values and appreciates input from the U of G community, and the letter and its contents will be a part of the many ongoing discussions about the fall 2021 semester.
The letter from the graduate students comes on the heels of an open letter to the leadership of the University of Guelph that acquired 492 signatures from the broad community to demand that the university administration correct the current path to ensure the safety of everyone on campus.
The letter said: “The University of Guelph's current return to campus plan is insufficient to ensure the safety of the campus and broader Guelph communities. We, the undersigned faculty, staff, students, librarians, alumni, parents, and donors of the University of Guelph, therefore demand that the university administration correct our current path to ensure the safety of everyone on campus.”
