Departments in Difficulty

As you are no doubt aware, there are many changes on the horizon for Dawson as a result of program revisions, changes to multidisciplinary course distribution, and the implementation of Law 14. Although there are still many unknowns, particularly with regards to the implementation of Law 14, a clearer picture is beginning to form of the impacts these changes will have on particular departments. In the spirit of solidarity, we wanted to draw your attention to some of the challenges being faced by our colleagues.

Physical Education
Although Physical Education courses are not eligible to be taught in French according to Law 14 (since they are 30 hours), there will be a significant short-term impact on staffing in the Physical Education department.

As of Fall 2023, non-certificate-holding students will be taking three courses that will address the competencies of the French Exit Exam. In order to better prepare students for the Exit Exam, the College has determined that these courses should occur in semesters 1, 2, and 3 of a 2-year profile. In order to fit this into the Program Grid, other General Education courses have been moved. The majority of the impact of this change will be felt in Physical Education as they will be offering significantly fewer courses in the 2023-2024 academic year. However, this decrease in courses will be temporary as the College transitions to the new Program Grids. The College predicts that by the 2024-25 academic year, staffing in the department should rebound to previous numbers.

 Modern Languages
The Modern Languages Department consists of Spanish, Italian, Greek, Chinese, Hebrew and German disciplines. Each of these contributes to the Modern Languages Profile in the Arts, Literature and Communications pre-university program. However, the department relies heavily on complementary courses to supplement its staffing and ensure the viability of its smaller disciplines. In order to meet the requirements of Law 14, the College has determined that the entirety of complementary courses offered at Dawson will be offered in French.

Unfortunately, we just recently received confirmation from FNEEQ that the Ministry’s position is that Modern Languages courses fall under the umbrella of second language courses and therefore cannot qualify as courses with instruction in French. As a result, the Modern Languages department is facing a dramatic reduction in staffing in the upcoming years. 

 Humanities
Since there are only two complementary courses in any given program, the College is trying to identify where the third course “in French” will come from. Currently, programs are being asked to identify which specific education courses could be taught in French. However, the College has made it clear that in the case of certain programs, particularly small programs in the technical sector, it may not be cost-effective to designate a specific education course as the third course “in French”; for these programs, the College might impose that a Humanities course be taught in French.

This would mean that many Humanities teachers will now be expected to teach at least one course in French. To date, there is no clear indication of how this would be managed in terms of contractual rights such as priority for work and CI calculations. Our negotiating team has a clear mandate not to allow the government to remove any protections from our Collective Agreement. This leaves many questions as to how Law 14 will be implemented without violating teachers’ rights. We understand that the same preoccupations and challenges will affect all disciplines that will have to teach some sections in French.

 History
The History department is also facing challenges from the implementation of complementary courses in French. In addition, the department is already experiencing a reduction in staffing due to a change in the College’s process for distributing Methods courses. As explained in a Memo (16th December 2021), Methods courses are multidisciplinary courses that can be taught by any of the Social Sciences disciplines. Dean Isabelle Carrier has been working on a new model for the distribution of Methods courses, which has reduced the number of these courses distributed to History as well as Economics to try to establish a more equitable distribution among the Social Science disciplines.