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UPDATE: Prof. Rancourt responds:
U of O activism course touches core values

UPDATE:  Reader Douglas B. responds to Citizen Article

January 31, 2007

PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE: 2007.01.31
EDITION: Final
SECTION: City
PNAME: City Editorial
PAGE: D4
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen
WORD COUNT: 483

Unusual course costs U of O

The University of Ottawa is getting what it deserves from a credit course on activism: perpetual agony visited upon the school by students egged on by their own professor.

The latest episode in the saga of Professor Denis Rancourt's "Activism Course" (officially, "Science in Society," offered by the physics department) involves the university being slapped with a human-rights complaint because it kicked out two 10-year-olds who'd signed up along with their mother.

Sebastian and Douglas Foster were registered as special students, allowed to take the course for university credit even though they weren't registered for any of the U of O's degree programs. (Mr. Rancourt invites members of the community to take the course this way.) Eventually, somebody noticed that the Foster boys hadn't graduated from high school nor had they two years of adult work experience and the university ruled them ineligible to attend.

Now their mother, Wendy Foster, is claiming the university is discriminating against her sons on the basis of age, social status and family status, and she wants the Ontario Human Rights Commission to intervene. Mr. Rancourt, the professor, is supporting them.

Last year, the course went on the chopping block after some students complained that what Mr. Rancourt was teaching had little to do with the class's official description; other students organized a protest and denounced the dean of science. This year, students sued the university for not providing enough teaching assistants.

Evaluation is based on each student's assessment of his or her own progress, so Sebastian and Douglas deemed themselves to have passed.

Instead of wrestling with complex clashes of values and honest interests, never mind science, the course is a free-form tour of the causes some find interesting at the moment. According to Mr. Rancourt's course outline, guest lecturers have included a York University professor who condemns universities as instruments of intellectual and social coercion (the professor, David Noble, made $127,000 from York in 2005, according to provincial salary disclosures; Mr. Rancourt made just more than $100,000 from U of O). Another session was on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- with Palestinian-Canadian human-rights activists presenting both sides.

There's merit in opening university classes to the community. There's merit in letting students direct a little more of their own learning than many university courses permit. There's certainly merit in considering the social dimensions of any discipline. But there's little merit in university minus the hard stuff.

Academic radicals have long focused on their own institutions, so there's not much surprising in Mr. Rancourt's students' targeting of the University of Ottawa. What's tragic is that the university was so sloppy with the Fosters' registration, and more importantly, that it has allowed this "course" to go on for so long, at such cost to the university and to the public that supports it.
 
From: douglas b.
Date: Feb 1, 2007 5:06 AM
Subject: Ottawa Citizen Editorial

For those who are newer to these things than I: Here's a mini Media-101

The editorial ridicules the course, Professor Rancourt, the Fosters, all participating students and the activism. The editorial writers are probably worried about Professor Rancourt's course (I'll elaborate on this further down). They therefore scold the university for having "allowed this 'course' to go on for so long". They aren't criticizing the university for obstructing anyone. They are criticizing it for not clamping down harder!

Notice the ridiculing words:

- ... students "egged on" by their professor, as opposed to encouraged or guided or assisted

- "The latest episode in the saga", as opposed to the latest embarrassment for the university

- ... university being "slapped" with a complaint, as opposed to being charged or accused

- ... sued for "not providing enough teaching assistants" as opposed to withholding teaching
assistants

Stating the course:

- did not "wrestle" with "honest interests"

- looked at causes only "some" individuals found interesting, and again only "at the moment". No
important causes that everyone should see.

Using:

- quotation marks around "course" discredits it, as if  it were not a real course - standard technique used by columnists to deride something.

Claiming:

- this course is a cost to the public when it fact it's of great value and open to all.

Stating:

"Academic radicals have long focused on their own institutions". Well, that's because the institutions
are the *greatest* oppressors of radical academics, so of course they're the main targets. Then local media scold the university, the university will clamp down harder, it will end up being even more of a target, and the media will say "See! see! The radical is hurting his own university still more!"

Fear:

Why does the Ottawa Citizen fear the activism course? Well, the course could snowball, spawning others, and some years from now, lead to an irreversible decline of the Ottawa Citizen's fortunes and political agenda (more on the agenda further down).

Revenue:

The Ottawa Citizen's revenue depends on the prosperity and happiness of its biggest advertisers (banks, pharmaceutical companies, car/SUV manufacturers, etc.). Corporations pay for ads but also expect newspapers to look out for them. Newspapers look out for corporations by writing well of them but especially by being critical and deriding emerging threats, even when they are still very small.

Media want people to get their information through media, not by going around them and using alternative methods. Media's house of cards is complicated but they can defend it by the power of the pen!

Political agenda:

The activism course may, if it continues for years from now, greatly impact the Ottawa Citizen's political agenda - more correctly that of CanWest. CanWest owns the National Post, the Ottawa Citizen, the Montrea Gazette and many more newspapers in Canada. Look up CanWest in Wikipedia for some political details to draw easy conclusions from.  Have a look at the following story, from the CBC, about political complaints against CanWest by the news agency Reuters:

Each is a slightly different version:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2004/09/17/ot_reuters20040917.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/09/17/canwesterrorist040917.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2004/09/17/tor_canwest040917.html

Class dismissed.

From: Denis Rancourt
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 5:06 PM
Subject: Foster twins, U of O, Prof explains...

U of O activism course touches core values

The case of the Foster twins (10 years old) expelled from the activism course (Science in Society) that I teach at the University of Ottawa draws attention to deeper problems and core questions regarding universities.

While there is a real case of age discrimination in this affair, there is also a power play between students and the self-appointed omnipotent university executive.

Members of the public, students, academics, and corporate media editors are not indifferent to the manoeuvrings and machinations between the students (brainwashed and completely under my control) and the university executive.

While journalists and editors were quick to suggest that the story of the twins did not merit attention, they nonetheless covered the story ad nauseam and linked it to the overall struggles involving the activism course.

The visceral allergic reaction to pre-teens being allowed to benefit from a university course (and being officially recognized, via university credits, to have both participated and benefited) can only be understood as arising from having touched a societal nerve.

"I paid my dues in primary school and high school before I was allowed to access a university education, why should anyone be allowed to just attend.?"  "My university education put me in a privileged class because of the academic elitism of the institution: Any example of non-elitist accessibility therefore threatens my credentials."  "A single course that is not based on technical certification with technical prerequisites will cause the entire edifice to crumble."  Etc.

What ever happened to the pedagogical ideal that "anyone can learn and every student will take something different from sufficiently rich material"?  What ever happened to prioritizing participation, involvement, investment, and passion?  Must certification crush every experiment in motivation and education?

Children understand more things about their reality than we could ever remember and they consequently perceive and interpret "mature" themes in unique and often piercing ways.  Given the chance to communicate their observations, they inform us of unexpected perspectives and are validated by our acceptance.  The more the issue is perceived to be complex by adults, the more piercing is the child's analysis.  Why should only high-school graduates be entitled to credits in such classroom circumstances?

Do non-gifted high school students (not admitted) become gifted (admitted) on the day they graduate?  Compound this with the fact that the university would be the first to claim complete academic discretion in accepting which ever student it wants.  Indeed, if the credits had been granted, they would be legal credits upheld by the University of Ottawa Act.  In a pedagogical environment such as in my activism course, which is specifically designed to synergistically make use of all ages and all academic backgrounds, the university administration cannot decide to discriminate on the basis of age or academic background.  Period.  It's called a human right.

However, broader societal forces are at play.  In the words of author Jeff Schmidt:  "The Foster twins embarrassed the elitist university bosses, who want to maintain the myth that university courses deal with concepts that are too difficult for most people to understand."

Douglas and Sebastian Foster were expelled from the activism course after having completed 6 of the 12 weeks of classes, for political reasons using age discrimination as an excuse.  The registrar's office gave this case the attention it deserved and accepted these students after documented detailed scrutiny and a careful analysis of admission guidelines.  After the three-week process was complete, the parent asked if anything else was needed given her sons' young ages and was told no and that the official acceptance forms were in order with all the needed signatures.

The dean's letter dated October 17th constituted an unambiguous and non-negotiable expulsion, without prior discussion with the professor, the students, or the parent.  The only prior contact was a single vague voice mail left a few days before the expulsion letter was sent.  The university then stonewalled all subsequent attempts at negotiation and did not answer several letters of protest.

How often does the dean of a faculty directly intervene to correct a "small administrative error"?  The answer is never.  Where was the vice-dean academic?  Normally, the registrar's office sends an email to the student's (or parent's) uOttawa.ca account, or a letter to the home address, immediately.  Alternatively, the administration can reach a student via a professor of one of the student's courses.  None of this was attempted.  Yet the hired spin doctor of the university and the dean claim that the error was "noticed within 60 minutes".  In common language, that is called a lie.

The heavy handed expulsions of the Foster twins were wrong.  The expulsions caused distress to the Foster family members who had organized their schedules around the Wednesday classes and the Friday documentary film and discussion series, and disrupted the class and its workgroups. The only thing that was done correctly by the university was that it treated both boys exactly the same way, with disrespect.

To understand how the expulsions were political acts, consider the context. The activism course is a credit course available to all students.  I initiated this experiment in pedagogy and social relevance in response to twenty years of observing ineffective classes delivering soulless material that only served to prepare students to be obedient employees, just after reading Jeff Schmidt's book Disciplined Minds, that followed my readings of Chomsky, Said, and David F. Noble.  It is activists who make the world a better place, who make a difference, not obedient employees.

The experiment encountered immediate and explosive resistance, in the form of a dean's in-class tantrum that would have put the Foster boys to shame.  The activism course exists only because hundreds of students and community members fought for it against committee normalcy, unprecedented administrative barriers, disciplinal ghettoism, and regressive opinion egged on by CANWEST spin.

The university executive has consistently attempted to block the course over the past two years:  From the dean's failed in-class intervention, to deflected attempts to censor the course web site, to ad hoc rules and evaluation committees, to forbidding community member participation, to failed disciplinary campaigns based on ridiculous premises, to withholding academic resources, to the upper executives re-writing the course description themselves, and now to expelling students.

The opposite atmosphere reigns in the classroom, where students and community members of all ages and backgrounds interact with intricate and compelling material of direct relevance to their place in the world.  Vital issues were presented by principal actors, experts, and through readings; including war, terrorism, the armament industry, monetary economics, poverty, professional ethics, environmental issues, societal and institutional structures, human rights, science funding, the non-profit sector, the agri-food industry, the pharmaceutical industry, animal rights, democracy, foreign policy, and others.

In class, self-motivation and unrestrained exploration and expression are enabled by the absence of grades and individually tailored progress reports.  The system works well and is improved as we go.  Every academic faculty or school was represented and the student ages ran from 10 to over 70.  The students could send me out of the class anytime and take control as much as they wanted to.

The surviving students report a unique and often life-changing experience that connects them to others and to their most basic selves.  They become motivated beyond career seeking and grades competition to discover meaning in what they stand for.  They become willing to risk in order to advance and to live more fully.

This course is perceived as threatening by the institution.  It has been created by democratic demand and is democratically controlled.  It shows: the pitfalls of the carrot and stick approach (grades), that complex issues can be understood without first being indoctrinated, and that learning is not optimal under a spoon feeding regime.  If universities let out that the material they dispense is accessible to all, then why would workers trust their university educated bosses or citizens the hired experts?

Since today's students know that they pay more than half the operating costs (the balance is from public funds) and that they are entirely controlled by a self-appointed executive of a patent holding corporation that delivers publicly funded intellectual property to private corporations without any democratic oversight, they are starting to ask for majority student representation on the university's Senate and Board of Governors, elected executives, recycling stations, and palatable cafeteria food, not to mention engaging intellectual material.  And, in the meagre imaginings of the executive, this is happening because of the activism course.

Actually, this happened in the 60s and its time has come again, for those who want to notice it.  The activism course is only riding this wave not causing it.  But it's hard for an executive to imagine being displaced by a societal movement that it does not control. That would require relinquishing some power.  Better to find delinquent anomalies and root them out.

In my opinion, the VP-Academic, Mr. Robert Major, instructed the present acting dean, Mr. André Lalonde, to expel the Foster students after he noted my communication to the class posted on the web site to the effect that "if the Foster boys received their credits it would be a perfect illustration of the course's pedagogical approach, that the upper administration has such a difficult time understanding".   There is documented evidence that Mr. Major is a fan of the course web site.

In the end, with my encouragement, Douglas and Sebastian Foster continued to attend class after being expelled.  They participated in the workgroups, handed in their progress reports and wrote the final exam.  They obtained the highest mark possible in the course: an S for satisfactory.  Now their university transcripts need to reflect this reality that the dean has called "impossible".

And, as always in my teaching for more than 20 years, I noted more difference from one individual to the next than between age groups or between academic background groups, something our system refuses to officially acknowledge as it prefers to cling to the myth that "we educate them".

Related:

Afghan MP Malalai Joya opens the fall season of Ottawa University's "Science in Society" Course

Rancourt Lecture: Social Analysis of Activism: Hippies, Militants, Liberals, and Fascists

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