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<DIV id=content class=site-content role=main><ARTICLE id=post-1
class="post-1 page type-page status-publish hentry"><HEADER class=entry-header>
<H1 class=entry-title>Open Letter in Support of CUPE 3902,
Unit 1</H1></HEADER>
<DIV class=entry-content>
<P><STRONG>We write as faculty and teachers of History, on all three of the
University of Toronto campuses, who value scholarly inquiry, teaching, and
collaboration. We recognize the different and unequal positions and roles
in the university even as we share a common commitment to academic integrity and
fair working conditions for all. We acknowledge that, as in society at
large, at the university these inequalities have been increasing. We recognize
the mission of the university cannot be met without the work that all of us do
on a daily basis. </STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>Because of this, we maintain that the working conditions of Teaching
Assistants, Course Instructors, and Sessional Instructors are vital to the
scholarly integrity of the university. We recognize that Teaching Assistants and
many Course Instructors are also full time graduate students whose work and
working conditions are crucial to the university, the future of intellectual
work, and the quality of undergraduate teaching. We recognize that graduate
students who are outside the funded cohort rely on paid teaching work to
complete their degrees. Graduate student funding at the university, which
takes as its mandate excellence in scholarship and teaching, is well below the
level of poverty. International graduate students are especially affected when
funding levels fall below living costs. As teachers of the next scholarly
generation of historians we want University of Toronto compensation to remain
attractive to graduate students, instead of requiring students to live in
precarity. Our graduate students deserve not simply a “living wage,” but an
overall funding package they can actually live on.</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>As faculty teaching in History, we are committed to maintaining open
communication and working together to address the inequalities facing the
university community. For this reason, we express our solidarity with
the efforts of graduate students to secure better conditions for their labor and
study.</STRONG></P>
<P>Signed,</P>
<P>Christine Berkowitz</P>
<P>Laurie Bertram</P>
<P>Heidi Bohaker</P>
<P>Elspeth Brown</P>
<P>Li Chen</P>
<P>Paul Cohen</P>
<P>Mairi Cowan</P>
<P>Donna Gabaccia</P>
<P>Julie Gilmour</P>
<P>Alexandra Guerson</P>
<P>Jens Hansten</P>
<P>Paula Hastings</P>
<P>Franca Iacovetta</P>
<P>Jennifer Jenkins</P>
<P>Madhavi Kale</P>
<P>Russel Kazal</P>
<P>Tong Lam</P>
<P>Julie MacArthur</P>
<P>Meaghan Marian</P>
<P>Mark Meyerson</P>
<P>Sean Mills</P>
<P>Jennifer Mori</P>
<P>Kara Moskowitz</P>
<P>Michelle Murphy</P>
<P>Nakanyike Musisi</P>
<P>Melanie Newton</P>
<P>Chris Petrakos</P>
<P>Jeffrey Pilcher</P>
<P>Ian Radforth</P>
<P>Bhavani Raman</P>
<P>Natalie Rothman</P>
<P>Alison Smith</P>
<P>Mohamad Tavakoli</P>
<P>Nhung Tuyet Tran</P>
<DIV>Lynne Viola</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV> ************************************</DIV>
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<DIV>To add your name to the statement, please email <SPAN
class=skimlinks-unlinked>nhungtuyet.tran@utoronto.ca</SPAN></DIV>
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