Universities need Democracy, Democracy needs Universities

The Political Action Committee hosted a very successful teach-in focused on the challenges facing Universities today.

The panelists and an audience of about thirty students and twenty faculty and staff engaged in two great sessions:   What is the University For?, and What is the most serious threat to universities today?

Our panelists were: Bella Buckley: HUC Student, Richie Bloomfield: HUC CGS Alumni, PhD Student, HUC Professor MOS, Geoff Read: HUC Professor History, Former HUC Dean of FASS, and Kate Graham: HUC Professor GLE, Specialist in Politics, Leadership and Public Policy.

In the first session, participants reflected on the university’s role in teaching students to be good democratic citizens. Some of the comments were:

• The university system itself encourages people with disparate views to learn from each other. 
• Universities are also vital in encouraging critical thinking, and the co-creation of knowledge.
• Universities encourage society to be a meritocracy and are the key to social advancement, research and innovation. 
• Within the institution, students have their own distinct voices, with a power distinct from the university. Both should be harnessed to protect democratic ideals.

In the second session, panelists addressed “what is the most serious threat to universities today?”

The consensus of the room was that it was a lack of provincial funding. University funding has changed little since the 1990s, and Ontario is second last in North America in per capita education funding. This forces universities to become increasingly corporate in their decision-making and outlook. As one student said, “universities are increasingly seeing students as disposable customers and not co-creators of knowledge.” University funding is spent on luxury amenities and marketing, while classes get bigger and are increasingly taught by contract faculty.

Some of the solutions proposed were:

• to make tuition geared to income
• to increase HUC recruiting in the local area
• for universities, students and citizens to lobby the government for a change in policy
• for universities to involve faculty and students more in university finances
• to reign in excessive spending on administrative costs rather than teaching.

PAC will be hosting Teach-In 2 in January 2026, to focus on concrete actions we can take to advocate for education.