u/Formal_Bedroom_8316

If you're a professor at a public university in Canada, or if you're an administrator (i.e: Academic Advisor, Registrar, Desk Help, etc) at a university, are you considered a fully public employee? My guess would be yes, as your salary is paid via public tax dollars and student tuition, and the salaries are also publicly disclosed, as they would be for any other public employee making over a certain threshold. But I want to understand if there is any further clarification or some red tape that makes individuals working at universities in Canada not public employees.

Secondly, as a soon to graduate student, it's so frustrating how slow administrative progress has been. Literally, any change the students have wanted, whether it be towards academic policies, guidelines, budgets, tuition reforms, etc, has taken at least 1 year to get to the ears of senior leadership and then another year or so to be implemented, and that too not as originally requested, rather a half-ass solution so they can act as if student concerns really matter (when all we really are, are just numbers). And then they have the audacity to say that: "The youth are our future".

And why are the salaries for university leaders so high. Deans, Vice-Presidents, Vice-Deans, Associate Deans, Presidents, etc, for all the major universities in our country are getting paid well in excess of $300k. Many university president's are getting paid in excess of $500k, which as a student, I think is outrageous. That's more than the PM and the Premiers who lead our country and provinces. Many students can barely afford tuition, are having to skip on meals, etc, and this is what these people are getting paid. Also the same people who claim to care for their student's well-being and mental health, and also say that: "The youth are our future", yeah, my ass, if that's how you treat us, take a fat paycheck, hinder progress, and upkeep the bureaucracy on our campus, you can't say that.

If you're a professor at a public university in Canada, or if you're an administrator (i.e: Academic Advisor, Registrar, Desk Help, etc) at a university, are you considered a fully public employee? My guess would be yes, as your salary is paid via public tax dollars and student tuition, and the salaries are also publicly disclosed, as they would be for any other public employee making over a certain threshold. But I want to understand if there is any further clarification or some red tape that makes individuals working at universities in Canada not public employees.

Secondly, as a soon to graduate student, it's so frustrating how slow administrative progress has been. Literally, any change the students have wanted, whether it be towards academic policies, guidelines, budgets, tuition reforms, etc, has taken at least 1 year to get to the ears of senior leadership and then another year or so to be implemented, and that too not as originally requested, rather a half-ass solution so they can act as if student concerns really matter (when all we really are, are just numbers). And then they have the audacity to say that: "The youth are our future".

And why are the salaries for university leaders so high. Deans, Vice-Presidents, Vice-Deans, Associate Deans, Presidents, etc, for all the major universities in our country are getting paid well in excess of $300k. Many university president's are getting paid in excess of $500k, which as a student, I think is outrageous. That's more than the PM and the Premiers who lead our country and provinces. Many students can barely afford tuition, are having to skip on meals, etc, and this is what these people are getting paid. Also the same people who claim to care for their student's well-being and mental health, and also say that: "The youth are our future", yeah, my ass, if that's how you treat us, take a fat paycheck, hinder progress, and upkeep the bureaucracy on our campus, you can't say that.

If you're a professor at a public university in Canada, or if you're an administrator (i.e: Academic Advisor, Registrar, Desk Help, etc) at a university, are you considered a fully public employee? My guess would be yes, as your salary is paid via public tax dollars and student tuition, and the salaries are also publicly disclosed, as they would be for any other public employee making over a certain threshold. But I want to understand if there is any further clarification or some red tape that makes individuals working at universities in Canada not public employees.

Secondly, as a soon to graduate student, it's so frustrating how slow administrative progress has been. Literally, any change the students have wanted, whether it be towards academic policies, guidelines, budgets, tuition reforms, etc, has taken at least 1 year to get to the ears of senior leadership and then another year or so to be implemented, and that too not as originally requested, rather a half-ass solution so they can act as if student concerns really matter (when all we really are, are just numbers). And then they have the audacity to say that: "The youth are our future".

And why are the salaries for university leaders so high. Deans, Vice-Presidents, Vice-Deans, Associate Deans, Presidents, etc, for all the major universities in our country are getting paid well in excess of $300k. Many university president's are getting paid in excess of $500k, which as a student, I think is outrageous. That's more than the PM and the Premiers who lead our country and provinces. Many students can barely afford tuition, are having to skip on meals, etc, and this is what these people are getting paid. Also the same people who claim to care for their student's well-being and mental health, and also say that: "The youth are our future", yeah, my ass, if that's how you treat us, take a fat paycheck, hinder progress, and upkeep the bureaucracy on our campus, you can't say that.

If you're a professor at a public university in Canada, or if you're an administrator (i.e: Academic Advisor, Registrar, Desk Help, etc) at a university, are you considered a fully public employee? My guess would be yes, as your salary is paid via public tax dollars and student tuition, and the salaries are also publicly disclosed, as they would be for any other public employee making over a certain threshold. But I want to understand if there is any further clarification or some red tape that makes individuals working at universities in Canada not public employees.

Secondly, as a soon to graduate student, it's so frustrating how slow administrative progress has been. Literally, any change the students have wanted, whether it be towards academic policies, guidelines, budgets, tuition reforms, etc, has taken at least 1 year to get to the ears of senior leadership and then another year or so to be implemented, and that too not as originally requested, rather a half-ass solution so they can act as if student concerns really matter (when all we really are, are just numbers). And then they have the audacity to say that: "The youth are our future".

And why are the salaries for university leaders so high. Deans, Vice-Presidents, Vice-Deans, Associate Deans, Presidents, etc, for all the major universities in our country are getting paid well in excess of $300k. Many university president's are getting paid in excess of $500k, which as a student, I think is outrageous. That's more than the PM and the Premiers who lead our country and provinces. Many students can barely afford tuition, are having to skip on meals, etc, and this is what these people are getting paid. Also the same people who claim to care for their student's well-being and mental health, and also say that: "The youth are our future", yeah, my ass, if that's how you treat us, take a fat paycheck, hinder progress, and upkeep the bureaucracy on our campus, you can't say that.

Been noticing more and more posts criticising WUSA, spending, salaries, etc, which is perfectly okay. But, many of these posts are full of people being disrespectful, mean, and just outright disgusting. I’m also critical of WUSA for many things and promises, as well as fees that I don’t agree with. But, I won’t disrespect them or launch personal attacks at them. So many of you are launching personal attacks and being outright disrespectful to WUSA staff. There’s a fine line between criticism and feedback and just outright personal attacks.

We’re all attending a top institution, and for those in Eng, perhaps one of the best and highly regarded public Eng schools in North America. But if you’re going to be unempathetic and outright disrespectful, all this education is worthless. Your degree is meaningless. Let’s all please be a little more respectful and stop with the personal attacks. I’m also critical of WUSA, but will remain cordial and respectful, we’re all human and that’s the bare minimum.

TW: Suicide. Let’s not forget that just a few years ago, a former WUSA president (supposedly, I don’t think anyone confirmed it officially), committed suicide. No matter what your views on WUSA are/were at that time, you were probably hurt and it affected you. It was really messed up to see that. Keep in mind, it was your/our words that led to that. I’m sure none of us want to see that happen again. So please just respect everyone. We’re all human and there’s already so much negativity in this world. We all loose faith in humanity every passing day with the state of our world as it is. So let’s please work together to restore that faith.

And to WUSA, I think many students aren’t aware of what WUSA can do and it’s limited power (and this limited power isn’t WUSA’s fault, moreso the university’s fault), so I’d advise that you better advertise/market your limitations from the get-go, I think that’d really help and decrease the hate that the org gets.

EDIT (Please read): Using the former WUSA presidents suicide as an example wasn’t a good idea on my end, and I sincerely apologise for that. I should have done a more thorough job researching into the root cause of their tragic passing. I sincerely apologize for not doing that. But the point I’m trying to make is to be considerate of how your words can potentially lead to some very tragic incidents. We’re all human and can only tolerate so much hate and insults.

Was back home and having this conversation with one of my indigenous high school classmates. All of these indigenous land acknowledgments feel hypocritical. As in, before a speech or event, the uni (and this isn’t Waterloo specifically, it’s many schools across the country) will “acknowledge” that they are on land that traditionally and historically belongs to First Nations people. Great, so if you acknowledge that you’re on their land, how about you give it back to them? Or how about you actually do something to make indigenous peoples lives easier, such as working to end systemic issues that prevent indigenous people from rising? Many indigenous communities lack safe drinking water to this day, you reading a land acknowledgment doesn’t do much. Many indigenous communities lack schools and proper education funding. Your 2 sentences about a land acknowledgment before a speech doesn’t do much.

My indigenous acquaintance was mentioning how it actually feels insulting when he listens to these “land acknowledgments”. They feel super hollow and insulting, and from his perspective, I completely understand why. If someone took my land, fucked up my people real hard (and saying that is heavily undermining what Canada did to the indigenous people), and then years later said that they “acknowledge” that this is my land, I’d be pissed as well.

Besides being a symbolic and performative way to act as if these institutions “care” about indigenous people (which they don’t), what do these land acknowledgments do?

Divest and stop investing in a fucking genocide, nothing more to say!

Edit: To anybody who disagrees that there’s an outright genocide being committed in Palestine and is against the brutal honest truth Mamdani spoke today, and if you support our schools partnership with foreign schools that support the genocide… You are part of the fucking problem.