REPORT ON FEDERATION ACTIVITIES (2001-2002)

Federation initiatives

Name change: The name change for the Federation was approved by Industry Canada. We are now officially known as: Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS)/Fédération canadienne des sciences humaines (FCSH). At a recent meeting of the Executive Committee, a decision was made to adopt the ASPP logo as the new Federation logo. In future, all communications will bear both the new name and the new logo.

Strategic Plan: The Plan was approved by the Board at its March 2002 meeting. It sets out objectives for the Federation for the next three years as well as strategies for achieving them. Highlights of Plan: renewal of scholarly infrastructure, through the Associations and the Federation; attending to the needs of new scholars in our disciplines and associations; working to achieve a doubling of SSHRC’s budget and higher levels of support for graduate students; addressing issues of equity, accessibility and participation; developing our leadership role in providing a forum for the discussion of major intellectual and professional issues; and creating financial stability for the Federation. Copies of the Strategic Plan will be included in the General Assembly documentation.

Associations Project - Renewing Scholarly Infrastructure for the Next Generation
The Federation has received a grant of $60,000 from SSHRC to undertake a comprehensive review of scholarly associations and their role in research infrastructure in the humanities and social sciences in Canada. A Task Force has been set up, co-chaired by Noreen Golfman (former president of ACCUTE) and Don Fisher (Past President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education).

New Scholars Task Force: Following on the workshop held at the November 2001 AGM, a task force has been set up to look at how the Federation can work together with the universities to find ways to assist new scholars (e.g., manual of "best practices"). The Task Force is chaired by Wendy Rolph, Vice Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto.

Modern Languages: A joint session was held at the 2002 Congress featuring keynote speaker, James Cummins of OISE, and two panel discussions, one of which consisted of graduate students. Two surveys have been sent to Chairs of Modern Language departments in order to examine the current state of and future prospects for modern language disciplines in Canada. The information provided is being analyzed and an interim report will be presented at the November AGM.

Fundraising campaign: The Federation's General Assembly in November 2001 approved a five-year campaign to create an endowment so that its advocacy, renewal of infrastructure, and extension of services will be put on an assured and permanent basis. The Canadian Endowment for the Humanities and Social Sciences has a target of $11.4 million. For information please e-mail us at endowment@hssfc.ca or contact Dr Robert Merrett, VP Development, at robert.merrett@ualberta.ca.

Update on the Federation’s Advocacy Campaign

1. Campaign Overview

The Federation began an advocacy campaign to achieve three objectives in the federal budget expected in February 2003:

1. Increasing the budget of the SSHRC to an adequate level;
2. Establishing a program of support for graduate fellowships and for startup funding for new scholars; and
3. Supporting capacity-building initiatives in universities, including the completion of the indirect costs program.

2. Grassroots Campaign

The Federation launched a grassroots campaign at Congress 2002 with the distribution of post cards for delegates to send to the Minister of Industry and MPs. This resulted in correspondence from the Minister to the Federation inviting further dialogue. The President’s response to the Minister has been widely distributed to members of our community, other MPs, Ministers and senior government officials. The Federation is also coordinating a regional lobby network in which human science researchers across Canada are meeting with their local MPs in their home constituency. As many as 25 MPs have been contacted, with meetings already held with the Chairs of the House of Commons’ Finance, Industry, and Immigration Committees.

3. National-level Activities

The Federation made a presentation to the Government Caucus on Post Secondary Education and Research in August and will present a brief to the Finance Committee for the pre-budget consultations. The President has requested meetings with key audiences, including the Minister of Industry, the Minister of Human Resources Development, selected MPs, senior government officials and the presidents of other stakeholder associations.

Breakfasts on the Hill: Attendance at last year’s series of Breakfasts have been among the most successful ever. This year’s series will start with a presentation on October 31 by Professor Daniel Weinstock of the Université de Montréal on "Ethics in the Public Domain."

Perspectives: The Federation continues to produce Perspectives, the electronic newsletter on federal science policy, and published 11 issues at Congress profiling research presented at the Toronto event.

Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities

This year’s Congress at the University of Toronto was the most successful to date with almost 8,000 delegates in attendance. It featured a lecture series by the celebrated Nobel Prize winning writer, Toni Morrison, in addition to high profile speakers at the Breakfasts on the Campus (Tomson Highway, Bob Rae and Rex Murphy) plus Annie Cohen-Solal and Thomas Homer-Dixon in the joint SSHRC-Federation Speaker Series. For the first time, the programmes of participating associations were accessible on-line by entering key words.

In 2003, the Congress will be held at Dalhousie University and University of King’s College in Halifax from May 27 to June 4. The overarching theme will be Conflict and Cooperation.

Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme (ASPP)

The ASPP continues to provide support for the dissemination of scholarly research in Canada. Last year, the Scholarly Book Prize Awards were held at the National Library and featured Ted Chamberlin at the keynote speaker. This year, the Prizes will once again be awarded at a special reception at the National Library in conjunction with the annual meeting of the General Assembly. The Federation continues to develop a closer working relationship with the presses which will result in a further streamlining of the file-handling workload to reduce the time taken to process a manuscript.

Women’s Issues

National Survey of University Faculty Salaries: In conjunction with the CAUT Status of Women Committee, the Women’s Issues Network will engage a preliminary contract with a consultant to determine the feasibility and ways and means to conduct a national gender-based faculty wage survey.

Genders Colloquium: This was one of three International Colloquia at the 2002 Congress organized by the Vice-President Women’s Issues, Wendy Robbins, and her Steering Committee. For the second year, Dr Robbins presented a postcard entitled Ivory Towers: Feminist Audits, Selected Indicators of the Status of Women in Universities in Canada 2002. The information is posted on the Federation website at: http://www.hssfc.ca/english/policyandadvocacy/win/indicators-women.cfm.  One of the statistics causing most concern is the lack of representation of women in the Canada Research Chairs program. Only 15%, of the approximately 500 chairs awarded since 2000 under the five-year, federally funded program, have gone to women.

Meeting of the WIN: A meeting of the WIN representatives is planned for June 1, 2003 at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Dalhousie University.

Partnerships

SSHRC: The Federation continues to maintain close communications with SSHRC on issues of common concern such as establishing a greater Council profile at the Congress. The Federation also represents the interests of its members in areas such as the Travel Grants program and the Aid to Scholarly Journals. In the case of the former, the Federation has made strong representation to SSHRC to have the program reviewed and returned to its former 3-year cycle, with the possibility of associations not currently funded able to apply.

AUCC: The Federation continues to build its relationship with AUCC, with more frequent meetings between our respective Presidents. AUCC is a strong supporter of efforts to increase funding for human sciences research and has passed a motion calling on the federal government to increase SSHRC’s funding.

CCR: The Executive Director chairs the Canadian Consortium on Research which includes the natural and bio-medical sciences and CAUT. The CCR has lobbied strenuously on behalf of increased funding for SSHRC and it recently submitted a pre-budget consultation brief to the Standing Committee on Finance.

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