Thoughts on culture, education, and having been a Canadian in the US

Dear friends,

Recently, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences informed me that she intends to withdraw all funding ($35,000, which covers our staff and office costs) from the Canadian Studies Center on Main Street. The Dean’s plan right now is to shut the office down on June 30 and to move our administrator to another job in the College. This money will be reallocated to areas that the College deems to be of higher priority.

Founded in 1964, the University of Vermont’s Canadian Studies Program is one of the oldest, most respected programs in North America. Its reputation and long, productive history was what lured me to UVM five years ago and has continued to attract new tenure-track faculty such as Professors Amani Whitfield, Shelly Rayback, and Pablo Bose, all of whom are doing fascinating, cutting-edge research on Canada.

Although the University administration is justifying their cuts to our office with the argument that we only have three majors and two minors in our program and very few connected faculty, this does not accurately reflect the student and faculty involvement in our program. As of 2007-08, we have 10 tenured and tenure-track faculty and three lecturers teaching courses on Canada, and our program today is the strongest it has been in years. In the past year alone, our associated faculty from the departments of History, Geography, Romance Languages, English, Political Science and Anthropology taught 22 courses with either full or partial Canadian content, reaching close to 600 students.

Last year, 65 of our students and 15 Canadian Politics students from Saint Michael’s College travelled to Ottawa as part of our legendary, annual field trip to Canada’s capital, a trip that has run every year since the mid 1950s. Our program also hosts many high-profile events across campus, such as the visit to campus in October by the Grand Chief of the Council of the Quebec Crees, who spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the Livak Ballroom about the relationship between the Cree and the Governments of Canada and Quebec whose massive hydro projects have flooded traditional lands in order to provide electricity to Quebec and much of New England.

The closure of our offices will, we believe, effectively end our chances of continuing to receive the Program Enhancement grant we receive each year from the Canadian Embassy in Washington. This year’s grant was close to $10,000 and it is what allows us to run the annual student trip to Ottawa, and the many events we put on at UVM. It will also end the travel and research support we frequently give to our associated faculty, which often doubles what their home departments are able to provide.

Needless to say this cut will have a profound impact on the shape of our students’ education and on the research and teaching done by the individual faculty members associated with our program. This decision is something that will affect all of us in one way or another. Given our proximity to Canada and its importance in Vermont’s history, economy and daily life, this will also most certainly be a major embarrassment to the University of Vermont. Canada does matter to our students and faculty, and it’s important that it continue to have a strong place at our state’s flagship university.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve kept things quiet about this decision as we tried to negotiate a compromise solution and demonstrate the need for the continued presence of the office and support staff that enables us to run all of these programs. These attempts appear to have been unsuccessful. Unfortunately, our attempts to persuade the administration are now turning to the media, a move that, as an untenured professor at UVM, I have chosen not to direct. Although I have recently spoken to a Burlington Free Press reporter who called for information as part of a story they are doing on our program, this statement on my blog will be my primary contribution to this effort. I will provide information about our program to those who ask, but I will leave the rhetoric to my fine, tenured colleagues and to all those in the UVM community who are upset about this decision.

Finally, I’d like to add that, although I disagree strongly with this decision and the arguments being made to justify it, I have great respect for the people currently leading the College of Arts and Sciences and the University of Vermont. I realize that Dean Miller and Provost Hughes are faced with difficult decisions every day and I believe them when they tell me that this was one of them. I remain hopeful, though, that a compromise can be reached that will see us keep our well-utilized space and support staff that are so crucial to the continued success of our program.

If you would like to offer your support, I encourage you to leave your comments below and/or contact the offices of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Provost, or the President.

Respectfully,

Paul Martin

UPDATE: The Free Press article is now online here. This is a lengthy, balanced article that was on the top of the front page today with a large picture of one of our students. The rest of the article took up a good deal of a page later in the first section of the paper. As one of my friends noted earlier today, it’s one of the longest articles he’s ever seen the Free Press write.

Fall registration begins for Seniors on Tuesday, April 8, and opens up for everyone else gradually over that week. Make sure to check the UVM Registration schedule to see when you may begin registering for Fall classes.

I’m setting aside enough 20 minute appointments over the next week or so to meet with all 30 of my advisees. I’ll be available to answer any advising questions and to help review your choice of courses for the fall semester. If you’ll be a senior planning on graduating in spring 2009, you should definitely come to see me before registering so that we can make sure you’ll be set to graduate.

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Lowetide is quickly becoming one of my favourite blogs:

This is Stan Weir. Stan Weir was born in a log cabin that he built with his bare hands. Stan Weir can lick his elbow. Stan Weir puts the fun in funeral. Big Foot takes pictures of Stan Weir.

Stan Weir once played 18 holes of golf using a 12 inch strip of rebar and a sun dried tomato. He shot a 54.

I found this cartoon in my mailbox this morning after pitching the importance of Canadian Studies to the University administration.

Like many Oilers fans, I’m feeling the Stan Weir magic. Stan is going to lead us into the playoffs, I just know it. As I learned today on Lowetide, one of the best Oilers blogs there is,

Stan Weir wrote the words to “O Canada.”

Many English words have come from the legend of Stan Weir. These include substantial, standoff, standard and it is no coincidence that all hockey players dream of winning the Stanley Cup.

Stan Weir can touch MC Hammer.

Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Stan Weir pajamas

Stan Weir eats beef jerky and craps gunpowder.

Stan Weir was what Willis was talkin’ about.

Paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, and scissors beats paper. Stan Weir beats them all.

Now that’s what this English professor calls poetry…

I still have no plans to become a dual citizen of the US and Canada, but if I could vote in the upcoming election this great speech would have made up my mind once and for all. Wow.

(The first part of my new series on why Canadian Studies is an important part of the University of Vermont)

2009 marks the quadracentennial of the arrival of Samuel de Champlain in our area. A new exhibit at the Boston Public Library entitled “Champlain’s America: New England and New France” will be traveling to Vermont next year as part of these celebrations. As this article from the Boston Globe points out, the legacy of the French exploration of this part of North America is often overlooked and overwritten by the dominant mythology of the Pilgrims’ “founding” of New England.

Our own André Senécal is an expert in the life of Samuel de Champlain and will be one of our faculty in high demand throughout 2009.

Here’s an interesting excerpt from the Globe article:

NEW ENGLANDERS GROW up imbibing certain creation myths, most of which relate to how unbelievably historic we are. It all started here, and entire businesses — the vending of tricorne hats, for example — depend on the tight control of information relating to the beginnings of America — the Revolution, and the Salem witch trials before that, and at the dawn of time, the Pilgrims, hacking their way into the forest primeval. Everything trails in their wake; or so we like to believe.

But is it possible that New England trails in someone else’s wake? As in, the dreaded French? These disorienting thoughts will become harder to push away in 2008, as Quebec celebrates the 400th anniversary of its founding by Samuel de Champlain — the explorer who found not only New France, but much of New England as well. Indeed, if a few things had turned out differently, we might all be bundled up in scarves and hats bearing the fleur-de-lys insignia of the New France Patriots.

By 1620, when the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower, Champlain had accomplished nearly everything for which he is famous. He had crisscrossed the Atlantic dozens of times (29 times before his death in 1635), he had penetrated deeply into the hinterland, and he had glimpsed — and named — most of the harbors, rivers, and capes that we rediscover every weekend of the summer. It is startling to return to his maps, and see the familiar contours of Cape Cod, Cape Ann, and Boston Harbor, all included as part of an American region that was anything but “New England.” Given his natural inclination to roam, there is every reason to believe that Champlain might have started French settlements hundreds of miles to the south if he had been given more support from the French crown. As it was, he did a great deal more than most Americans realize to delineate the coastlines of Maine and Massachusetts, along with huge swaths of Vermont and New York.
[. . .] One of the great myths of American history is that the earliest settlers of New England came here by accident, not knowing where they were, and built a new society, far from anyone else. Champlain’s map gives the lie to that legend. We cannot know exactly what they knew, but it does not seem implausible that copies would have reached the Pilgrims in their sanctuary in Leiden, not too far from Paris. William Bradford, the great Pilgrim chronicler, nearly gives away the secret when he first describes Cape Cod, and admits that “ye French & Dutch to this day call it Malabarr.”

I was roused from my depression about the latest election results in Alberta this week by my friends Richard and Richard who sent me a link to this hot news story from the homeland:

OTTAWA (AFP) – The town of Vulcan, hidden among oil wells, wheat fields and cow pastures of western Canada, is aiming to host the world premiere of the latest Star Trek movie, a spokeswoman said Friday.

[. . .] To capitalize on Star Trek tourism, since 1993 town councilors have donned Starfleet uniforms while conducting municipal business, couples have been married here in themed weddings and one man, who never lived in Vulcan, even chose to be buried in the town cemetery with a planetary “Federation” logo for a tombstone.

To prepare its proposal to host the Star Trek movie premiere, Dickens said she inquired with fellow small town Springfield, Vermont about their experience hosting “The Simpsons” movie premiere last summer.

Riverside, Iowa and Linlithgow, Scotland, the future birthplaces of series characters Captain Kirk and Mr. Scott, were invited to participate in the film launch festivities too.

“There are some logistical issues,” Dickens noted. The town has no cinema. “But we can definitely work around them,” she said, indicating that the local school hosts movie nights for townsfolk in its gymnasium bi-monthly.

Ah yes, “logistical issues”… Still, logistical issues never stopped St. Paul, Alberta from building their own UFO landing pad did they? Or what about the giant Easter egg in Vegreville? Now that’s the true “Alberta advantage,” if you ask me.

See, I feel better already. Don’t you? Thanks, guys.

I’ve been keeping my head down of late trying to get more work done. One of the things that keeps me from disappearing entirely into my office and cutting myself off from the world is the US election. Well, we’re not anywhere close to the election, but the race to determine who will be the final candidates for president has been fascinating. Okay, maybe bewildering is the right word to describe it from a Canadian’s perspective. Who knows, by the time November roles around Canada’s government may have already fallen and a new one elected. That’s one of the things I like about the system there. Even though 15% of Canadians in a recent poll suggested that they would trade their vote in the next Canadian election to be able to vote in the US (who came up with THAT question?!), I’m quite happy to vote in the election that still matters to me most.

Rick Mercer’s rant last week on The Mercer Report got it right, though:

And speaking of Hillary, when it comes to casting, we can’t touch them. Here we are, we think of ourselves as this progressive, diverse nation and yet there’s big bad backwards America and who’s running for the big job? A woman, a black man, a Libertarian, a Mormon with big hair, and some dude who was in a bamboo cage in Vietnam for five-and-a-half years. Meanwhile in Canada, we’re gearing up for yet another race between a pudgy white guy and a skinny white guy and some other white guy. Which may go a long way to explain the other big difference between Canada and USA politics these days: in America in this race, young people are engaged. In Canada – they’re choosing none of the above.

You can watch it here (choose Rick’s rant from Episode 14, season 5).

In the news today:

Inuit filmmaker Zach Kunuk and his co-producer Norman Cohn grabbed worldwide attention for their film “Atanarjuat” when it won a medal at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, but neither expected the accolades and attention to trickle down to others telling aboriginal stories.
That’s why the two have started a new service allowing such filmmakers from around the world to share and show their work on a website that could become the YouTube of aboriginal cinema.
“(We) are an example of how you can actually succeed and find an audience in this world, but we’re the only ones who have been able to do that,” said Cohn.

The duo’s new website, called Isuma.tv, has already gathered 100 films and videos from four countries in the four weeks since it began.

Source: Macleans

This new site is extraordinary and well worth checking out.