Speaking to The Daily, Sadie McInnes, AMUSE VP Floor Fellow and a current floor fellow at Molson Hall, said, “The first time [the idea for a union] came up was in 2012, when two floor fellows at Solin Hall were fired for their involvement in the 2012 student strikes. So that highlighted the lack of job security that we had, and how that was linked to our housing security because we don’t have leases, and so when you lose your job, you also lose your home.”

The main objective of negotiations include an assured conservation of the floor fellows’ current core values: harm reduction and anti-oppression.

According to McInnes, harm reduction “is a model by which we were able to be a support for students. At other schools, [Resident Assistants (RAs)] ticket people for their drug or alcohol use or there are rules for drug and alcohol use. What we see is students hiding their drug use from the main support people in the building. It puts students in danger.”

The second value, anti-oppression, supports students that are part of groups which are often marginalized and works to ensure that harmful power dynamics are not recreated.

“As a floor fellow, I am deeply committed to our values of harm reduction and anti-oppression. I would not have applied to this job had those values not formed the foundation of the floor fellow role.”

In an email to The Daily, Cecilia MacArthur, a floor fellow at Solin Hall, said, “As a floor fellow, I am deeply committed to our values of harm reduction and anti-oppression. I would not have applied to this job had those values not formed the foundation of the floor fellow role.”

“These values are tried and true; they allow for the creation of a strong, supportive, respectful residence community. As floor fellows, we know this because we work with these values on a daily basis,” MacArthur continued.

MacArthur also expressed that these values are supported and appreciated by students who live in residences, as well. “I have had students in the past who have expressed that these values allowed them to feel respected and supported, and felt that these values critically shaped their rez – and McGill – experience,” she said.

The first 11 months of negotiations with McGill were about getting these core values down in writing, McInnes said. “We got a little bit written down, but there’s been this clause in this section that’s essentially [the University] saying, ‘Okay, we’ll write this down but we reserve the right to change this at any point.’’’

AMUSE then began to push for McGill to consult the floor fellows before making any changes to the core values of their job. AMUSE President Molly Swain told The Daily that the negotiations “really stalled because McGill is very reluctant to put anything in an agreement to protect those values.”

Swain noted that “McGill is generally known for driving a very, very hard bargain” in terms of negotiations with unions. Moreover, according to Swain, the type of emotional labour that floor fellows provide is fundamentally different from than that of many other employees at the university; making this is a new territory for everyone involved.

“Our first priority was about our values and about working conditions more generally and it was really in the process […] that we realized that by Quebec labour law we weren’t being paid legally.”

Asking for payment for floor fellows was a secondary priority for AMUSE. “Our first priority was about our values and about working conditions more generally and it was really in the process […] that we realized that by Quebec labour law we weren’t being paid legally,” McInnes said.

The Commission des normes du travail (CNT) has already ruled in favour of backpayments from McGill for two past floor fellows, precedence that could potentially lead to McGill floor fellows getting paid for the hours they put in.

As McGill ignores the union’s plea for payment, McInnes noted that “it feels like in the wake of discussion for remuneration, there’s an emphasis on cutting down the amount that we work, and that has the potential to really get in the way of student support, which has always [been what’s] important for us.”

“At the same time, there’s a capping of Residence Life Manager (RLM) hours. RLMs have less and less support from McGill and they have expressed a lot of frustration with McGill. We’re, at this point, being told more and more to rely on RLMs so much for what we do in our job; the concern there is that that’s not very feasible,” McInnes continued.

When reached out to comment on the negotiation process, Doug Sweet, McGill’s Director of Internal Communications, said that McGill would not be able to comment.

“I have heard surprise from my students regarding the conditions of our jobs.”

“McGill doesn’t comment on labour negotiations while they are continuing, except when issuing a joint statement of progress in the talks that has been agreed to by both parties in the negotiations,” Sweet said in an email to The Daily.

Swain commented that the fundamental reason for these negotiations is that “[floor fellows] want to be able to take care of their students in ways that they know are effective.”

MacArthur said that students living in residences are also in support of the floor fellows’ cause.

“I have heard surprise from my students regarding the conditions of our jobs. In particular, students have expressed shock at the fact that floor fellows do not have leases and thus lack housing security [and] at the fact that administrators are calling the shots, considering they’re so far removed from rez,’” MacArthur explained.

The post Floor fellows continue push for collective agreement appeared first on The McGill Daily.

About two years ago, associate professor of English Literature Michael Van Dussen, associate professor of Art History Cecily Hilsdale, and Faith Wallis, a history professor, began the discussion of creating a minor in Medieval Studies. According to Hilsdale, this “brain child” was conceived from the pre-existing abundance of resources and interest in medieval studies at McGill. She said, “All of our classes are always full and we just thought we should combine forces and make a minor program that would be comparable to some programs in places like [the University of Toronto].”

Hilsdale added, “Because [Wallis] and [Van Dussen] and I work with manuscripts themselves very closely, we were envisioning the minor as a way of really kind of building the specialization and teaching students how to work with manuscripts, because it’s really specialized language to describe and read manuscripts. [It’s] not just something you pick up on.”

One such student is Kyung-Seo Min, a U3 English Literature and Art History student who intends to study medieval art in graduate school. In an interview with The Daily, Min said, “I would have loved to have seen the Medieval Studies minor when I was in my first year here.”

Unfortunately, this minor is materializing too late for Min. “[The development of the minor] is important to me because I’d [have liked] to have that background in medieval studies in my undergraduate career, […] have that foundation at least as a minor before I go on to pursue either a masters or PhD,” Min continued.

Indeed, according to Hilsdale, the minor concentration is “a way of lending an official status” to the transcripts of students who pursue an interest in the medieval period during their undergraduate degrees.

“You just have to explain yourself a lot more and do a lot of justification if you’re going to try to get a program – passed through the channels – that doesn’t make money, that doesn’t have a very clear through line to a profession, and that doesn’t align obviously with wider public interest.”

Van Dussen added, “One of the things we’re also hoping this minor will do is give students who do want to go on to graduate school –which isn’t everyone – in this area, a credential on their transcript. […] And that can be a real asset for students who do want to go to medieval studies on the graduate level.”

For Van Dussen, who is also the director of the program, the interdisciplinary aspect of the new minor is vital, particularly due to the temporal distance of the medieval period from the modern perspective. “To even get your bearings [in the medieval period] you have to have an interdisciplinary approach. […] That becomes less crucial the more recent you get,” he said.

Min, whose passion for medieval studies stems from its unique mixture of work with manuscripts, architecture, and art, also spoke highly of the program’s interdisciplinary nature. “I think it’s really awesome [because] you don’t have to be an English [Literature] major to fill all of the requirements or anything. So it’s very inclusive.”

“I think the most exciting thing about the minor is that it’s global,” said Hilsdale. “[When] a lot of people think about medieval studies, at least art historically, […] they think Gothic cathedrals,” she said, adding, “It is not that. It is classes in Islamic studies [as well]. I teach a class on Constantinople right now. It is Jewish studies. It really is […] the global Middle Ages.”

Throughout the process of getting the minor approved, Van Dussen found that as with many humanities concentrations, there was skepticism as to whether a Medieval Studies program was warranted. “You just have to explain yourself a lot more and do a lot of justification if you’re going to try to get a program – passed through the channels – that doesn’t make money, that doesn’t have a very clear through line to a profession, and that doesn’t align obviously with wider public interest. That’s disappointing,” said Van Dussen.

According to Van Dussen, the minor simply synthesizes pre-existing courses, with only the addition of one new capstone course, Interdisciplinary Seminar in Medieval Studies (MDST 400). This means no additional resources had to be budgeted for the minor, eliminating at least one roadblock from the path of these medievalists.

The minor isn’t the end of the path, however. “I would like [the minor] to mature over many years, and then we’ll start the long process of establishing a major,” Van Dussen said.

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