Hi, schoolmates:
I paste some e-mails from the professors of our university as following. Serious problem! We should DO something to protect our rights as soon as possible!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------
UQO is looking as though they are going to stop the PM Masters program in English?
I heard it on CFRA this morning and there was even a voice clip of
Jean-Paul Paquin saying that this program gives a lot of creditability
to UQO. No kidding.
From what I could gather from the news item, the issue seems to be
that UQO administrative staff is having trouble communicating with the
large numbers of Chinese students UQO is bringing into the English
program. That is likely the case since I saw a very real problem with
Chinese students who were not able to function in English at all in
the classes. I know a number of us ended up carrying these folks
through numerous courses. I never understood why UQO did not enforce
some sort of language standards for the language of instruction...
Makes one wonder....
I believe, however, that the issue is not really the Chinese students
not having a proper level of English but that there is a problem with
an English program in the first place.
I had a very interesting discussion with Alan Beaufils a few years ago
concerning just this problem. He had some tough comments on the
attitude toward the English programs at UQO. He told me that he had
been trying to make the UQO staff and management understand that to
have prosperity as a university it had to embrace the international
community. I recall Alan referring to this matter as "homophobic"
towards French-only programming, which is why UQO at that time was
focusing on bringing in French speaking students from France into the
PM program. Alan also pointed out that UQO was under great pressure
from the Quebec government to drop the English programs or face
reductions in provincial support... Seems pretty homophobic to me...
So, if I read it correctly UQO will be forced to drop its English PM
program and sink it small-minded thinking....
Sorry for the commentary but it is a shame that, once again, the
language issue will have caused another causality. If you folks have
a different view or have different information, I would like to hear
it.
MXXX
--------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: UQO Dumping the English PM Program!!
Hi folks,
I talked personally with Jean Paul Paquin yesterday (had lunch with
him) and he filled me in on the scoop,...of course its his perspective
i'll share...
He is convinced that the new assistant-director to the UQO is of the
breed of 'purists' like hitler and stalin! JP is obviously very upset
and emotional about this fellow. He believes that this 'purist'
essentially wants to 'cleanse' the university of the English! They are
using an excuse of logistic problems of supporting the english. My
comment was it never stopped them before and they maintained success.
He also commented that this is a great opportunity as the english
program is growing rapidly especially with the Chinese. The University
of Chiquitamy is delighted to see UQO give up the English program as
they will aggressively attempt to capture their students!.
PMI didn't set any mandatory language requirements in recognizing UQO as
a qualified PMI program, however JP said that the fact that they offered
it in both languages on the last go-around re-certification gave them a
bunch of bonus points.
If JP is right about this 'purist' chap, then its a damn shame we have
to put up with this in our progressive society. I just hope its an
older generation thing and soon they will all retire and go to florida.
Same goes for the Fed 'french' evangelists. By the way, I send my kids
to french school. (If you can't beat them...join them....eventually)
Regards,
Dxx
---------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Re: UQO Dumping the English PM Program!!
I thought that is what this was all about.
Personally, I don't wish to get involved this type of exercise (ie.
language
war) with UQO or anybody else; there has been too much wasted effort in
this area already. I just think it is a shame that an institution
calling itself a "university" (lets think about the root word, here...
"universal" meaning "universal access to education"...) can let
themselves be taken over by a political motivated force. Too bad.
Hopefully, the other universities in the area will see this as an
opportunity.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: Re: UQO Dumping the English PM Program!!
Agreed... but not to burst anyone's bubble, I was speaking with a
professor at OttawaU late last year and despite OttawaU having a PM
module in their MBA program, they were scaling this back for reasons
unknown. Looks like PM, at least in the Ottawa academic community, is
having a bit of a "fall from grace". Anyone have a feeling for how
local teaching institutions (commercial ventures like CDI) are doing
with PM courses?
<Pxxx>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Input from MBA in Financial Services Student
Being an academic masochist, I signed up for the MBA in Financial
Services program and thought you would be interested in the thoughts and actions of a fellow student.
From....
CBC Ottawa Morning show had a story that UQO was thinking of cancelling
its English-language programs, namely the MBA in Finan Services, and the
Masters in Project Mgmt.
The story line was that the university administration felt it could no
longer offer the program because it could not offer administrative
services in both languages. They interviewed the director of the Proj
Mgmt program, Dr Paquette, who was opposed to the potential closure
because of the richness of having both languages used at the university.
He said it would lead to a parochial environment at the school.
The story focussed on the fact that around half of the students in the
program were foreign students from China, and that there might be some
ethnic element to all this. The first story at 6:30am also interviewed
an Ottawa engineer, an immigrant, who said that banning the Chinese
engineers from coming here and taking jobs was a good thing. Yikes.
I went a little ballistic. I wrote up some talking points, and called
CBC and left a detailed message. I am going to school early to talk with
Paquette and Jan Saint-Macary about the proposal of the board to remove
our program. I will also look for the CBC truck if it's there, and give
them a little advice.
The talking points:
~Not all of the Chinese are foreign students. Some are landed immigrants
who have resided here and whose children have been born here. Chinese
foreign students in our program are from Nat'l Bank of China, China Air,
an optics company, among others. The landed immigrants from China hold
serious jobs here, and live here, having kids here. ~Some of us are very
resident in Ottawa, Hamilton, and Montréal, and need the Exec MBA format
to work and study at the same time. We like the program. ~Our program,
the MBA, has this year foreign students from China, Saudi Arabia, Spain.
~Landed immigrants come from more countries, and have resided here for
years.
~Orgs represented in our program encompass people from the banking
industry: RBC and B of M, among others. People from Cognos, Heritage
Canada, National Archives, EDC (big supporters of the program), CATSA,
City of Ottawa, Town of Chelsea municipal govt, Public Works in Ottawa.
~There are single people, married people, married people with children.
~Bankers, accountants, engineers, programmers, project managers, trade
analysts, among others.
According to CBC some of the Chinese students (foreign or landed
immigrants) are planning a letter writing campaign and a small protest.
Any comments to add? I am off to school around 10:15, and at home till
then. I can be reached at the cell listed, or leave me an email or
message at home. Class at 1:00, and at 8:30 tomorrow. I may get a
petition started as well, to present to the administration. I think
there are other reasons the board is talking of the possibility of
cancelling the program. Keep in touch.
BXXX KXXX
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I paste some e-mails from the professors of our university as following. Serious problem! We should DO something to protect our rights as soon as possible!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------
UQO is looking as though they are going to stop the PM Masters program in English?
I heard it on CFRA this morning and there was even a voice clip of
Jean-Paul Paquin saying that this program gives a lot of creditability
to UQO. No kidding.
From what I could gather from the news item, the issue seems to be
that UQO administrative staff is having trouble communicating with the
large numbers of Chinese students UQO is bringing into the English
program. That is likely the case since I saw a very real problem with
Chinese students who were not able to function in English at all in
the classes. I know a number of us ended up carrying these folks
through numerous courses. I never understood why UQO did not enforce
some sort of language standards for the language of instruction...
Makes one wonder....
I believe, however, that the issue is not really the Chinese students
not having a proper level of English but that there is a problem with
an English program in the first place.
I had a very interesting discussion with Alan Beaufils a few years ago
concerning just this problem. He had some tough comments on the
attitude toward the English programs at UQO. He told me that he had
been trying to make the UQO staff and management understand that to
have prosperity as a university it had to embrace the international
community. I recall Alan referring to this matter as "homophobic"
towards French-only programming, which is why UQO at that time was
focusing on bringing in French speaking students from France into the
PM program. Alan also pointed out that UQO was under great pressure
from the Quebec government to drop the English programs or face
reductions in provincial support... Seems pretty homophobic to me...
So, if I read it correctly UQO will be forced to drop its English PM
program and sink it small-minded thinking....
Sorry for the commentary but it is a shame that, once again, the
language issue will have caused another causality. If you folks have
a different view or have different information, I would like to hear
it.
MXXX
--------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: UQO Dumping the English PM Program!!
Hi folks,
I talked personally with Jean Paul Paquin yesterday (had lunch with
him) and he filled me in on the scoop,...of course its his perspective
i'll share...
He is convinced that the new assistant-director to the UQO is of the
breed of 'purists' like hitler and stalin! JP is obviously very upset
and emotional about this fellow. He believes that this 'purist'
essentially wants to 'cleanse' the university of the English! They are
using an excuse of logistic problems of supporting the english. My
comment was it never stopped them before and they maintained success.
He also commented that this is a great opportunity as the english
program is growing rapidly especially with the Chinese. The University
of Chiquitamy is delighted to see UQO give up the English program as
they will aggressively attempt to capture their students!.
PMI didn't set any mandatory language requirements in recognizing UQO as
a qualified PMI program, however JP said that the fact that they offered
it in both languages on the last go-around re-certification gave them a
bunch of bonus points.
If JP is right about this 'purist' chap, then its a damn shame we have
to put up with this in our progressive society. I just hope its an
older generation thing and soon they will all retire and go to florida.
Same goes for the Fed 'french' evangelists. By the way, I send my kids
to french school. (If you can't beat them...join them....eventually)
Regards,
Dxx
---------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Re: UQO Dumping the English PM Program!!
I thought that is what this was all about.
Personally, I don't wish to get involved this type of exercise (ie.
language
war) with UQO or anybody else; there has been too much wasted effort in
this area already. I just think it is a shame that an institution
calling itself a "university" (lets think about the root word, here...
"universal" meaning "universal access to education"...) can let
themselves be taken over by a political motivated force. Too bad.
Hopefully, the other universities in the area will see this as an
opportunity.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: Re: UQO Dumping the English PM Program!!
Agreed... but not to burst anyone's bubble, I was speaking with a
professor at OttawaU late last year and despite OttawaU having a PM
module in their MBA program, they were scaling this back for reasons
unknown. Looks like PM, at least in the Ottawa academic community, is
having a bit of a "fall from grace". Anyone have a feeling for how
local teaching institutions (commercial ventures like CDI) are doing
with PM courses?
<Pxxx>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Input from MBA in Financial Services Student
Being an academic masochist, I signed up for the MBA in Financial
Services program and thought you would be interested in the thoughts and actions of a fellow student.
From....
CBC Ottawa Morning show had a story that UQO was thinking of cancelling
its English-language programs, namely the MBA in Finan Services, and the
Masters in Project Mgmt.
The story line was that the university administration felt it could no
longer offer the program because it could not offer administrative
services in both languages. They interviewed the director of the Proj
Mgmt program, Dr Paquette, who was opposed to the potential closure
because of the richness of having both languages used at the university.
He said it would lead to a parochial environment at the school.
The story focussed on the fact that around half of the students in the
program were foreign students from China, and that there might be some
ethnic element to all this. The first story at 6:30am also interviewed
an Ottawa engineer, an immigrant, who said that banning the Chinese
engineers from coming here and taking jobs was a good thing. Yikes.
I went a little ballistic. I wrote up some talking points, and called
CBC and left a detailed message. I am going to school early to talk with
Paquette and Jan Saint-Macary about the proposal of the board to remove
our program. I will also look for the CBC truck if it's there, and give
them a little advice.
The talking points:
~Not all of the Chinese are foreign students. Some are landed immigrants
who have resided here and whose children have been born here. Chinese
foreign students in our program are from Nat'l Bank of China, China Air,
an optics company, among others. The landed immigrants from China hold
serious jobs here, and live here, having kids here. ~Some of us are very
resident in Ottawa, Hamilton, and Montréal, and need the Exec MBA format
to work and study at the same time. We like the program. ~Our program,
the MBA, has this year foreign students from China, Saudi Arabia, Spain.
~Landed immigrants come from more countries, and have resided here for
years.
~Orgs represented in our program encompass people from the banking
industry: RBC and B of M, among others. People from Cognos, Heritage
Canada, National Archives, EDC (big supporters of the program), CATSA,
City of Ottawa, Town of Chelsea municipal govt, Public Works in Ottawa.
~There are single people, married people, married people with children.
~Bankers, accountants, engineers, programmers, project managers, trade
analysts, among others.
According to CBC some of the Chinese students (foreign or landed
immigrants) are planning a letter writing campaign and a small protest.
Any comments to add? I am off to school around 10:15, and at home till
then. I can be reached at the cell listed, or leave me an email or
message at home. Class at 1:00, and at 8:30 tomorrow. I may get a
petition started as well, to present to the administration. I think
there are other reasons the board is talking of the possibility of
cancelling the program. Keep in touch.
BXXX KXXX
-------------------------------------------------------------------
