CUPE 3902 has launched an online petition to get the University of Toronto to rescind new rules that would stop sessional lecturers from applying for research grants from a federal agency.
The university says it won’t endorse any applications for SSHRC research grants unless the applicant’s teaching appointment lasts as long as the research funding. But sessional appointments never do.
The university insists the change is because they don’t want to responsibility for overseeing the research when the researcher may or may not continue to be affiliated to the university.
But the University of Toronto approved and co-signed SSHRC proposals from sessionals up until this year.
The grants contribute to university research budgets and the continued funding of graduate students.
The local is in bargaining for a new contract for its sessional lecturer members and has filed a bad faith bargaining complaint against the university over the change.
