Check out our News page for up-to-date information, and protesttheprotocol.com for information regarding McGill’s protest protocol documents.
May 15 2013
Looking for teaching assistant positions? As of today, there are 181 positions being advertised on CaPS myFuture. Log in using your McGill email (firstname.lastname@mail.mcgill.ca) and password, click on the Jobs tab and select McGill Teaching Assistant Position in the Positions filter box. Can’t find your department listed? Here are the TA positions for the Department of Biology: http://biology.mcgill.ca/grad/ta_posts.html. Don’t delay, apply today!
April 11 2013
AGSEM, McGill’s Teaching Union, is outraged by the alleged treatment of Amr El-Orabi by Professor Gary Dunphy. No one should face harassment, intimidation or any other form of oppression at McGill University. AGSEM calls for immediate action by the University to protect all its employees and students from intimidation, harassment, death threats and oppression on campus.
We are saddened to say this is not an isolated incident, as we have heard from multiple employees about such oppressive working conditions around campus, especially at MacDonald campus. We recognize that certain students are particularly vulnerable by virtue of their race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and status.
We would like to remind all of our members that if you are facing any form of oppression or have questioned about it, do not hesitate to contact us in confidentiality at mail@agsem-aeedem.ca or call us at 514-398-2582.
AGSEM, McGill’s Teaching Union, represents over three thousand teaching assistants, invigilators and course lecturers at McGill University.
For more information read the story on the Global News site: http://globalnews.ca/news/470398/exclusive-alleged-death-threats-uttered-by-mcgill-professor-drives-student-back-to-egypt/
April 8, 2013
Dear members,
The Annual General Assembly for Teaching Assistants and the first annual Joint TA-Invigilator General Assembly was held on Wednesday, March 27th, 2013. It was a very successful meeting and well attended by our members. The outgoing AGSEM Executives welcome the following incoming Joint Executive Committee members and TA Bargaining Committee Officers to our team:
Joint TA-Invigilator Unit Executive Committee:
Justin Marleau -Vice President
Joseph Sannicandro – Communications and Mobilization Officer
Amalia Slobogian – Grievance Officer – (Teaching Assistants)
Jamie Burnett – Grievance Officer – (Invigilators)
TA Bargaining Committee Officers:
Benjamin Elgie: Bargaining Committee Chair Rosalind Hampton, Bargaining Committee Officer
Sunci Avlijas, Bargaining Committee Officer
We would like to thank all of the candidates that were running in the elections, and everyone who was able to make it to the meeting. It was powerful to see so many members engaged and setting the direction and mandates of our union! Our new Bylaws will be uploaded to our site on this page by the end of this week, and here you will find the full text of the mandates approved by members of the General Assembly.
Very soon you will receive an announcement from the Coordinating Committee of AGSEM regarding the next all-units Annual General Assembly (our last meeting of the year), so stay tuned!
In solidarity,
The AGSEM Unit 1 Executives: Rosalind, Sunci, Cora, Justin, and Megan
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The Annual General Assembly for Unit 1, Teaching Assistants is scheduled for Wednesday, March 27th from 6:00-8:00 pm in room 046 in the basement of the Bronfman building (1001 Sherbrooke West – also known as the Desautels building).
The nomination period for the TA Executive Committee and TA Bargaining Committee positions has now closed, however, for any positions which are not contested nominations can also be made from the floor before the elections take place.
Information on the positions and elections are posted here. Information on the candidates running for the positions can be found here. The current agenda for the GA can be viewed here and in pdf here.
This General Assembly will consider motions which would alter the structure of our Unit’s decision making bodies by merging them with those of Unit 2- Invigilators (the proposed bylaws for our Joint Units can be found here). We will also consider motions on political mandates for our Unit to undertake, including whether to oppose McGill’s Protocol on Demonstrations, to support mobilization for Free Education, to endorse Divest McGill and pressure McGill to reinstate Differential Tuition Waivers for International Students.
RSVP to our facebook event here!
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March. 23, 2013
Interested in McGill’s finances? This past Friday, Justin Marleau, the Vice-President of AGSEM – Teaching Assistants, provided an in-depth look at how McGill uses its money and how it could have been used differently to benefit students, labour and the community at large. You can find a pdf version of it here.
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Jan. 28, 2013
Last Wednesday, January 23, 2013, labour unions and their allies gathered to demonstrate against McGill’s Provisional Protocol Regarding Demonstrations, Protests, and Occupations on McGill University Campuses. See excerpts of recordings from speeches at the rally and an interview that was aired on CKUT’s “Off the Hour” last Wednesday below.
Union organizers were very pleased to see many of our allies from other unions and student associations in attendance at the rally, including representatives from SPUQ – the Syndicat des professeurs et professeures de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, the Syndicat des enseignantes et enseignants du CÉGEP Montmorency, the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ), CUPFA – Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association, Conseil Central du Montréal Metropolitain and other unions affiliated with FNEEQ-CSN. Students and faculty from various departments at McGill spoke out against McGill’s Provisional Protocol and its limitations on our fundamental freedoms to protest and express dissent on campus.
In addition, the Post-Graduate Student’s Society, the Philosophy Student’s Association and the Art History and Communication Studies Graduate Student Association have passed resolutions and motions in support of the demonstration against the protocol (see this page to see a list of groups opposing the Protocol). It is becoming clear that the wider McGill community does not welcome the limitations, restrictions and value judgments imposed by the protocol on forms of dissent on campus. As one speaker at the rally proclaimed, “protests are not supposed to be convenient!”
Listen to the rally speeches here:
And listen to the interview regarding the provisional protocol given by the President of AGSEM’s Coordinating Committee, Lilian Radovac, on CKUT here:
Read Prof. Tom Lamarre’s article “Outlaw Universities” in Theory & Event here: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v015/15.3S.lamarre.html
In addition, here is a link to CKUT’s online archive for January 23rd (this link will not be active after April 23, 2013): http://archives.ckut.ca/64/20130123.17.00-18.00.mp3