A brief history of the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d université (FQPPU) or : How to put ethics into politics Pierre Hébert (FAPUQ 1967) + (IPUQ) = (FQPPU 1991) No, this is not some cabalistic union formula! Rather, in my brief history of the Federation tonight, I want to emphasize at the start that FQPPU did not suddenly appear sui generis. We must look back not just to the founding of FQPPU in 1991, but to the first Federation of faculty associations, FAPUQ, founded in 1967. Along with a short history of these collective achievements, I wish also to show the continuous thread, drawn from both Quebec universities and the Federation of their faculty unions, which shapes the need for and the role of our Federation. *** «Do you believe it possible or desirable to unite all Quebec faculty associations?» That was the question raised on February 9, 1990, during a colloquium held in Sherbrooke and attended by professors from all university faculty unions and associations in Quebec. The answer was positive enough that, at meetings held in February and March of 1991, the presidents voted unanimously to create a new Federation. Two months later, on May 16 and 17, 1991, the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d université (FQPPU) was born during a Congrès held at Bromont. In order fully to grasp the significance of the question, we must go back to 1967, which wasn t only the year of Expo, no offence to Beau Dommage. 1967 also saw the founding of the Fédération des associations de professeurs des universités du Québec (FAPUQ). Quebec universities in the 60s were in full expansion, and the need for a strong Federation of professors was urgent. At its first meeting on November 18, 1967, FAPUQ s Conseil proclaimed «that Quebec university professors need to speak with one voice.» President Michel Roberge would later say that «[ ] this marked an end to the amateur efforts which had too often marked the defence and promotion of professoral interests up until then.» It would take too long to retrace here all the ins and outs of those years 1967-1991. Let us note, however, that it was a strong and united FAPUQ which first issued its journal, Nouvelles
universitaires, on September 25, 1979, with an editorial signed by Jean- Louis Roy, the future editor of Le Devoir. Nor can I do justice here to all the major battles waged by FAPUQ from 1980 on; the following summary made by FAPUQ President Marcel Fournier in 1987 illustrates succintly the successive phases of FAPUQ since 1967 : The first phase, in the 70s, can be seen as the period of organization : recruitment of members, setting up unions, establishing legal and financial services, etc.. These were [ ] the learning years [ ]. The second stage, during the 80s, demonstrated a growing political awareness and activism. [ ] University professors, acting through their Fédération, would demand to be represented in major debates concerning higher education and scientific research. FAPUQ s first thirteen years (1967-1980) are truly, in these early days of federated faculty unionism, an apprentice stage, preparing for its entry on the wider political scene. It must be noted that faculty unionization itself is still learning. In FAPUQ s first years we see already the big issues to be tackled in the second stage (role of the government, budget cutbacks, etc.) and the function of a Fédération (concrete aid, political role). Next, in its second phase, FAPUQ entered the political scene (1980-1991). As its then President has said : FAPUQ began to play the political role expected of it. During the financial crisis resulting from the draconian cutbacks in 1982, FAPUQ increasingly made its voice heard politically as the representative for Quebec university professors. Their representative but not the only one. As with all political organizations, FAPUQ had its share of internal conflict, resulting in the creation of a rival body, IPUQ (Intersyndicale des professeurs d université du Québec). The goal of the Intersyndicale, when it was first formed in the early 80s, was to facilitate collective action among all unions, whether members of the Federation or not. After SPUL pulled out of the Federation, it seemed natural that the Intersyndicale should become the «other» Federation. The solution in 1991 was to join forces, under a new banner, as FQPPU. *** Here again, I don t have time enough to do justice to all the battles waged by FQPPU. I will instead divide the twenty years of FQPPU into three stages, to parallel the two stages of FAPUQ. 1. Framing a university «cogito» (1991-2000).
It is striking how much the early years of FQPPU favoured the development of a cogito, a philosophy of the university. This philosophy was a product not of theoretical idealism but of public discussions, chiefly in meetings of the Conseil fédéral. It informed FQPPU s major stands on the research- teaching relationship, on partnerships, on the university as a public service, set against radical budget cuts to which I will return. Each of these major concerns gave rise to a detailed document, available on the Federation s website. 2. Crisis years (2003-2005). FQPPU fulfilled its role well; its growth, however, also made it vulnerable. Member unions complained of a lack of transparency and of inflated administrative and real estate costs; at this time Université de Montréal and Université Laval left the Federation. If the end of FQPPU seemed at hand, the collective energy of the remaining unions saved it and gave it renewed vigour. 3. From «practical knowledge» to the practice of knowledge (2005 ) Divested of its legal service, FQPPU concentrated on its political role. But, in order to act, one must know. Accordingly, the Federation amassed large dossiers on its primary concerns with in- depth data gathered through colloquia and documents: psychological harassment, working conditions for new faculty, financial data on each university s operating and capital budgets, etc. Such research and systematic inquiry equipped FQPPU with the tools to tackle the big issues of the last few years. *** Now we ve had a brief history review, is there a common thread or theme running through it? Ever since its founding in 1967, FAPUQ and later FQPPU have promoted and defended numerous issues concerning Quebec universities. But one issue is constant during all these years, the increase in government intervention. Right from the start, FAPUQ was concerned by it The decade of the 60s was a period of major growth for universities in Québec. However, after these feast years, the famine years of the early 70s «justified» heavy- handed government intervention. As early as its fourth meeting (February 22, 1969), the FAPUQ Conseil was alarmed :
The time will soon come when professors themselves will be the target of standardization, if that has not already happened to some degree. Will they end up standardizing our hours of work, specifying how many hours for teaching, for research activities, etc., to define and evaluate the quality and the quantity of a professor s work? Examining these government interventions, a policy of control becomes clear : after a period of budgetary cutbacks, the government would reinvest in universities, but on its own terms. Two episodes illustrate this fact, corresponding with two times of severe cuts, 1982 and 1996. After the decree of 1982, which reduced professors salaries, the government announced its plan to reinvest in universities. Targeted research and development were the flavour of the day. Here is the start of an article in Nouvelles universitaires entitled «Research in Québec in period of extreme change» : Research in Québec will henceforth be based on the Japanese model. If, in the West, fundamental research was once the cornerstone of scientific progress, a major reversal is taking place. Politicians and administrators now are only interested in research which can be applied and the model comes from the Far East where a technological empire has been built on applied research and industrial innovation.» (March 15, 1983) The government accordingly created a tool to oversee this objective, the «Agence de valorisation de la recherche». The Federation described (and decried) with precision this troubling situation. This vocabulary and all these concepts have become so entrenched today that they constitute a kind of doxa, the framework for any discussion on the universities. The mid- 90s saw a repeat of this scenario. Of course, budget cutbacks were present before 1995. However, after Jacques Parizeau s resignation, Lucien Bouchard became Premier of Quebec on January 29, 1996; Pauline Marois became Minister of Education and Quebec embarked on a crusade for a zero deficit budget by the year 2000. FQPPU made Marois s «action plan» a primary focus of its debates and activities. Governmental action plans reached a peak at the end of the decade, to a point where a new paradigm becomes apparent.
1996 marks [ ] an important change, not only in government objectives relating to the universities (economic development and the transition to the new knowledge economy), but also in the formalization of related policies, which would be part of an operating outlook and harden into an action plan, with goals, priorities, in short, a framework for management by results.» (Université, December 1996). I will conclude with what seems to me to be FQPPU s most important role, «how to insert ethics into politics». For me, at any rate, the need for FQPPU is based on one of those rare truths which is universally valid: all power unchecked tends to grow indefinitely. Whether the power be religious, political (or even syndical!), it must have limits. What the history of our faculty Federation teaches us is that we have in some sort passed from the Church to the State, from a theology to a teleology of the university. In my opinion, this is the common thread of these past few decades : increased State control over Quebec university development and the essential counterbalancing role played by FQPPU. My analysis is supported by the observations of someone who, as an intellectual activist, was involved with this federational odyssey since 1967, and who is still active on the scene today : Guy Rocher. On December 10 11, 1998, FQPPU held a colloquium on «Research and Partnerships». Rocher made this stunning comment in his keynote address : I have said many times that, in the Catholic University that I knew at the start of my professoral career, the interventions of the religious authorities, while very real, were minimal and limited compared to the interventions we know today exercised by government bodies. An astonishing statement, yes, and even more relevant now. Since 1998 we have seen an upsurge in such interventions : performance contracts, research chairs, policies on government- university partnerships from the Ministry for Economic Development, Innovation and Exportation, a Bill on governance proposing a majority of external members on university governing boards, and more. I speak of a teleology of the university, because these new super- managers possess great power, the power to define : define the identity and the orientation for Quebec universities. The recent decades teach us a harsh lesson : this refuge of free thought must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended. We hold an ideal of the university as an
intellectual collectivity, and so have a responsibility to preserve, for society, the integrity of this space devoted not to maximizing consumption or power, but to building a more just and free society. That is the highest and most beautiful responsibility. Albert Camus, although misunderstood on this topic, always wanted to «introduce the language of ethics into the practice of politics.» And that is what I see as the essential role of FQPPU. FQPPU has given Quebec universities a philosophy, a set of values shaped by the public forum it created and its discussions which became position statements and official documents. Today FQPPU is the only counterbalancing force with vast knowledge acquired since 1967, more particularly since 1991, ready to defend and promote the values shared by the majority of university professors in Québec. We are each charged with this task, but none of us can do it alone. I wish us all a good evening and a bright federative future.