I’m not sure if you recall, but in my first installment of the 2012 President’s Perspective, I predicted that – consistent with the Chinese calendar year of 2012 – this would be one of change across York University.
Clearly, we have witnessed a great deal of it throughout our community. YUSA has been faced with multiple job closures across the membership, and this continues to have a profound effect on all of us.
I have heard from many of you individually in meetings and in general conversations in recent months echoing these same concerns. I also received a great deal of similar feedback from you in the surveys you completed at the Annual YUSA Keele BBQ. I am so grateful for the candid responses and I think it was a terrific medium through which to hear from you directly on the issues that affect you most.
The surveys further reinforced what I had been hearing generally. There is currently a great deal of anxiety and stress in the workplace and people are genuinely concerned about their job security.
This is also how most workers are feeling these days. With daily media reports about unemployment, global meltdowns and the overall economic crisis – it is no wonder that we are all feeling vulnerable and unsure.
I further reflected on this a couple of weeks ago, as I was rushing from meeting to meeting. I was looking around our campus and as the trees surrounding the East Office Building were falling around me, I took in the impact of all of the physical changes on our campus.
It truly struck me that these physical changes reflected how I and so many of us are feeling on the inside. We are feeling unhinged and that this change is chaotic and ever-present, much like the construction from one end of our campus to the other.
These are actually symbolic of the emotions and the feelings of crisis that many of us are feeling. I think it’s important to take notice of how we’re feeling and turn our focus towards how we can empower ourselves during this time.
I believe to my core that during crisis, opportunity arises.
I am committed to stretching myself at this critical time in our community’s history to find opportunities for positive change.
I hope that you will join me as we move forward and reach for a more stable and secure future at York University.
In Solidarity,
Joanie Cameron Pritchett
President, York University Staff Association
