[EDLING:2191] Quebec school wants to rid itself of English

[Francis M Hult]

Via lgpolicy...

>  Sunday  December 17  2006
> 
> Quebec school wants to rid itself of English
> 
> Dave Rogers Ottawa Citizen
> 
> 
> The Universite du Quebec en Outaouais, which says its mission includes the
> struggle against exclusion, is consulting the public and the university
> community about a plan to rid itself of English-language students and
> professors. Rector Jean Vaillancourt said Gatineau's francophone university
> will accept submissions on the future of its English-language MBA and
> graduate project management programs until Feb. 16, and then decide
> whether they should be scrapped.
> 
> Jan Saint-Macary, head of the English and French MBA programs, said it
> would be wrong to exclude anglophone students from post-secondary
> education in the Outaouais because they and their parents pay Quebec
> taxes. Mr. Saint-Macary said universities in French-speaking communities
> like Montreal, Sherbrooke and Abitibi Tmiscamingue offer English-language
> courses and there is no good reason for the UQO to discontinue them. This
> is the third time the university has tried to eliminate English-language
> courses in recent years. Mr. Saint-Marcary said English-language programs
> should continue because they are profitable and make the 25-year-old
> university better known throughout North America.
> 
> Mr. Macary said the public consultation is bogus and amounts to linguistic
> cleansing because the university administration already decided that the
> school should become a French-only institution. He said eliminating the
> courses would affect up to 400 of the universitys 5,500 students and could
> mean the loss of more than 25 teaching jobs. Mr. Vaillancourt said said
> the consultation will allow the university to better serve its community.
> 
> The Universite du Quebec en Outaouais was created as a francophone
> university, Mr. Vaillancourt said. The reality at the university is that
> life is in French, we work in French, study in French and French is the
> language of communication. Mr. Vaillancourt said the university is not
> excluding anybody, but is inviting the public to comment on its language
> policy. I cannot predict the board's decision--it is a board decision, Mr.
> Vaillancourt said. It is business as usual at UQO today and the programs
> are functioning. The anglophone students are not a threat to the
> university. This is not an issue of insecurity or linguistic cleansing it
> is an exercise in consultation. We are inviting everybodys opinion so we
> can finally make a good decision.
> 
> Brian Gibb, director of the Regional Association of West Quebecers, said
> the proposal to eliminate the two English-language graduate programs shows
> how ungenerous part of the francophone majority is toward the anglophone
> minority in the Outaouais. There are 50,000 English-speaking people in the
> Outaouais, but no university courses other than these two programs Mr.
> Gibb said. If they discontinue them, more people will have go to Ottawa
> and pay triple the tuition, or attend McGill University or Concordia in
> Montreal. This is not an equitable offering of educational opportunities
> and it is contrary to the spirit of universities which normally teach
> courses in a variety of languages.
> 
> The French language is doing very well throughout the world and the
> presence of English-speakers in Quebec does not threaten it. Anyone who
> wants to comment on the universitys proposed language policy can send
> e-mail messages to dcr at uqo.ca.
> 
>  Ottawa Citizen 2006
> 
> http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=c62d23c2-16b1-45b8-8026-c0b98fbfe4b0&k=61532