A new media office at York University operating parallel to, and in competition with, York’s current Communications and Media Relations Office is slated to be launched this fall by a group that includes at least one professor.
York Public Access (YPA) will aim to introduce what an announcement on York’s faculty union’s website called “truth and trust…in an increasingly corporate and corrupt ethos of spins, messages and lies.”
York Public Access, which had its inaugural meeting yesterday afternoon at York’s Student Centre, was initially announced in June of this year as a response to what organizers characterize as York Media Relations’ iron grip on the flow of information, especially as it relates to the university itself. They charge that this approach is comparable to the media strategies of the private sector, and does not fit an institution funded by the public.
York history professor David Noble, one of YPA’s key organizers, described the new office as a “two-way channel of communication” and “a one-stop shop” to effectively institutionalize “ad hoc and isolated” contacts. It is unclear at this point exactly how sensitive information will be accessed.
He said the provincial government’s recent decision to include universities under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) galvanized efforts to make York more transparent and accountable.
“It is quite simply unreasonable to expect that we’re going to flow that much new money into our post-secondary institutions and not demand higher accountability,” said Premier Dalton McGuinty when the Act was announced in May. YPA plans to hold workshops and meetings advising the public on how to use FIPPA to open official channels of information.
“Over the last several years, York administration has embarked upon a full-blown branding and marketing offensive in the manner of the private sector, replete with logos, mottos, and saturation advertising,” YPA representatives stated in an announcement.
They specifically point to York Media Relations’ characterization of January’s student anti-war demonstration there, which they felt spun events in favour of York administrators.
They have also referred to a report issued in June by a law firm with close ties to York Chancellor Peter Cory on the controversial southlands deal as reflecting the administration’s wrongheaded official line.
“The university is not a public institution in the sense that it is accountable to the public for what it does,” wrote Judge Edward Saunders in the report.
At YPA’s public session yesterday, organizers provided information on the office’s proposed setup, emphasizing that they have a “core idea” of a huge project, the groundwork of which still needs to be laid. They hope to have the project running by the beginning of the next semester.
Some have objected to the public becoming overly involved in university affairs, saying that this could hamper the administration, or at the very least, cause conflicts between official and YPA channels of communication. Noble says that YPA is simply an alternative opinion to that of the administration and as such he does not see any insurmountable tensions arising between it and the official York University Communications Office and York Media Relations.
Noble is no stranger to public debate, having previously spoken against such issues as online education. His objections to cancelling classes on Jewish holidays were quoted last week in the Toronto Star.
