Making a Multiversity

York University is living in interesting times. Another chapter in its seemingly interminable history of strike action is now closing, with a walkout by contract faculty and teaching and graduate assistants. For months, negotiations were locked, crippling much of the functioning of the institution, including the regular offering of classes. The strike became the longest-running post-secondary walkout ever in English Canada, and ended only with back-to-work legislation. Despite this forced settlement, the future remains uncertain. What happens months or years from now at York will surely be predicated on its unremitting cultures of social and academic tension—interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, interpersonal and intercultural.

But, like other Canadian universities that have faced similar challenges, York has adapted to stay productive, accountable and, most importantly, solvent. For an institution launched in the lead-up to the 1960s-era explosion of university...