To whom it may concern:

The current and former students of Professor John Vervaeke hereby petition the University of Torontos Faculty of Arts and Science (hereafter referred to as the U of T) to take immediate and decisive action to ensure that Dr. Vervaeke remains at the U of T. We recognize that the U of Ts continuing failure to award Dr. Vervaeke with any form of job stability beyond sessional lectureship has resulted in a situation in which he is seeking a position at other universities.

We recognize that Dr. Vervaeke provides invaluable teaching to us, his students, as recognized by his numerous teaching awards such as the U of T 2000-2001 SAC-APUS Teaching Award, and his nomination to TVOs Best Lecturer Challenge in 2006.

We further recognize that beyond his excellent and inspiring teaching, Dr. Vervaeke is engaged in research on the cutting edge of the burgeoning field of cognitive science, as demonstrated by his recent co-authorship of a ground breaking paper, Relevance Realization and the Emerging Framework for Cognitive Science (2009) as well as countless other research papers.

In light of Dr. Vervaekes teaching and research excellence and the resulting value he provides to the U of T and its students, we hereby urge the U of T to take action in the interest of retaining Dr. Vervaeke, particularly to award him with a Senior Lecturer position.