The Final Post

 

 

Well, it has been one hell of a roller coaster ride, hasn't it? From October 18 until today, December 7, we have shared this space emotionally, viscerally: 7 weeks, 35 posts. Today it ends. I am going to pick up the unraveled threads of my work and finish my marking before grades are due. I can now turn my thoughts to a more deliberate celebration of the Christmas Feast than I had thought would be possible. And I will spend many, many moments over the holidays, lost in my thoughts over a mug of coffee or a pot of tea, trying to ascertain what I take with me from this experience. Some things are already clear to me:

• I have learned that I am first and foremost a teacher, for whom the thought of leaving my students for the picket line is the source of tremendous emotional distress.

• I have learned that open and honest communication with my students, with all students is vital for my university.

• I have learned how to better interpret the lexicon of negotiating. It is a language hitherto outlandish to most of us at Brock, but we are now ruefully more fluent in its Byzantine twists.

• I have watched my Faculty Association come of age. BUFA has been tempered in the crucible of robust challenge and has emerged the stronger for the tempering.

To the students who left comments, both laudatory and critical, I congratulate you on taking the time to express your views and to make a difference. To all those students who participated by sitting in, by writing letters and e-mails, by stopping to discuss the issues at the information pickets, by asking tough questions at the BUFA Info Session, by drawing editorial cartoons, by wearing a BUFA button (or a BUFA button that had been crossed out!) and also by discussing the strike issues with your friends and professors, I applaud your engagement. Time for me to take my dog for a walk. Good night and good bye.

Entspannen = literally "de-tense" or "de-tighten"

 

I have been home for a while now, and the news of no strike is just starting to register with me. At last, I may unclench all that I have been clenching! I sit in the recliner with a mug of hot, sweet tea, and as I mentally decompress, my body reacts with surprising swiftness. My biceps ache and when I reach to rub the decrepit muscle, it is alarmingly sore. Didn't realize that I externalized my tension to that degree. Just before I left the office, I took down three volumes from my bookshelf to bring home with me. 

 

The first, by Gerhart Hauptmann, is Die Weber, a social drama of Naturalism that chronicles the Silesian weavers' bitter uprising against exploitative bosses in 1848.

 The second is Germinal, Emile Zola's Naturalist novel of 1885 that is a fictional account of French miners whose need for social justice overcomes their personal fears and leads them to strike against the oppressive capitalist mine owners. 

 The last book is The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life by Parker Palmer, an "educational activist" who captured my heart in his introduction:

"This book is for teachers who have good days and bad—and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves. It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts, because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life."

Background reading for the next Collective Agreement in two years ...

Tentative Agreement!!

Yes, I am a bit late with this -- had an e-mail from my friend Roger Moore in New Brunswick telling me that he had already heard a tentative agreement had been reached. And students have been sending comments to report the same .

What a wonderful wonderful piece of news. Students will still find it hard to go back to studying after all the anxiety, but what a relief for all of us in the trenches, students and faculty alike!

Still, there is a dark corner of my mind that keeps nagging at me: "Could we not have settled this two weeks ago without putting the most important stakeholders, our students, through this night of hell?"

Oh, shut up Barry!! Push those dark thoughts aside, it's time to celebrate!

Students

Look at the comments from the Waiting post. I am so sick at heart I could hurl. I am terribly embarrassed that students thank me for maintaining this blog, when I am poised to take a step that will impede thelearning of my students, of every student at Brock. 

 

It is an act that is contrary in every way to my credo as a teacher and learner. It is an act into which I have been forced by an administration that seems to be imposing a corporate, top-down labour matrix on the university. And it is an act that I must (not gladly) see through. Through it all, students -- the ones so deeply affected, yet the least consulted -- are keeping this vigil with me. And I am humbled by their faith and their courage in this ordeal. During this ennervating strike process, I have been encouraged and inspired by students and their reactions.

• I recall the week-long sit in at the Tower elevators, the petition, the declaration of intent to return to bargaining signed by the BUFA negotiating team.
• I think of the letters to the Brock Press that I read. And I think of the many letters to the administration that went unanswered.
• I think of the editorial cartoons in the Press yesterday.
• I remember the e-mails from my current and former students, offering strength and moral reinforcement. And the e-mails from students I have never met have just stunned me!

If I may appropriate Shakespeare for this circumstance:

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee,--and then my state (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate

Thank you. You deserve so much more than this. But thank you. As this day indeed breaks, and there is still no news, the students of Brock nevertheless raise my spirit.

As always.

Waiting ...

I wear my anxiety like a cold shroud, wrapped around my body, pulled tightly into the corners of my mouth and knotted hard in the small of my back.

This is the day of mediation between BUFA and the administration, the day on which so much hinges --for students, first of all. I hope they get to finish their semester without interruption. How will they enjoy a much deserved holiday if they have to continue to study?

Then for BUFA and me ... will I be on a picket line? Can I go 3 hours in sub-zero temperature without my back seizing up?

I draw my anxiety more tightly to my body, trying not to let it flap wildly for all to notice. I must attempt to get through the rest of the day.

When I get home, I get a phone call from my friend and colleague, Roger Moore (007) at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. Roger was in my 3M Teaching Fellowship cohort and we met at the Montebello Retreat in 2000.

He has been such a support, phoning regularly to boost my spirits, to lend me his ear so I can vent and to offer the wisdom of his experience with the CAUT Defence Fund. Roger was a flying picket at UPEI last year and has volunteered to come to Brock. His health will not permit him to join us this week, should we go out, but perhaps next week. He has been prescribed happy pills, as he calls them, for his back. I ask him to save me some.

Roger makes me laugh, which rends some of the anxiety that envelopes me.

As always, Roger's phone call has been therapeutic and I barely notice that my anxiety has almost slipped from my shoulders.

I grab it by the corner and drag it up the stairs behind me, tossing it in the corner of my study as I prepare to wait out the long night for news of the mediation.

No sleep tonight, old man.

Technology and the over 50's

I am 57 years old, hurtling towards 58. I ache a lot and I am beginning to forget things. I repeat myself constantly, without realizing it. I now laugh at the same silly things my parents used to find amusing. I repeat myself constantly, without realizing it. This is not a pretty transformation. I should have young people monitor me whenever I use digital technologies. Yes, I need surveillance at all times, something like an "Avoid Stupidity Panopticon." I had been wondering why no one had left comments, save for a few early on. I assumed that no one was really reading, so I continued on my merry way, posting and reflecting. Last night, I switched to the new version of Blogger and when I did, a screen popped up that read: You have twenty unpublished comments: Do you want to migrate them to Beta Blogger? 

 

 

 

 Imagine, if you will, the ease with which "Oooops!" slid from my lips! I had made this a moderated blog and expected to be e-mailed whenever a comment was posted -- but I had inserted my e-mail in the wrong box, the Comment Notification Address box. Meanwhile, the box for my e-mail under the Moderate Posts radio button was left blank. Hence, all these comments sat unseen and therefore unpublished. And I continued to post and reflect, oblivious to what must have been glaringly obvious to young users of this technology. I apologize to all who commented but never saw their remarks appear. It must have seemed odd indeed that there were no comments at all. So, to those who assumed that I was not publishing comments in order to suppress views not congruent with my own, sorry --I was not being devious, just dumb. All comments, brickbats and otherwise, are now published. One more time, for the record, this caveat:

• The posts to this blog represent my personal journal of the events leading up to the strike.
• I acknowledge the innate subjectivity publicly. That is why I chose to blog.
• That is why I have talked about my own anguish, my own frustrations, my own anxieties.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa This blog IS NOT the "Brock Faculty Strike" Wikipedia entry.

And one more time, I encourage you:

• Re-read the November 23 post
• Seek out dissenting opinions
• Read the blogs of those BUFA members who do not agree with strike action
• Make up your own mind after weighing up the evidence
• Do not rely on my views as the sole source of commentary on the strike

No Update for Students?

What is going on??

Why hasn't the Brock webpage been changed all weekend?

Why haven't students been informed of the postponement of mediation and hence postponement of the strike?

I am sure this is an unfortunate oversight that has not been corrected because it happened just before the weekend.

However, I do hope that the students I contacted, and those who read this blog have spread the word to as many as they can.

STRIKE POSTPONED

My stomach is still doing flip flops! I got the e-mail from BUFA President Barry Grant last night at 8:15 to announce that the strike date has been pushed back.

Unfortunately, there has been a death in the immediate family of the mediator and as a result, he cannot attend for the planned full day of mediation on Sunday December 3rd. Instead, the full 24 hours of mediation will now take place on Tuesday December 5, the Negotiating Team will report back to the BUFA Executive on Wednesday December 6, and any strike action necessary will take place on Thursday December 7 at the earliest.

Check out the details on the BUFA website at: http://bufaweb.com

This means, of course, that all exams scheduled for December 5th, and 6th will now go ahead as scheduled, as well as those that were already running on the 4th.

What a relief for those students who were on pins and needles, wondering whether they would sit their exam or not on those days!

Walking the Dog

I finally get a chance to smile, in the midst of the anxiety and stomach churning.

>

In an earlier post, I mentioned taking my dog for a walk in the wee hours of the morning. As the GMM was breaking up yesterday, Carol Sales asked me what kind of dog I had.

The therapeutic effect of writing this blog all at once took a back seat to my having opened the door to my personal life just the tiniest bit. My readings of Habermas and the public and private sphere had suddenly been reified in a very intimate way.

Let me introduce Zeus, a 9-year old Bichon Frisé.

Lately, as we two walk the empty sidewalks in the early morning silence, I find myself smiling and my stomach doesn't ache for a little while. It's a nice change.

Gathering in Solidarity

I took picket captain training yesterday at BUFA Strike HQ. It was a long afternoon of instruction in how to apply common sense to a sometimes difficult, potentially volatile situation. The repeated mantra of "Safety, safety, safety!" drove home the reality of the course upon which we may have to embark. This will be an unpleasant, uncomfortable, by necessity adversarial exercise.

I often do a mental run-through of the chronology of the negotiations that have taken place in the last 8 months and I always reach a point where it seems logical to me that this job action could have been averted. BUFA offered to consider arbitration on monetary issues if the non-monetary items could be settled through negotiation. This was BUFA's olive branch, our way of saying that WE WANT AN AGREEMENT, NOT A STRIKE.

The administration refused arbitration, even though the decision on salaries could have been to their advantage.

For some reason, I can't shake the feeling that faculty members have been forced deliberately and cynically onto the road to a strike, with all the tension, frustration, despair, and plummeting morale that comes with a strike.

And I can't help feeling that this behaviour is intended to influence not only the agreement that is on the table now, but also to set the tone for the next agreement to be negotiated 2-3 years from now.

If this is the case, I think the administration has badly misread the membership.

At the General Membership Meeting following the training for picket captains, the turnout was heavy and the mood was grim.

Each of us there knew only too well that the veil of change had fallen over Brock. With this pall hanging over the gathering, the new president's calls to collegiality, as late as the e-mail of November 29, seemed sterile and empty to most seated in the Brock Ballroom of the Four Points Sheraton .

As I circulated the room with my coffee, colleague after colleague volunteered comments on the distinct change and observed that the administration's behaviour towards negotiations was anything but collegial. This was an emergent leitmotif so strong that it was like reading Thomas Mann.

The meeting got underway and the cohesive spirit in the room was palpable. The membership had closed ranks and it was remarkable. Dignified determination fueled by the hurt of betrayal is the best way that I can verbalize what I felt coursing through the meeting.

We have fine, fine leadership in Barry Grant and the Executive.
Thank you.

We have a determined, patient, and dedicated Negotiating Team in Terry Carroll, Chief Negotiator, Don Dworet, Tom Jenkyns, Linda Lowry, Carol Sales, and Kimberly Benoit.
Thank you.

We have an active, organized Strike Action Committee chaired by Miriam Richards.
Thank you.

We have a united, committed Membership.
I am happy to be counted among your ranks.

As a young man, I was taught by my Chinese-Canadian father to avoid fighting at school, to use words as my defence.

"If they call you Chink, ask them if being born in Canada means you are not Canadian like them"

"If they call you egghead, ask them if that is worse than being ignorant."

But my father also warned me that sometimes talking just doesn't work.

Sometimes you just have to stand your ground and fight.

Proud

The student sit-in was picked up by the press and the students made it into The Standard. It was a balanced piece that reported on the non-partisan demand of the students that both sides return to the bargaining table instead of wasting the days until a mediator arrives.

I would have flavoured this post with a graphic, but how does one depict visually the deep pride and immense admiration that I feel for those students who just got an A+ in this final examination in personal and social responsibility?

These students and their supporters have been respectful, visible, and very effective reminders of lapsed administrative conscience past which the senior university officers must walk at least twice a day. It should be very difficult for them to look those students in the eyes.

Now that the students have been named publicly in the paper, let me offer my own congratulations to them.

To Rob Lanteigne, Katie Gellatly, who were the organizers, and Andy Saunders who seemed to be there every single day: I hope you are as proud of yourselves as I am of you. There are many, many more who stopped by to offer support and encouragement.

You maintained a non-partisan demand, that both sides return to the bargaining table.

• When someone claimed that both BUFA and the administration had mutually agreed to abandon negotiations until December 3rd, you tested the hypothesis as any scholar might. You drafted a declaration of intent to return immediately to the bargaining table, tracked down the BUFA negotiating team and got the entire team to sign the declaration. You then presented the signed document to senior administration. That was inspired applied research!
• You were persistent when you had the opportunity to question senior administrators who stopped long enough to talk to you.
• You were pro-active in starting a petition and having your fellow students sign it.

I frequently hear colleagues talk about students who "aren't what they used to be," that students today "just can't think critically anymore!" One hears it so often that one begins to wonder if it might be true.

And then I discover a rich lode of integrity, intelligent reflection and social responsibility in a group of students like Katie, Rob, and Andy, and I know that my faith in students is in no way misplaced.

Don't Talk/Don't Tell

Just learned that colleagues currently on sabbatical or just about to go on sabbatical in January are officially considered by the university to be "combattants" in the labour dispute. In other words, they are considered to be on strike and the university will suspend all pay to them, already reduced because of sabbatical. Imagine working in the archives in Germany. You have been there since September. You are just finishing up your research and about to come home for Christmas -- only to find that you have no money in your bank account. Fröhliche Weihnachten to you! Of course, the rumour that this was the case had been circulating for a while. One colleague about to go on sabbatical in January wrote to the VPA to ask directly about his status. His inquiry was met with silence. Not even his Dean could give him any information because the senior administration had evidently not yet informed the Deans of the policy. This policy of "Don't Talk/Don't Tell" seems to be the inspired strategy behind which the administration has barricaded itself on the 13th floor. Several of my students (in German, IASC, and in COMM Studies) have told me that they have written to the President and to the Vice-President, Academic to ask specific questions about their concerns in the event of a strike -- and not one of these students has received a reply.

I want to assure you of our commitment to the academic interests of our students and faculty and their ongoing success.

--Vice-President Academic Terry Boak

The administration refuses to negotiate with BUFA unless in the presence of a mediator and not until 24 hours before a strike.

It is important that we maintain that collegiality as we work as a community in the best interests of the institution and its mission. I am concerned about, and would like to avoid, both parties being caught in a spiraling dynamic of 'brinksmanship'

--President Jack Lightstone

"Don't Talk/Don't Tell"

I wonder when the administration will declare our colleagues on maternity leave, on sick leave, and on long-term disability also to be "combattants?"

The mood begins to change

Just before noon today, I came through the Tower lobby on my way back from a Strike Action Committee meeting and there in front of the Tower elevators were two students sitting on the floor with large signs that read, All I want for Christmas is to write my exams and Silence Solves Nothing

Nostalgia mixed with excitement-- a sit-in, just like the Sixties!

These two courageous students had decided to act rather than sit passively and wait for the administration's silence to cost them their exams.

They organized the event using Facebook (so somewhere in all this, COMM students, there should be a paper about the political uses of social networking sites!).

In their organizing blurb, they make it very clear that this is NOT a partisan protest; they support neither the administration nor BUFA. In fact, they go out of their way to clarify:

NOTE: This is not a pro-BUFA rally, this is an attempt to get both sides talking before December 3rd.

I was struck by the wording proposed for signs for the sit-in event:

Suggested signs:

You have 8 days left, not just one
Keep talking, We're listening
Silence solves nothing
Negotiate now, not later
You have to TALK to be at Brock
We'd rather be in class
All I want for Christmas is to write my exams

I went past again to check out the Tower Cafeteria menu and then came back, stopping to encourage these two brave students who have decided to be pro-active in demanding their right to an education. Evidently, the plea to the administration will continue until Friday of this week.

If students are frustrated enough to stage a demonstration like this, to plead that the administration come back to the bargaining table, I hope the administration does not simply ignore their plea.

I hope that the administration will keep faith with those students and address the issues that students have raised.

Ouch! Student Sarcasm is Vicious ...

Just saw a student "Letter to the Editor," on the Charlatan website, Carleton's student newspaper.

Check out the link to this letter from Robert Lanteigne.

For the record, here is the text of the letter:

Brock Undergraduates For Atkinson would really like their former president back

Written by Robert Lanteigne

Thursday, 23 November 2006

Dear Carleton University,
You and us aren’t very different. Sure you’re a little bigger and a little older, but we both have amazing basketball teams, no football team, a slogan that other schools mock daily, and we both get our asses kicked by the Maclean’s rankings every year.
We recently gave you our president, and now you don’t want him anymore? At least he helped stop your faculty from going on strike.

I propose a trade.

We’ll take Atkinson back if you can take Jack Lightstone. He got his degree there, I think he knows his way around. If not, can you at least show us how to turn our canal into a big long skating rink? We’ll need something to do during the strike.

Post script: The Brock University Faculty Association is about to strike.

— Robert Lanteigne, Brock student and member of Brock Undergraduates For Atkinson

The Charlatan, Thursday November 23?, viewed Monday November 27, 2006 at
http://www.charlatan.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18064&Itemid=26

Ouch!

An Omen?

Took the dog for his walk early this morning. As I was going out the gate onto the street, a picket fell off the gate onto the walkway.

"Oh No!" I muttered.

A sign from above.

Happy Holidays, Students and Faculty!

Did you get your annual holiday card from the Brock administration? Just got mine:

Not Ready to Make Nice

Forgive, sounds good. Forget, I'm not sure I could. They say time heals everything, But I'm still waiting I'm through, with doubt, There's nothing left for me to figure out, I've paid a price, and I'll keep paying I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down, I'm still mad as hell And I don't have time To go round and round and round It's too late to make it right

 

Barry and Pop Culture? That old fella with the grey hair, wears the dark suits and white shirts? He is making references to ... country music?? The Dixie Chicks just blow me away. I enjoy some of their music, but I admire their immense courage. They have suffered vicious attacks from the right wing of the American fan base for an anti-Bush comment and yet have remained resolutely, even defiantly committed to their political stand in the face of career reversal, significant financial loss, and threats of violence. And they have incorporated the self-doubt, the fear and the anger back into their work with their song Not ready to make nice.

*********************************

I was talking to a contemporary of mine today, the usual hallway conference in late afternoon. As our conversation moved to the strike, he volunteered that he felt that this administration has done itself a terrible, almost insurmountable disservice in allowing labour relations to deteriorate to this point. It was, in his considered and seasoned opinion, far too late to go back to the collegial relationship faculty used to have with administration. A deliberate act of disrespect towards faculty and towards students was how he angrily characterized the administration's walking away from the bargaining table with almost two weeks left in which the strike could be averted. And still other faculty members with whom I discuss the strike have told me they knew the gloves were off and that we were in for a street fight when the administration suspended talks. As another colleague joined us today in the hall, the sentiment was expressed that no amount of post-strike goodwill will heal this rift. Over the past week, at least three other colleagues, senior and respected, have voiced the same feeling. I guess I was naïve when I assumed that a notoriously short institutional memory would help Brock get over the damage that has already been caused by this strike. I assumed that that the alienation I am feeling was merely personal, the result of having been exposed to Schopenhauer at far too tender an age. Was I wrong! The depth, the intensity of this feeling and how it seems to be spreading amongst my colleagues, especially those of my generation, has taken me by surprise. They feel betrayed. Too late to make it right.

Can't Sleep!

I have been up since 4:30.

I just can't sleep.

I lie in the dark, tossing in bed and thinking about the fallout of this strike.

My stomach is in a knot and I am becoming angry.

This has got to be the most irresponsible, reckless, cavalier treatment of students that I have ever witnessed from a Brock administration.

So, so far the administration's strategy is:

Push the students to the edge, along with faculty.

Hope that students will side en masse with administration

"Win the hearts and minds" of the students ... where have I heard THAT before?

Hope I don't doze off in the office today ...

This Blog Is Just One Resource...

Let me reiterate why I am blogging this rather unpleasant period of my professional life.

The media will report the factual to the students and to the community at large.

The newspapers will tell you how many picketers there were on the first day.

The television crews will try to summarize the entire strike with footage of a single dramatic event, such as faculty delaying the President's car as it enters the grounds.

But who will relate the emotional turmoil of those faculty members shivering on the picket line?

Who will express the deep anxiety and frustration of the average Joe (!) faculty member who sure as hell does not want to be on strike, but who has been pushed into this radical position by an administration that refuses to bargain?

What media report could ever relate the guilt that every single striking professor will feel because we have had to walk away from our students?

I am blogging because I think students have a right to see the human aspects of this strike. Students have a right to know that the decision to strike is one not taken lightly -- every faculty member whom they see on the picket line has struggled in a personal Gethsemane over the decision to walk.

Oddly enough, there seems to be no inner turmoil on the part of the administration as they play roulette with the lives of students -- they walked away from the bargaining table, refusing to negotiate again until December 3rd, a mere 24 hours before the strike date!


I understand that many people read these jottings as their source of information about the strike. Let me implore you to get other sides of the argument and weigh up what you find in this new evidentiary field before you come to any conclusions.

For example, I have reported that the administration broke off negotiations and walked away from the table last Tuesday. And I am sure many of you must have argued, "Well, administration must have had a good reason for doing so." So why not find out for yourself? Why not ask, "Why did you break off talks?"

Put your questions to the people who can give you the answers you need for this research.

Ask President Jack Lightstone.
Ask Vice-President Terry Boak.
Ask Chairman of the Board David Howes.

Expand your evidentiary field, then draw your conclusions based on the evidence.

I am deeply moved

This has been an exhausting exercise, this impending strike.

We took the the strike vote over a month ago. Since then we have had many, many meetings of the Strike Action Committee, we have had several information pickets, as well as the Information Session for Students. All along the way, I have responded to my students' request for information about the strike as best I could.

Emotionally, there has also been a price to pay.
I have worried about going through Christmas without a paycheque.

I have also worried about my younger colleagues who have new families and new mortgages, who must also face the possibility of a December without a paycheque in the bank.

And I have worried, as I have written earlier, about my dilemma as teacher and faculty member -- which role should be privileged in this situation?

It is deeply moving for me on a personal level that I am able, as always, to draw strength and hope from my students, both past and present.

One student, whom I have never met, e-mailed to thank me for providing information about the situation via this blog. He allowed that he did not agree with everything that BUFA said, but he was nevertheless grateful for the information he found here. I was touched that someone whom I have never taught would take the time to express his thanks for something that is his right at a university, the right to knowledge.

A former student, still enrolled at Brock, e-mailed this afternoon to offer his encouragement, to let me know that he and others like him do get the bigger picture, to say that he understands why a strike is necessary.

And a graduate of Brock gave me permission to share some of her thoughts in this forum. Sarah Carruthers (B.A., Popular Culture, 2006) wrote in her snail-mail letter:

"It is hard to see so many problems in a place I called home and valued so much for four years. I certainly do not like what is happening and how it is affecting all of the people I left at Brock whom I care about. ... I really do not get how the administration can justify what is going on.

What happened to 'in the best interest of the student?'
When did the education of students stop being a priority?
When did academic standards become something that did not matter?

Not supporting or compensating faculty is saying just that, that the education of students does not matter and that the students who pay $15,000 a year for four years to get a degree do not deserve the best professors and the best work of the professors they have. ...

What does it say to potential students when the University isn't willing to do what it needs to do to keep a top notch faculty doing work that produces top notch graduates?

When they put faculty last, all they are really doing is putting the students last, students who pay to keep the institution running."

It is truly amazing how much we can learn from students if we just stop and listen ...

Time for another Motrin.

What Can Brock Learn from Carleton

It's 6:30 Wednesday morning. Took the dog for his walk and now, I am having my morning coffee in the study. Just read the Ottawa Citizen's coverage of Carelton President David Atkinson's sudden and, as he evidently described it, "unexpected" resignation on Monday. Here's the link, see for yourself:

Ottawa Citizen

With each news report, a few more details are divulged. There are some interesting paragraphs in the online Citizen story(the emphases are mine):

"Management prevented a strike, the Citizen learned yesterday, by agreeing to a 12.5-per-cent pay increase over three years and dropping demands that would have included the scrapping of automatic sabbaticals.

Mr. Dunn [Carleton's Chairman of the Board] refused to say whether the management-faculty contract negotiations that brought the university to the brink of a strike were a factor in Mr. Atkinson losing his $300,000-a- year job.

Faculty will vote on the deal in a secret ballot later this week.

Mr. Atkinson said he regretted negotiations had "gone to the wall." They were actually concluded a week ago in a downtown hotel room at 4:30 a.m.

"It's unfortunate and does nobody any good," he said, "because the anxiety and despair on campus is significant."

"It was never our intention to take sabbaticals away," said Mr. Atkinson, "but it was our intention to introduce some accountability around sabbaticals. But the settlement is not out of line with other universities in Ontario."

The President (or former President) of a comprehensive university larger than Brock acknowledges that pushing faculty negotiations to the wall does nobody any good "because the anxiety and despair on campus is significant." Can the Brock administration truly believe that deliberately generating anxiety and despair of both students and faculty at our university is a good thing?

As for BUFA demands, how wildly unreasonable can they be when former President Atkinson admits that Carleton's settlement "...is not out of line with other universities in Ontario"? Remember, Carleton has been offered 12.5% over 3 years!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

So what do you see in the picture to the left? AN EMPTY TABLE! And what is wrong with an empty table? IT MEANS THAT NOBODY IS NEGOTIATING! Wow. I just hobbled in from handing out BUFA info flyers at the President's public lecture tonight (November 21 at 7:30 p.m.) and the Chair of the Strike Action Committee gave us the news: This afternoon, BUFA had a negotiation meeting scheduled with the administrative bargaining team. After approximately 7 -- yes, SEVEN-- minutes of talk, the administative team announced that they were suspending further negotiations until the 3rd of December, just two days before the strike date!

• The administration walked away.
• The administration shut down communication.
• The administration refused to bargain with the Faculty Association.

BUFA was at the table and the administration pulled the plug. This reckless decision to let talks collapse can only cause the BUFA membership to close ranks in solidarity. And it should galvanize students into taking an active part in demanding answers. How can the administration claim it "is committed to a fair and negotiated settlement" (remember those warm fuzzy e-mails?) when it refuses to come to the table to talk? How reliable then is the reassurance in those same mass e-mails that "students should be prepared to write examinations"? If I were a student, I would be firing off letters to the President and the Vice-President, to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and to every single lay, faculty and student Trustee demanding to know why this administration feels it can play casino with the academic welfare of its tuition-paying students! And if I didn't get an answer I would be letting the Standard, the Globe and the Star know that no one cared to respond. Imagine. Committed to a fair and negotiated settlement by refusing to negotiate. "Curiouser and curiouser, cried Alice ..."

Taking Its Toll

I spent the weekend navigating very gingerly around my study and the sofa. My body has suddenly decided to treat me to painful muscle spasms that flash across my upper back and make breathing a difficult task. Pain and stiffness radiate into my neck. One false move can misalign bone and nerve -- and I am instantly transformed into a grimacing, whimpering cartoon of pain. 

 A dull ache in my stomach has become a constant companion and my more frequent periods of sleeplessness measure my rising levels of stress. It seems that all I think about lately is the looming strike. My anxiety around that is affecting my health, without a doubt. I question whether I am letting my students down on some professional and, yes, on some personal ethical level by striking? But I also wonder if I am mentoring them in some fundamental way to stand up for what they believe is right and just. I must admit that I am completely and utterly flummoxed by the refusal of the administration to negotiate any major monetary issues until December the 3rd, just before the strike deadline. I mean, the strike vote was taken on October 25th and here we are at November 21! Almost a month has passed, the interests of approximately 17,000 students depends on the the outcome of negotiations and yet, the administration is relying on a single day of mediation to settle what could have been discussed, perhaps even settled in this intervening month. And no one from the administrative side has attempted to provide students with any concrete information about contingencies or protocol around grades and exams. My inner Lewis Carroll mutters, "Curiouser and curiouser!" as I struggle to adjust to this new Brock just on the other side of the Looking Glass. I gulp down another Motrin and navigate gingerly back to my study. Hope I can do my picket duty in a back brace ...

Rising Mood

BUFA organized a Town Hall information meeting with students in Pond Inlet on Friday November 16.

It was fairly well attended, with students coming and going throughout the 90 minutes that had been allocated to the information session.

On a personal note, it was so gratifying to see so many students interested in asking questions about the situation at Brock. The students in attendance were all genuinely concerned for their education, engaged with the issues, and in my view, respectful of BUFA's situation even if they did not agree with the possible strike.

A major issue that surfaced through the dialogue was that the student body has been given no information whatsoever about the strike by the administration. (Well, there were those three mass e-mailings from the administration that provided such detail.)

One student asked why a representative from the administration was not in attendance to provide information. Barry Grant, President of BUFA, replied that BUFA had organized this meeting and that the administration could have arranged an information session.

Certainly, some students were critical of BUFA. Professors are often the only embodiment of Brock that some students will ever see until Convocation when for a few seconds they shake the President's hand. It is natural for them to lay the blame for this potential disruption of service at the feet of those on the front line.

But many more students got the big picture. One student suggested that the administration is not being fair with the faculty, and in doing so, it is not being fair to students. She argued, "It is our education. We need to let the administration know that they can't treat us this way!"

Other students focused on the number of part-time instructors teaching already and the fact the administration wants to increase that number. They understood only too well what that would mean for their education or the education of those students who would follow them.

The point was made that the administration is placing huge expectations on the mediation that will occur on December 3rd, just two days before the strike deadline. Only then will the administration talk about monetary issues. Students were upset when they learned that one day of last-minute mediation is supposed to accomplish more than 6 months of negotiations. They couldn't believe that the administration would gamble with their education and their personal lives in a single day of mediation.

Has the administration misread the students? I hope not.

Our students are angry.

• They are angry because they have not been informed of contingency plans by the administration.

• They are angry because the administration is intent on offering future students a Brock Lite version of education while extracting full tuition.

• They are angry because their academic and personal lives may be affected for months because the administration seems to be placing all of its eggs in the December 3rd basket, as it were, without regard for potential consequences for the students.

I think our students have valid points.

Forever Changed

I feel the chill wind of change. Many of my colleagues, my contemporaries feel it too. The climate has shifted on this campus and we are left shivering as it establishes its grip. Looking back since my arrival at Brock in 1980 as a new Ph.D. -- frisch gebacken as the Germans would say -- I had always felt a part of this university community. There were of course senior administrators with whom the Faculty Association had to bargain but one always had the feeling that we were all in this undertaking together, even in the most difficult talks. Agreements had usually been reached by collegial negotiation. Throughout the years of this process, I consistently felt as if I were part of the Brock team, sharing the same focal interest with the 13th floor, namely the intellectual welfare of our students. But today, I feel myself completely and utterly dislocated from that sense of community. More now than ever before, I feel that I am simply an employee instead of a partner in the enterprise of education. The message I am understanding from this administration that is pushing students and faculty to the brink of a strike is that the administration is the university. Make no mistake. You, the students and we, the professsoriate -- WE ARE THE UNIVERSITY. An enormous change has swept over my university. I see the collegiality and partnership of the past replaced by a crass management/labour model that has been entrenched by the negotiations or lack thereof over these past weeks. Brock University will recover in time from this strike. But for me, it will never be the same university it once was. Ever.

The Most Recent E-Mail

My favourite graffito was on a wall on Queen Street West in Toronto:
Always question authority before authority questions you.


By now, everyone --students and faculty alike -- will have received the e-mail from the VPA intended to calm fears and still rising student voices.

But what precisely does this e-mail tell students? Quite frankly, not much.

The opening motherhood statements about the administration being committed to a fair and negotiated settlement with the union is ostrich behaviour. The administration is choosing to ignore the fact that a strike vote has been taken with 88% in favour, and that since that announcement, only one round of negotiations has taken place because the administration chose not to attend the other two rounds.

There are only 8 half-days of scheduled negotiations before the strike date of December 5. It does not appear in fact as if the administration really believes in its own motherhood statments about a negotiated settlement.

So, let me say to students: Yes, continue to study and prepare for exams because your education is your responsibility. It is your job to review and internalize knowledge; learning need not be a directed activity.

But let me also tell you what the administration will not:

BE PREPARED FOR A FACULTY STRIKE ON DECEMBER 5, BECAUSE WE ARE MOBILIZING.

• The Strike Action Committee has gone into active preparations and a check list of preparations is going out to faculty tomorrow.
• The CAUT Defence Fund has already prepared and mailed a sizeable donation to the BUFA war chest, so that this strike can be seen through to the end.
• Pickets from other Canadian universities have already volunteered to be flown in to walk the line in solidarity with Brock faculty.

I spoke today by phone to a colleague from St. Thomas University in Fredericton who is a trustee of the CAUT Defence Fund. He has already volunteered to come to St. Catharines in solidarity, along with other volunteers from other universities.

Check out the expressions of solidarity already received on the BUFA website:

Letters of Support

The fear and frustration being provoked in our students is absolutely unnecessary. But it is the practice of the very brinksmanship that Dr. Lightstone denigrated in his remarks to Senate.

Not a very flattering lesson from senior administration to Brock students: Do as I say, not as I do.

I guess that bit of Queen Street graffiti had more than a kernel of truth to it:

Always question authority before authority questions you!

Demand real answers:

jack.lightstone@brocku.ca

tboak@brocku.ca

Scenario for Students

Scenario: You are speaking to a prof who is explaining your interim grades before you hit the progress exam.

Prof: The spreadsheet numbers show you actually have an average of 80% BUT I do not permit those kinds of grades in my class -- the best you can do is 74%

Student: But I have earned an 80! And besides, I did all the extra assignments and the extra essay that were listed on the course outline!

Prof: Sorry! I just don't allow any grade to go past 74, no matter how good your work is. As for the extra work, didn't you know that I don't reward that kind of service? You should be grateful that you are enrolled in my class and that I am giving you a 74%!

***********************************************

And that is the scenario the administration is asking faculty to accept in the case of salary appropriate to rank, and in the case of thesis supervisions and directed readings.

Administration wants to cap salaries for each professorial rank at Brock. Thus, no matter how much you contribute to the university in the key areas of teaching, research and service, you will only ever be remunerated with a pre-determined amount. "But I earned that 80% ..."

Administration refuses to acknowledge unscheduled teaching and supervisions as part of faculty workload. So, in addition to having a salary cap, the administration wants faculty to continue to do all the extras, such as thesis supervision, directed reading courses on our own time at our own expense.

Little progress in talks

Just had a report from BUFA's Chief Negotiator about today's meeting with the administration. Evidently while there was some minor movement, the talks were described as "Another day of no progress."



A C- grade for Administration Bargaining!


After all the years of relatively good relations the administration has had with the Faculty Association, it is surprising that the Administration is suddenly being so difficult to deal with.

It is a watershed in labour relations at Brock, in my view. Faculty are about to lose their naivité as traditional collegial negotiation is replaced by hardnosed labour/management standoff posturing.

I don't want to walk out of the classroom -- it is where I belong!


Teaching is what feeds my soul!

You really have to question just how far this administration is willing to gamble with the goodwill of the students whose tuition the university has already taken!

Countdown:

27

days from a strike.

Crunch time is coming

Had another meeting of the Strike Action Committee today. The planning we did really brought home the very real possibility of Brock faculty walking out on December 5.

At the end of today's classes, Brock faculty are only

28 days

away from a strike.

The committee is planning a blitz of information for students, like an FAQ, as well as one for faculty.

Sub-committees have been set up to organize for washroom facilities on/near picket lines, picket duty, car pooling for picketers, special arrangements for day care personnel and students in rez. Faculty will be warned to take home any personal effects, books, laptops that they may need over the strike.

They will also be advised, as a safeguard, to have prescription drugs filled early before the strike date. Dental appointments should be pushed up to a pre-strike date if possible to ensure full coverage by the benefits plan.

Faculty will also be reminded that they should not expect a pay cheque in December so they might want to speak with their bank now in order to make arrangements for skipping a mortgage payment.

This is no longer mere theoretical conjecture.

We have entered war council mode, preparing for a strike.

So much for avoiding brinksmanship!

What makes this whole strike thing so difficult for faculty: our students

Do you remember that warm and fuzzy e-mail that the University Administration sent out to all faculty and students immediately after the first information picket outside of Senate on October 19? The e-mail recounted how President Jack Lightstone had addressed Senate that day after walking through the information picket and among other things, had warned that he and the administration wished to avoid "a spiraling dynamic of 'brinksmanship' leading to an end that neither party wants and will do no one, least of all the students, any good."

Now, here is the e-mail I just received an hour ago from the President of BUFA regarding negotiations this week, right after the strike vote had been taken and a strike date announced:

"This message is intended to update all members on what has happened since the strike vote of Wednesday, October 25.

On Thursday, October 26, both sides met briefly with the conciliator, Mr. Herman Stewart, and together asked for a No-Board decision timed to put us in a legal strike/lockout position December 5 (the final date of mediation with Mr. Kevin Burkett is December 3).

Both sides have agreed to continue to negotiate, as before on Tuesdays and Thursdays, until December 5. However, this week the administration did not meet with us, so there were no negotiations. On one of those days two members of their team had other commitments, although it cannot help but make one wonder about their commitment to the negotiation process."

So with the announcement of 88% vote in favour of a strike and the announcement of a strike date barely a month away, how is it that two members of the administration's negotiating team have things to do more important than trying to avoid the strike?

Is this avoidance of negotiations not textbook brinksmanship?

Next week we are less than a month away from job action. Does it seem that the administration truly has the welfare of Brock students foremost in its thoughts?
I can't find a good answer for this one. Maybe President Lightstone can offer you a better answer by e-mail:

president@brocku.ca

How much longer??

We have been bargaining with the administration for more than 202 days -- since April!

We have been without a valid contract for more than 123 days -- since July 1!


Today is November 1 and the count down begins ...

34

days until the strike.

Faculty Contingency Plans

Today, I have to start moving my personal effects, my laptop and any books I will need out of my office.

BUFA is already preparing to move its offices and communications centre off-campus in anticipation of the strike.

Strike Vote

Last Wednesday, October 25, BUFA Executive held a strike vote at the Four Points Sheraton. 69% of the eligible membership turned out to vote.

The vote was 88% in favour of a strike.

The strike date has been set for December 5.

Believe me, this was a very difficult decision for faculty to make. I can't count the times colleagues have explained publicly that hurting or inconveniencing the students is the last thing they intend. But even pretty tame faculty members like me have been radicalized by the administration's unwillingness to come to an agreement -- and they have had since April!

Students keep asking me what the plans are for exams, for grades, etc. and I must unfortunately tell them that I simply do not know. It is really painful not to be able to calm students' anxiety about this, but the fact is that faculty have no idea what protocol the administration has in mind for these matters.

Contingency plans for exams and grades will have to be announced by the administration

Issues Students Should Know About

After two days of talks with the mediator, Mr. Kevin Burkett, it became clear to the BUFA negotiating team that we were not going to reach an agreement with the administration.

The mediator will file a No-Board Report and 17 days after that filing, BUFA and Brock faculty will be in a legal strike position.

This is the last thing that I want to happen! I want to teach my students, to see them succeed. I want my students to get the full value of their tuition. But how much more can Brock faculty take from administration?

Here are some facts that students ought to know:

1. Every other Collective Agreement has been reached by negotiation in the 42 years of Brock's history.
2. Brock faculty have been without a contract since July 1.
3. There have been more than 38 all day meetings, beginning in April. We are still not even close to an agreement.
4. At a meeting as late as October 12, the administrative bargaining team came to the meeting without having done the required preparation to continue talks. Students know what happens when they come to class unprepared -- why is it different for a bargaining team?
5. Brock administration is demanding more Instructional Limited Term Appointments (contract staff who teach only) teach more courses at Brock. That would be cheaper for the administration in the long term, but think about the vulnerability of contract instructors who can be terminated at the end of a contract if the university found someone cheaper.
6. Brock administration is demanding that the Vice-President, Academic chair any future promotion and tenure committees. This would give the VPA a vote to break a tie. It would also put the VPA in the position of being able to influence committee members simply by virtue of the fact that the chair is the Vice-President of the University! Students must understand that promotion and tenure is a peer-review process, and administrators are no longer peers of academic faculty. Rather, they are necessarily in a category apart from faculty. When is the last time you heard a senior administrator worrying that his teaching evaluations might bring down his merit? When is the last time a senior administrator expressed concern that his service record might affect his salary? that his research record could affect his career?
7. While Brock administration makes faculty a financial offer that would keep us as the lowest paid university in Ontario, that same administration has demanded changes in promotion and tenure criteria that are the toughest anywhere in the country. This would mean that we are not good enough to be paid adequately, and furthermore we are so bad we must be kept from acquiring promotions and tenure. So how can Brock become this great comprehensive university that attracts the best of the best with this track record?
8. BUFA, in its desire to avoid a strike and reach an agreement, suggested that if the administration could come to an agreement on the non-monetary issues on the table, BUFA would consider submitting all monetary issues to binding arbitration. The university refused this offer.

Role reversal

What a weird afternoon I had today. Earlier in the day, I had been invited to join the BUFA Strike Action Committee, the committee that plans strike strategy and job action. My first call to the lines was a mere two hours later, when BUFA staged an information picket in front of Senate.
I have been wearing my "I Support BUFA" button for a week already, engaging my students in dialogue about the issues in this dispute. This afternoon, I strapped on my armband and handed out information sheets to surprised students as they walked to their bus or to their next class. Usually, this hallway is full of students standing in front of their display tables, passing out information.

It was heartening to see how many students actually wanted to hear about the issues at stake here, the issues that affect their educational future at Brock.

As Senators and administrators filed into the Senate Chambers, they were offered pamphlets as well. President Lightstone made a point of asking for an information sheet, but one of the Deans kept his head down, increased his speed and with a scowl, waved off the proffered pamphlet.

The whole event lasted less than an hour.

It is a tough decision for me to make, to support a strike that will remove me from the classroom. It is my mantra that there is no other place that I would rather be than in a classroom discussing ideas with my students.

I feel such a personal commitment to my students, as past students can attest and current students can see and feel. But the long term benefit of permanent, tenured faculty in the primary teaching positions at Brock is worth this action, in my estimation.

I have agonized over this, and this is one of the reasons I am blogging -- so the people to whom I feel such a commitment can gain some insight into why I feel so strongly about supporting this action.

BWKJ