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.
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.
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