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.
10 comments:
would you be able to post news as soon as you hear it, as you siad there will be no sleep tonight as you wait. There will also be no sleep for hundreds of students as well as we all wait for news as well. You will not be the only one with a sleepless night. We are all in this together
Hi Barry
I'm there with you, my friend. But for me it's not a cold shroud, but more like that beast in the belly in Alien movies.
I find beer helps calm it down. If I sleep, and it is unlikely, it will be courtesy of good ole C2H6O.
No matter how much my logic says that there will certainly be a resolution, the little beast keeps clawing at my stomach.
Dan Malleck
There is no question that we are in this together, the students and the faculty. In fact, that was my first thought -- if it is this tough on faculty, how emotionally draining must this be for students who are trying to study/keep a job going/get ready for holidays/worry about a strike!
We expect something by at least noon tomorrow, but if any information is available, I will post it here for students.
Let's keep the faith for a while longer ...
I first and foremost must applaud your efforts to keep us, the students informed about this pending strike. I personally found it interesting and had the tendecy to visit this site at least once a day, if not several times a day.
Its frustrating! especially because we aren't being given the priviledge to know what's going on about our own school! I mean, to be cynical here, we do pay a hefty amount of money to be here, therefore shouldn't we be entitled to get some kind of information regarding our education?
I'm sitting here, just coming in from the bitter cold of brock university after writting my 3rd exam, and I can't help but wonder what happened today, with the mediations and how long it'll be till we find out, the wait is killing me!
in a lighter sense,I find your posts encouraging. It's nice to see a prof who actually cares about the opinions of the students and our concerns, we aren't able to come across many genuine people like you everyday.
well, this may be an understatement, however, consider this.. Christmas is 18 days away, that should illeviate some stress.
Thanks for your active updating! well appreciated
Thanks for keeping this Blog, Barry... I tried to find other sources of information through this time of nervous waiting like your blog description urged, but was unable to find anything worthwhile (besides maybe the BUFA website). Brock certainly isn't keeping their chief customers -- us students -- informed at all. For that, I have a stong desire to lift my middle finger to the 13th floor of that horribly-designed tower everytime it enters my line of sight. I know I speak for a lot of students when I say that this blog may be the only honest example of just how stressful this whole thing has been on us all. Thank you.
Stress is a killer.
"Please go about studying as you regularly would as if a possible labour disruption did not exist"
These are the words of many professors who believe that the chances of a stike are not affecting our studies. This is a stressful time for many students as it is, and with the added stress of a possible stike, it is quite difficult to focus on studying. I dont know if I am the only one in this boat, however I find the strike issue very distracting and it has caused my mind to not focus on the task at hand. Preparing for the I exam I write tomorrow afternoon has been a nightmare.
We NEED answeres ASAP
Thanks for all of your support and for keeping us in the loop Barry. Im positive that anyone who visits your blog greatly appreciates it.
Mark Malinowski
Just don't go on strike... it's pointless
I just want to say a hughe THANK YOU for keeping everyone posted. If it wasn't for you we would only be privy to the filitered half-truths (if that) that the administration feeds us.
There are students out there that are taking their fustrations out on the teachers but it is the administration that has forced the faculty's hand on this strike issue.That being said I can't help but be fustrated myself at the uncertainty over the whole stike issue. I just would have appreciated if we could have found out sooner whether the strike was going to happen or not.
6:30am and still no word... I work nights, so I've been up anyways, but the waiting has made what would be a normal night much longer than usual. I can't imagine the exhaustion you and countless others must be feeling if you've made it up this late/early. Thank you for your posts Professor. Without the blog I doubt I would have half the information I've gotten, seeing as the other half needs to be provided by administration, and as others have noted, they are severly lacking in that department. Hopefully you've managed to sleep some, and I guess we'll find out in a few hours what the verdict is.
Hey Dan,
After spending the night worrying and fretting, i think you are right about the alien in the stomach feeling!
Now that the tentative agreement has been reached, I can drown that little beastie in something good!
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