Transformed

It has happened.

Sometime during the weekend, the change crept over me, like dusk sidling up to day. It was never supposed to be like this.

Students often produce their creative projects for me in Mac format, so after at least 25 years of resisting it, I purchased a Macbook on Friday. It was for convenience, so I could read their work, and I could also dabble in the kind of creative process they were using and thus better understand their journey.

It was cute; a little white block and I must admit, I was impressed -- take it out of the box and thwwwzzziipppppppp! it worked. Found the wireless network, was fully charged, needed no multi-disk setup. It worked. And the aesthetics of its design were rather pleasing, from the charger plug with its fold-out cable coiler to the clever little battery button on the bottom. Hmmm, I allowed, well-designed, well thought-out.

Saturday night, I found myself cradling that little Macbook as I fell asleep.

It has happened.

I love my Mac.

Who am I NOW???

A "New" St. Thomas University

The faculty at St. Thomas fight on in their battle with their employer, for a battle it has been declared.

It demands solidarity and determination to walk picket lines in freezing rain and at times, in -18 C. weather.

The faculty are still locked out by the employer. Even if they abandoned the strike that was initiated a week after the lockout, they still could not return to their classrooms, and students would still be unable to resume their second term.

The St. Thomas administration has locked them out.

This is the communication each faculty member received at 4:30 on December 26:

Effective 6:00 p.m. on December 27, 2007, all Full- and Part-time members of FAUST employed by St. Thomas University will be locked-out from employment. No such employees will be permitted on the premises of St. Thomas University without the express written authorization of the University.

Locks were changed on all doors of the university. Faculty are prohibited by law from entering the university.

If I were a St. Thomas student, I would be demanding a tuition refund from the administration that is withholding access to my greatest resource, the professoriate.

A New Year - 2008 -- and We're Back!

So was hätt einmal fast die Welt regiert!
Die Völker wurden seiner Herr, jedoch
Daß keiner uns zu früh da triumphiert --
Der Schoß ist fruchtbar noch, aus dem das kroch!

Bert Brecht, Arturo Ui

"Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again ..."


A new year was ushered in last night, an event which gives us pause to reflect on the year past and to look ahead with optimism and hope into the promise of 2008.

Not so in Fredericton, where our colleagues of St. Thomas University have been locked out since December 27! On this New Year's Day, when the rest of the country celebrates with municipal levées or merely nurses a slightly throbbing head, St. Thomas colleagues are opening their LOCK OUT HEADQUARTERS.

Make no mistake -- the Faculty Association of St. Thomas (FAUST) has not yet even called for a strike vote from its membership! They were bargaining in good faith against this administration when they were served with a notice of lockout on Boxing Day!

This is a first in Canadian university history, faculty locked out before they have even considered a strike. It is a sad and sorry precedent set by STU's President and Board of Governors. Imagine the message it is sending to its students -- "We have no interest in your term nor in your educational welfare. We intend to crush this union and train this faculty once and for all to obey their administration, and unfortunately you students merely got in the way."

A New Year ... and a new bully on the block.

St. Thomas students return to campus on January 9, but they return to classrooms that are empty because the President of St. Thomas and its Board of Governors have taken the utterly irresponsible action of locking out its professors. Make no mistake -- the Board of Governors has taken the tuition of these students and is now denying them what they have paid for in good faith.

Shame, President Higgins!
Shame, Governors!