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 ..."