About the Brandon University Strike

Today I attended the first hour of the student forum organized by BUSU (Brandon University Student Union) and here is the information I have gleaned before and during this event... (Keep in mind I do not support the opinions one way or another in this section, and they may be biased because of the sources they came from. My own opinion will follow in a separate section. If any of the below information is incorrect, I am sorry. It is only what has been given to me.)

Arguments

BUFA Teachers' Union:
- the administration wants higher contributions to pension plans but will not match staff contributions
- are asking for a raise in salary to match inflation
- sessional professors who have been at the university for years have still not been offered contracts
- the hiring process for new profs should still include the BUFA Union

Administration:
- want more research conducted by profs, and published in higher caliber publications
- want more profs hired in the future to be required to have a PhD so that the university can capitalize on research grant money from the government
- want to create a new administrative position (Vice President)
- want the hiring process taken out of the hands of the BUFA Union and given to faculty councils, with the final say coming from university Administration
- want to offer more distant ed courses and internet courses (which cost more to students and give students less face time with profs)
- expect sessional profs to offer more courses so that other profs can conduct more research
- want profs to have a heavier course-load to offer students more selection (while not being properly compensated for this course-load difference)

BUSU Student Union:
- states Administration hired a lawyer from Winnipeg at $330/hour to help with negotiations (estimate of $100 000 of legal charges to the university last week alone)
- Brandon University is already in budget crisis which is resulting in programming cuts, especially to the smaller departments on campus
- continues to support the tuition freeze
- the President of the university is getting paid $261 000 annually which amounts to $83 per student. This is higher what is paid to the presidents at many other larger Canadian universities
- claims the President of Brandon University is not releasing information that should be made available to the public (ie. Brandon University students)
- argue some of the best professors at the university do not have their PhDs and that a PhD does not necessarily make a quality professor
- argue there are not enough facilities to accommodate increased research and the grants the Admin want to take advantage of
- argue there is not enough government funding available, so where will the extra $$$ come from to pay for more research?
- students are being put in a bad position because they will be asked as of next week to choose if they will cross the picket lines in order to attend classes, in the Administration's divide and conquer strategy (issues for students include: needing extra face time with profs, not wanting their tuition $ to go to waste, and if they should cross picket lines and snub the teachers' union)
- profs are put in a bad position by being asked to cross picket lines to teach students if they did not vote in favor of the BUFA strike

Faculty of Education/Nursing Faculty:
- Education Faculty members expressed original concern about student practicums being cancelled if there were to be strike action
- Concern about strike action negatively impacting students in these faculties due to the difference in how these professional programs are run compared to other university programs
- many profs in these faculties voted against the strike and some refused to picket at the expense of their own paycheck
- Dean of Education offers to act as Faculty Advisor for education students so they can continue with their practicums during the strike (practicums are off-campus field experience so no picket lines will be crossed)
- concern about how long this strike will last

MTS Teachers' Union:
- Education students in practicum are seen as volunteers but will not meet teaching requirements unless they have a faculty advisor overseeing their placements (Student teaching is not forbidden)
- MTS supports BUFA Teachers' Union

~~~

As I See It...

My main issue with this strike is transparency, from everyone involved. My understanding is that these negotiations have been going on since this spring. However, in the past 3 weeks we have been continuously told that there "might" be a strike but no dates were being given until the last minute. The issues being discussed were not available to most students until the last couple of days. This resulted in a large amount of misinformation about what was actually going on. In addition, as an Education student, I was of the impression that this strike would compromise my field experience, as it had in the 2008 strike. As it turns out that is not the case.

Technical difficulties may have resulted in lack of information about the strike. For instance, the Brandon University webmail tends to be incredibly glitchy. Notice of the strike was supposedly sent to all students as of 5am this morning, when the negotiations ended in a stalemate. However, I did not receive any of the notices sent by various parties notifying me of the strike until 2:15pm! This is something that should be looked into after the strike is settled.

Students should have been given proper information up front about the issues being discussed and the exact date strike action would occur within a more reasonable time frame. Students should not have been forced to wait until after the mandatory withdrawal date for courses to know if there would be strike action, because if they choose to withdraw now they will lose significant amounts of their tuition dollars in the process (which most students cannot afford). In addition, this strike very neatly coincided with the Manitoba Provincial election which seems like a dirty move on the parts of both the BUFA teachers' union and Brandon University Administration.

While I do not necessarily support the BUFA union's request for a salary increase that would amount to about a 37% increase over 3 years (according to Brandon University Administration), I also do not support the Administration's projected figures that seem to ask staff to accept a 14% decrease in salary over the same period of time. My concerns are that the BUFA union received a pay increase as a result of the 2008 strike, however, inflation and pensions must be taken into consideration (as said by BUSU). The problem is where is this money going to come from? Our university has already been cutting programming and more cuts are projected for the upcoming years. Students will have less access to the valuable programming that was previously offered at this university. BUSU urges us to point fingers at the government, but I find that unsatisfactory. Yes, we need to get more government funding, but I am paying $3,600 this year for tuition. I paid $5,000 annually for my college tuition in British Columbia... college, not university. Clearly the tuition freeze is not helping matters. I love cheap tuition, but Brandon University has one of the cheapest tuitions in the country and you can't say our programming won't suffer as a result. A small tuition increase may be enough to stop some of this madness! (I am sure I'll get some negative feedback for that statement, but so be it.) So yes BUFA, I don't support your request for a salary increase, but on the grounds that I do not believe the money you are asking is available at the moment. Your other requests seem reasonable from what I have seen of them. I did hear a rumour that BUFA also wanted to do less teaching, but if this was a spin on wanting to do less teaching than what the Admin seems to be proposing in the future then I support that also.

Now the Admin... well, hmmm. I will try to be civil. Let's just say this straight. We need better programming. We don't need more research at the expense of good programming. Research has its place but we cannot afford more research at this time. It has been my opinion over the course of my time at Brandon University that the Administration has never truly been interested in the concerns of students. This Elitism has to stop. Oh and for the record, this university is run with such a lack of organization it is appalling. Offices seem incapable of contacting each other or sharing information. (Email is not expensive, please utilize it!) It cost me $10 to send my transcripts from one department to another, and I had to walk them there myself! Not to mention the humiliation our university had to endure when our President gave a speech at an event we hosted that had members of faculties from universities all across Western Canada. Our President decided she was going to talk about the possibility of extraterrestrial life during her speech. I am sure there is a time and place for that but it is not when representing our school at a conference completely unrelated to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Also, couldn't you find a cheaper lawyer if indeed you needed one?

Now that the matter of my practicum not being affected has been cleared up I find myself in general to be in favour of this strike. I urge other students not to cross the picket line and attend classes; however, I understand that your tuition dollars are disappearing as we speak and you may be unable to afford to do otherwise. I urge the BUFA and Administration to be more transparent in the future, and hope that everyone keeps student concerns in mind during these negotiations.