Toronto Star: Plan aims to avoid York U. rerun
As back-to-work law debated, premier says panel of experts could prevent similar crisis
Premier Dalton McGuinty, stung by accusations of fumbling the York University strike, says the government is exploring a new commission that would intervene when campus labour disputes are getting out of hand
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Strikes & Labor Disputes
Calgary Herald: University of Alberta limits God’s role in convocation
The University of Alberta has officially changed the school’s convocation ceremony to reduce, but not remove, God’s role in the event.
The school’s General Faculties Council voted Monday for a new convocation charge, which asks graduates to use their degrees “for the uplifting of the whole people; to inspire the human spirit; for all who believe, to serve your God; and to pursue more steadfastly whatsoever things are true.”
Jackson Citizen: JCC chief to stay at college
After being offered a 42 percent increase in compensation plus a bump in health-care benefits, Jackson Community College President Daniel Phelan announced Monday night he will remain in Jackson.
Phelan, 49, told about 30 supporters at a special board meeting that he would stay after the board approved a $70,000 pay hike to $236,600 annually. The decisions came two days before he was to be interviewed for the presidency of Grand Rapids Community College.
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Posted in Administration, Salary/Economic Benefits
Inside Higher Ed: Return of Grad Union Movement
Unions worked hard for President Obama in November — and those in academic unions have had high hopes that his actions would revive the movement to organize graduate teaching assistants at private universities.
In his first move related to the National Labor Relations Board, Obama has cheered those unions by designating as chair Wilma B. Liebman, who is on record as backing collective bargaining rights for private universities’ graduate teaching assistants. Liebman was originally appointed to the NLRB by President Clinton, and she was one of two members who wrote a strong dissent to the 2004 decision that effectively shut down union organizing at private institutions. While she has the same vote as chair as do other members, the signs suggest that her views won’t be in the minority.
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Posted in Students
Inside Higher Ed: No Sweat
Student protesters have spent years at the forefront of the anti-sweatshop movement, and they may now be seeing some of the fruits of their labor.
A major supplier of college apparel has brokered a unique deal, promising to pay more for garments produced by a factory in the Dominican Republic if workers there are paid a living wage. While not publicly announced by the company, the plan proposed by Knights Apparel is already drawing support in higher education. Officials at Duke and Pennsylvania State Universities have confirmed that their bookstores will be buying from the Knights Apparel factory, and a committee at the University of Connecticut is considering participation as well.
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Posted in Students
The Chronicle: 2 Universities’ Plagiarism Policies Look a Lot Alike
In 2007, after several high-profile plagiarism scandals, Southern Illinois University released a 17-page report on how to deal with the issue. The report includes a lengthy definition of plagiarism, explaining exactly what does and does not merit the dreaded “p” word.
One problem: That definition appears to have been plagiarized.
The 139-word definition used in the report is nearly identical to the definition adopted by Indiana University in 2005. Here, for example, are passages from each definition, explaining what constitutes plagiarism:
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Posted in Ethics
The Chronicle News Blog: Student and Faculty Groups Say Canada’s Budget Comes Up Short
Canadian faculty members and students are underwhelmed with Tuesday’s bad-times budget, with groups representing both sectors saying the Conservative government has failed to match President Obama’s plans for higher education in the United States.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
The Guardian: Week of mass strikes set to paralyse France in protest against Sarkozy’s reforms
Nicolas Sarkozy this week faces the first mass-protests over his handling of the financial crisis as unions prepare to paralyse France in a general strike uniting train-drivers, air traffic controllers, journalists, bank staff and even ski-lift operators.
“Black Thursday” is the first general strike since the French president’s election in 2007. All the leading unions have joined forces to protest that the government’s stimulus plans should focus less on companies and more on workers’ job-protection and purchasing power.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Philippine Daily Inquirer: Professors to take drug tests, too—CHEd
MANILA, Philippines—College and university faculty members will undergo random drug testing starting February to help eradicate the problem of illegal drugs in schools, according to Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) chair Emmanuel Angeles.
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Posted in Government, Working conditions
The Forum: NDSU President receives police protection
FARGO – Protecting North Dakota State University’s president is now a major role of a position in the campus police department.
NDSU police Capt. Scott Magnuson accompanies President Joseph Chapman to athletic and other events as part of a ramped-up security effort on campus.
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Posted in Administration
Globe and Mail: York University union threatens suit
The union representing striking workers at York University is threatening to launch a legal challenge against the Ontario government’s proposed back-to-work legislation if Premier Dalton McGuinty does not get the two sides back to the bargaining table.
Sid Ryan, Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said at a news conference at Queen’s Park on Tuesday that he wanted to deliver a message to Mr. McGuinty: “We know you have fashioned yourself as the education premier. Use your office … to continue the bargaining process.”
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Inside Higher Ed: 2-Year Salary Freeze at Bowdoin
While many colleges are announcing salary freezes to deal with the economic downturn, Bowdoin College has announced a plan — not yet final — to freeze faculty and most staff salaries for two years. “Our salary structure is important to attract and retain the best and the brightest faculty and staff. That being said, salaries and benefits comprise more than 60 percent of our total operating costs,” said Barry Mills, the president, in a letter to the campus. He noted that one goal of the two-year freeze was to try to avoid layoffs. After the two-year freeze, he said he was “committed to allocating budget resources to gradually restore any ground that may have been lost in the competitiveness of our faculty salaries during the suspension period. However, given what we read in the press about other colleges and universities, it is not likely that we will find ourselves significantly disadvantaged in faculty salaries relative to our peers over this period.” The college is also trying to hold other spending levels, and plans a very slight increase in enrollment.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
Albany Times-Union: Paterson joins SUNY search talks
Governor meets with university officials on chancellor hunt
ALBANY — Gov. David Paterson met with top SUNY officials on Monday to discuss the chancellor search, a spokeswoman said.
Paterson spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein confirmed that the governor had been briefed by SUNY Chairman Carl Hayden and Trustee H. Carl McCall. But she declined to comment further “since nothing has been finalized.”
Two people with knowledge of the search said there are two finalists for the job: University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher and Buffalo State College President Muriel Howard.
Zimpher, 62, is the apparent frontrunner as the drawn-out search to replace former Chancellor John Ryan enters its final stage, according to one source.
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Posted in Administration
The Chronicle: A Bad Reputation
Why are more and more graduate students turning away from careers at research universities?
“I don’t want to live your life.” Faculty members who train graduate students hear that remark a lot these days. In a major new study of doctoral students’ career goals, our research team received candid responses from more than 8,000 Ph.D. students in all disciplines at the University of California system. The news was not good.
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Posted in Students, Working conditions
The Chronicle: Research and Inventions Earn Big Bucks for American Universities
At least 27 universities earned more than $10-million from licensing the rights to vaccines, drugs, medical devices, and other intellectual property in 2007, according to a report released yesterday by the Association of University Technology Managers. Ten universities earned more than $50-million each from license income in 2007.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Corporate University
The Patriotic Vanguard: Kenya: Over 200,000 teachers down their tools
Over 200, 000 teachers in Kenya have boycotted work since early this week, paralyzing learning in schools with a view to forcing government to accept their terms over salary offers.
This strike action followed several meetings with the government that failed to resolve differences over a payment of Sh. 17.3 billion salary increase.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
BBC: Kenyan school strike ‘to spread’
The strike has affected more than eight million children across Kenya
A strike which has closed most of the primary schools in Kenya is going to spread, a union official says.
Over 200,000 primary school teachers went on strike on Monday after negotiations with the government over pay collapsed.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Green Left Online: NSW teachers’ strike cancelled by union
After a year-long industrial dispute, the New South Wales Teachers Federation (NSWTF) has reached an agreement for a new award with the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET).
The NSWTF had planned a 48-hour strike for the start of the school year, but on January 20 the NSWTF executive decided not to proceed with the action. The next day, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission made a recommendation to implement a new three-year award for school and TAFE teachers.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Zimbabwe Independent: Pay us in Hard Currency or we Strike, Workers Warn
AS the Zimbabwe dollar continues to lose value due to hyperinflation and the near dollarisation of the economy, labour unions are pushing for employees to be paid in hard currency.
Paying workers in hard currency, unions and labour analysts say, will cushion them from spiralling prices of goods and services because foreign currency is not susceptible to high inflation like the local dollar.
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Commentary on York U strike by Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail:
The labour party
Howard Hampton, the outgoing Leader of Ontario’s New Democratic Party, has some nerve calling for compensation for York University students who have seen their school year savaged by a strike by 3,500 teaching assistants and contract faculty. It is the NDP that has denied the Ontario government unanimous consent for back-to-work legislation, prolonging a dispute that is in its 12th week and aggravating the hardship facing 50,000 students. Will the Ontario NDP contribute toward any compensation?
These students deserve compensation
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
After a day spent perusing the various websites, pro and con, devoted to the still-ongoing York University strike and the anonymous meanness it has everywhere spawned, finally, there comes a lovely bit of clarity.
Unsurprisingly, it comes from neither the university nor the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903, which represents the 3,340 striking contract faculty and teaching, graduate and research assistants. Neither side has distinguished itself during the now 83-day-long strike except by putting its own respective interests ahead of those of 50,000-plus students, and that unhappy conduct continues unabated.
Balancing the right to strike with the right to learn
MURRAY CAMPBELL
There is one question that hangs over the messy, long-running labour dispute at York University: Where is the adult supervision?
The 12-week strike by contract faculty and teaching assistants has unfolded like a pyjama party in the basement when the parents have gone out and the babysitter has fallen asleep. The kids really do intend to turn off the television and head to bed but they don’t get around to it.
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Posted in Commentary