All Posts Tagged With: "Deborah Poff"
Brandon strike ends
Students can complete courses or get refunds
After 45 days, the strike at Brandon University ended late Friday. Students will return to classes as of 6 p.m. Monday. On Sunday, University President Deborah Poff said that the Board of Governors approved a plan for student refunds of individual courses or entire semesters. However, students who wish to complete their courses will be able to finish the missed semester. Last week the provincial government said it would force Brandon’s 240 professors and other staff to vote on the university’s latest offer. That offer included a nine per cent pay raise over four years, plus an $1,800 signing bonus. To read about how students were reacting to the strike last week, click here.
Brandon strikers must vote on contract
Minister takes “extraordinary” step
Manitoba’s labour minister has ordered striking professors to vote on the latest contract offer from Brandon University’s administrators. A strike at the small prairie school has killed classes for six weeks now. If a majority vote “yes,” professors will go back to work almost immediately.
“I have reviewed the circumstances of the dispute and the negative effect of the work stoppage on the students of Brandon University and the city of Brandon,” Labour Minister Jennifer Howard wrote in a letter to university president Deborah Poff and BUFA president Joe Dolecki yesterday. “I am of the opinion that a vote of the employees in (BUFA) to accept or reject the last offer of the employer, respecting all matters remaining in dispute between the parties, is in the public interest.”
The vote is expected later this week. The parties were close to a deal last week. The university offered raises of nine per cent raise over four years, plus an $1,800 back-to-work bonus. BUFA wants 10 per cent over four years, plus $3,000 for each member who goes back to work.
The reason Brandon professors have gone on strike for the second time in three years is that they feel they’re underpaid. Associate professors average $89,000, which is less than the $106,000 nationwide. Still, salaries are very similar to those paid at similar small schools like Nipissing University in North Bay, Ont.
Click here to read an opinion piece on what professors should be paid.
Check back later for a report on how the strike is affecting students, by blogger Sarah Petz.
How much should professors make?
In my opinion, they’re paid well enough already.
Photo by ggbaker on Panoramio
More than 1,000 students at Brandon University have signed a petition asking for their tuition money back because of a faculty strike that caused classes to be cancelled since Oct. 12.
But the Brandon University Student’s Union (BUSU), which has collected the signatures, doesn’t blame the professors—who are striking for the second time in three years—for their three weeks of missed classes. BUSU supports the picketing profs. They agree they’re underpaid.
But are Brandon’s professors really underpaid? More importantly—are professors underpaid in general? It’s a question students and taxpayers should ask—they’re the ones who pay the bills.
