Who supports Contract Academic Staff?

The students and full-time faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University support CAS, that's who. When the school answers the questions that have been asked, when they resolve the treatment of their part-time professors, who teach 33% of the classes and yet only receive 5% of the budget for professors...

When the administration answers our questions instead of stonewalling us, the demonstrations, rallies, videos, letters, and petitions will stop.

CAS's working conditions are our learning conditions. Resolve now, Admin!

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• laurier
• university
• part-time
• professors
• contract
• academic
• staff
• student
• solidarity

[multiscanner]

Yawn. The full-time faculty supporting this strike were playing at being proletarian, and using the CAS people for their own ends, rather than truly supporting CAS.

How many of the full-time "supporters" chose to do their support from their homes in Toronto or in the bar in "planning meetings"?

Support CAS by splitting them off from WLUFA - the interests of full-time tenure-track faculty aren't the same.

[multiscanner]

Second, let CAS speak for themselves - why during the strike, did we mostly hear from the full-time union hacks? They didn't respect the CAS folk enough to let them run their own strike, and we are supposed to feel bad about the way the university treated them?

[wlustudentsolidarity]

This is an interesting statement - yes, I saw a lot of posturing from some fulltimers, but I also seem to recall hearing what the CAS had to say - from CAS.

At the same time - nice bit of divide-and-conquer work there. The thing is - the strike's over, so all of this is just pointless arguing on the internets and it doesn't even come with cat macros.

[multiscanner]

Third, don't confuse "support" with the signs shown here. I know full-time faculty who didn't want to play ball with the tasteless antics of their excitable colleagues and didn't have door signs. But they walked the picket line, and donated food, and tried to lobby on behalf of CAS like rational people, not like howling baboons.

That is support for CAS, not self-promoting speechmaking.

[wlustudentsolidarity]

Again you make... a point. But see - this video was made before the strike. All I had to work with was the signage. I don't know if you um, read the description or anything. Or the date it was posted.

[wlustudentsolidarity]

One - this is a rational argument and will be treated as such. Thank you for that much.

Two - You make an interesting point about people supporting from the safety of their homes. Being as how I'm a student and not a professor, I don't know what their motivations were.

[wlustudentsolidarity]

Me too - but the Admin has had ample time to come up with reasonable offers, being as how the CAS contract expired in August 2007. And as for being a pissed off WLU student - I are one!

[fraser7]

i'm all for creating a fair work environment for part-timres, but i really disagree with fucking over the students. they don't deserve that. i'd be fucking pissed if i was a wlu student...

[wlustudentsolidarity]

Course it is. And by backing the CAS into a position where they have little other choice just so they can be heard, the Admin does a great job in making CAS look bad, lose sympathy, and in pressuring the CAS to accept a raw deal. It's actually a pretty brilliant strategy on part of the admins, and the best part is, it'll probably work, too :)

[JoePiani]

The strike's timing? Complete extortion if you ask me. Yea, a new deal should be made. What you are doing is not putting each other in bad positions but the STUDENTS!!! Some of us are 4th year and want to graduate to pay off the TUITIONS and all other nonsense charges on our invoices. I don't want to come back for another year because of this nonsense.