Acadia strike in limbo

By Brendan Howe and Sara Marett
Gazette Staff

Students at Acadia University in Nova Scotia are holding their breath and hoping their school year will not be interrupted as the school's faculty will vote on Monday and Tuesday whether or not to strike.

Members of the Acadia University Faculty Union recently voted 97 per cent in favour of rejecting the latest offer from the school's Board of Governors and 95 per cent agreed to have a vote on striking, said Jim Sacounman, president of the union.

Approximately 700 students staged a sit-in two weeks ago to encourage the two groups to avoid a strike, but right now they are "waiting and wondering," said Acadia Students' Union President Paul Black. "We're hanging in limbo to see if anything will happen – there's not much else we can do."

Sacounman cited lack of academic freedom, good governance and collegiality as reasons for rejecting of the Board's last offer. "When they came to the table in October they came gutting everything a university means. Things have not been pretty."

The faculty's contract ran out last September and they have been working without one since. Currently both parties are under a media blackout while negotiations continue.