Mount Allison Academic Staff applies for conciliation

The Mount Allison Faculty Association, which is the certified bargaining agent for almost 200 full-time and part-time faculty and librarians at Mount Allison University, recently applied to the provincial Department of Labour for conciliation.

“Our negotiating team met with the Employer team 23 times over a month from late May to late June,” says MAFA President Rick Hudson. “Normally after 23 meetings we are close to an agreement but we are nowhere near an agreement at this time,” he says.

In cases where it is difficult to get agreement in collective bargaining, a provincial Conciliation Officer is often helpful in bringing the two sides together.

“Negotiations will resume in August with a conciliator present, we expect, and we are optimistic,” Hudson says. He also noted that it is not unusual for a conciliator to be called in for negotiations between Mount Allison academic staff and the Sackville institution. In the past two negotiations agreement was reached in conciliation, but in the 1990s Mount Allison experienced two faculty strikes.

Hudson also expressed concern about the recent pattern in which Premier Graham’s government has imposed Conciliation Boards in the university sector after conciliation has ended. “Conciliation Boards cause delays in arriving at a settlement. Their use is very unusual outside the public service, and we see it as an attack on both university autonomy and free collective bargaining,” he says.

“Our members want a fair agreement and we see no reason why the process should drag on for months and months,” Hudson says.

The Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) has announced its 2006 donations to local charities as well as to relief efforts farther afield.

“Every year the Mount Allison academic staff donates $3000 to charity,” says MAFA President Paul Berry.

This year $1000 was donated to international relief for students and academic staff in response to natural disasters, and $2000 has recently been distributed to local charities.

“We greatly appreciate the support of the public for post-secondary education and this is our way of giving something back, particularly to the most needy and vulnerable during the holiday season,” Berry says.

Local recipients include Sackville Christmas Cheer, Sackville Food Bank, Sackville Public Library, Tantramar Adult Learning Centre, Victorian Order of Nurses (Sackville branch), Port Elgin District Voluntary Action Committee, as well as the Lillian Allbon Animal Shelter and Cumberland County Women’s Shelter, both in Amherst.

MAFA also made a donation to the Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation in Fredericton, which provides medical services to people from the Tantramar area.

MAFA is the bargaining agent for 170 full- and part-time professors, lectures and librarians at Mount Allison University.

For more information, call Paul Berry, (506) 364-2330.

Faculty and Librarians represented by the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) have voted to accept a proposal to extend the current collective agreement with Mount Allison University.

Currently, Mount Allison faculty and professional librarians are working under the last year of a four-year collective agreement. Negotiations for a new agreement were to have started this summer.

“The employer asked us to extend the current agreement for a year, with only minor monetary adjustments, in order to give the new President, Dr. Robert Campbell, a chance to get a feel for the institution. By this vote a majority of the membership agreed to this,” says Dr. Hans vanderLeest, MAFA President.

MAFA represents both full- and part-time faculty and professional librarians at the university.

Dr. vanderLeest says, however, that this move will leave many issues on the table when collective bargaining does begin.

“MAFA members are concerned that the salary scale is not competitive with other small, undergraduate institutions in the region and the country, and there are many other clauses in the agreement that we would like improved,” he says.

“The institution is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain full- and part-time faculty, and this is related to salary levels and working conditions,” vanderLeest says.

For further information contact:

Dr. Hans vanderLeest, President (506) 364-2557 or (506) 364-2289

The Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) is disappointed over the recently-announced composition of the search committee charged with recommending a new permanent President for Mount Allison.

“The norm in Canada is that university academic staff make up about one-third of the members of a Search Committee for a President,” says MAFA President Prof. Paul Berry. “The newly-announced search committee here falls well short of that.”

The Board of Regents recently established a search committee of nine members, including only two elected members of the academic staff. The committee also includes four appointed Regents, one appointee of the Alumni Association, one student, and one non-teaching Mount Allison employee.

Both the university Faculty Council and Senate voted overwhelmingly that a nine-member search committee should have two elected academic staff members and one appointed by the faculty association.

“A university president is like the captain of a team. He or she leads, but to be successful must have the support of the players, which means the campus community,” Berry says.

Berry says faculty are also concerned that there is only one student and one representative of the non-teaching employees. “We think that the campus community should be a strong majority of the search committee, and there should be greater representation from on-campus groups,” he says.

Mount Allison is a tax-supported institution and the Board needs to be more accountable, Berry says.

Mount Allison currently has a President, Dr. Ken Ozmon, whose term ends on June 30th, 2006. The opening arises from Wayne MacKay’s decision in December 2003 not to continue as President.

Professor Berry also expressed concern that the committee is overly dominated by Regents. “The selection of a President is very important to the campus community, and this process does not look promising for reaching a decision that reflects our aspirations,” he says.

For more information, contact Prof. Paul Berry

Commerce Dept., Mount Allison University
144 Main St, Sackville, NB, E4A 1A7
tel. (506) 364-2330, fax. 364-2625

For the second December in a row, Mount Allison University lost a senior academic administrator, and it is causing concern among the university’s faculty.

“The recent resignation of the Vice-President (Academic and Research) indicates a serious crisis in administrative leadership within Mount Allison University,” says Professor Paul Berry, President of the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA).

In a December 17th email to the university community, Dr. Michael Fox, now the former Vice-President, explained that he was resigning because “I simply could not see any real opportunity to make a meaningful contribution, based on my own personal approach to administration and principles of professional behaviour.”

He also noted in the email that he had “struggled to move the academic agenda forward in an environment of long-held ideologies, policies and processes within the administration of the University.”

“In the past year, the two most senior academics at the University have resigned, and the Board of Regents has shown a lack of concern for academic quality at Mount Allison,” Professor Berry says. A year ago, popular President Wayne MacKay refused to accept a five-year contract extension, leaving the job this year to an interim appointee.

“Dr. Michael Fox enjoyed the confidence of the faculty, students and staff at this institution, and we are really concerned that the positive changes he was trying to make will be blocked by other senior administrators and the Board of Regents,” Berry says.

Some of the concerns of faculty members were expressed at the meeting of Faculty Council last week, where a motion was passed calling for a special meeting of Faculty Council on January 28. Members of the Board of Regents will be invited to attend the meeting and to discuss issues relating to the academic leadership of Mount Allison University.

Berry says the faculty is also concerned about the coming search for a new President, and fear that the Board of Regents may plan on once again becoming more involved in the day-to-day running of the institution.

For further information, call Paul Berry, (w) (506) 364-2289 , (h) (506) 536-2974.
(Michael Fox’s email is available on request.)

Paul Berry
Commerce Dept., Mount Allison University
144 Main St, Sackville, NB, E4A 1A7
tel. (506) 364-2330, fax. 364-2625

The faculty at Mount Allison University were very disappointed when they found out on February 22 that the Board of Regents has refused to accept the Mount Allison Faculty Associations’s elected representative to the search committee for an interim University President.

After the resignation of President Wayne MacKay, the chair of the Board, Robert Winters, assured the university community that the replacement of the President would be conducted in a fair and open manner and that the unease of the faculty regarding the circumstances of Wayne MacKay’s departure was unfounded.

Unfortunately, the actions of the Board fail to live up to the assurances. Not only were faculty not permitted to select their own representative to the search committee, but a special agreement made by Mount Allison University in writing during contract negotiations is now not being honoured by the Board of Regents. The agreement enshrined the right of the faculty union to appoint a representative to search committees.

The President of the faculty union at Mount Allison, Dr. Erin Steuter, says that she is gravely concerned about the future of the university, “if decisions are made in secret without consultations, by self-appointed bodies, unaccountable to any outside group.” Steuter says that the faculty are particularly concerned about: “the resignation, only months after signing a multi-year contract, of a well-liked President who had achieved labour peace and mended the relations between the university and the community; the escalating concerns of the students who are critical of the Board’s financial management of the university; and the lack of consultation and dialogue with the Mount Allison faculty.”

The Mount Allison Faculty Association fears that faculty recruitment and retention will be affected by the return of a chilly climate to the campus, a climate where once more open and collegial processes appear to have been abandoned by the Board after an all-too-short period of renewed goodwill.

The Mount Allison Faculty Association has some grave concerns about the governance of our university that we would like to bring to your attention. The Board of Regents’ lack of accountability to the Mount Allison university community and the tax payers of New Brunswick has long been a source of concern but recent events have made the need for action even more pressing.

Some relevant facts:

• Mount Allison employs over 450 Staff and Faculty, the majority of whom reside in your riding.
• Over 2500 students are enrolled at Mount Allison ( 41% of Canadian students at Mount Allison are New Brunswick residents).
• Mount Allison’s operating budget is over 30 million dollars, half of which comes from government grants.
• There are no government-appointed representatives on the University’s Board of Regents.

As you will know, Mount Allison President, A. Wayne MacKay, recently resigned and the university community is extremely concerned about the causes and consequences of this event. The resignation letter sent to the university community betrays great frustration with impediments to future accomplishments. The fact that this took place just as next year’s budget is being prepared, and the academic sector is under great pressure to provide funding for faculty and librarian positions in order to maintain competitive working conditions and a competitive learning environment, suggests a refusal on the part of the Board of Regents to make available urgently needed resources.

Clearly, the fault does not lie with the President, an accomplished professional widely respected in academic circles, in the community, and nationally. The facts, as known to us, point to the unwillingness of the Board of Regents to commit to improving the ability of the academic sector to offer students the education which our rhetoric promises: reasonable professor-student ratios, sufficient academic resources, attractive conditions to entice new faculty to choose Mount Allison in a fiercely competitive academic job market.

As it has been the case for decades, the Board’s actions betray a governing body which continues to be painfully unaware of, and uninterested in, the effective functioning of the institution in those sectors which are its raison d’être: learning, teaching, research. If anything, the events leading to President MacKay’s resignation threaten to compromise Mount Allison’s reputation and integrity, and bode ill for the learning and working climate in the immediate future of the institution.

While the students, faculty, librarians and support staff are enthusiastically dedicated to the experience of learning, Mount Allison’s Board of Regents in the past has been demonstrating, and now continues to demonstrate, its inability or unwillingness to learn, and thus its inability to govern an academic institution. It is high time that Mount Allison’s governing structure be reviewed in public, and be changed to allow public accountability and open processes. We have included MAFA’s proposal on a revised structure for the Board of Regents for your consideration. We hope that you will give our recommendations your most serious attention and we hope to hear back from you soon.

Sincerely,

Erin Steuter
MAFA President

cc

• Bernard Lord, Premier of New Brunswick
• Madeleine Dubé, Education Minister
• Claude Dionne, President of the Federation of New Brunswick Faculty Associations
• Board of Regents, Mount Allison University
• Mount Allison Students’ Administrative Council
• Bill Evans, President, Mount Allison Staff Association

Structure and Accountability: Mount Allison Board of Regents
Mount Allison Faculty Association Proposals for Reform

Recommendations

MAFA recommends the following changes to Board membership:

• increase Alumni representation to 5;
• increase elected Faculty representation to 3;
• increase elected Student representation to 3;
• increase United Church representation to 3;
• add the Presidents of SAC, MAFA, MASA and CUPE Local 2338;
• add a representative of the Town of Sackville;
• add two representatives of the Government of New Brunswick;
• reduce to 2 from 12 the appointments directly by the Board;
• maintain the 2 current ex-officio members (the President and Chancellor of Mount Allison).

This proposal would increase the current Board of Regents membership by one, for a total of 25 members, and at the same time achieve representation and accountability.

MAFA also recommends that the Executive and Nominating Committees be restructured. In order to reflect the Mount Allison community. Both of these bodies should include a representative of the Alumni, Faculty, Students and United Church.

A realignment as recommended above might begin to return some accountability to both membership and actions of the Board of Mount Allison.

Background

In 1994 changes in the Mount Allison Act effected a major restructuring of the Mount Allison Board of Regents. The membership was reduced from 60 to 24 and the Executive Committee from 18 to 8. MAFA considers these reductions in size a positive step. A new committee structure was also instituted.

Regrettably, the restructuring also included what amounted to a coup by some members of the Board against representation from many of the constituents of the Mount Allison Community. The Alumni, Faculty, Students and the United Church all saw their representation drastically reduced:

• Alumni representation dropped from 20 to 4;
• Faculty representation dropped from 6 to 2;
• Student representation dropped from 6 to 2;
• United Church representation dropped from 20 to 2.

At the same time, appointments to the Board made directly by the Board itself tripled from 4 to 12, fully half the membership of the newly structured Board, thus removing even the appearance of accountability and representation. Even more devastating for constituent representation is the fact that, in the new structure, the Executive Committee and the Nominating Committee have no mandated member from any of the groups whose representation was reduced in 1994. This coup was forcefully opposed by the United Church and by the Mount Allison Faculty Association but in 1994 the New Brunswick Legislature chose to ignore these concerns.

The restructured Board has been much less representative of the university’s constituencies, the province, and region. The restructuring away from representation and accountability to constituencies has been accompanied by a deteriorating climate at Mount Allison.

Since 1994:

1. A president was nearly reappointed in secret and after the plan was revealed he was nevertheless reappointed against the clearly expressed opinion of students and employees;
2. Academic programs of long standing, excellent reputation and moderate cost in Education, Engineering and Geology were eliminated; this had negative effects on Alumni giving, on the options for students of Mount Allison and on the diversity of the student body;
3. Three Vice-Presidents (Academic) have left the position in only seven years; recent holders of the position are not complimentary about the environment in Senior Administration at Mount Allison;
4. In 1999 the Faculty of Mount Allison struck for a second time this decade. In total there have been three strikes of academic and support staff in this decade; a third Faculty strike was narrowly averted in 1995.
5. A report on the situation at Mount Allison commissioned by CAUT (the ‘Wilson report’) concluded that ‘…when the call constantly is for universities to be more accountable to the communities they serve, there has been a real cost in …[the lack of] accountability’.

Rationale for Recommendations

MAFA believes that these events are related to a lack of accountability of the Board which oversaw them. MAFA also believes that Mount Allison and New Brunswick would benefit from a return of the constituent groups to some approximation of their historic role in the university’s governance. MAFA believes that the current structure of the Board is responsible for much harm to the environment for study and scholarship at Mount Allison.

It should be pointed out that over half the funding of Mount Allison’s operating budget comes from the New Brunswick Government and from taxpayers, yet there are only a portion of residents of New Brunswick on the current Board. As it stands, there is currently no requirement for any New Brunswick representation at all.

A structure similar to the one proposed above would guarantee that this province and region will be well-represented. Some members of the current Board may regret the possible reduction in members from the corporate and legal sectors. In fact there is nothing in the new structure which would prevent the presence of at least 10 members of the Board being appointed from such groups.

It is not in the Canadian tradition to have the government funding contribution balanced by direct government control, but MAFA feels that it would be reasonable that the Mount Allison Board of Regents include a representative or two from the New Brunswick government.

In conclusion, MAFA feels that adopting its recommendations for a reformed Board of Regents membership and appointment structure, would go a long way in restoring accountability and representativeness, and thereby a healthy learning and teaching environment.

Wayne MacKay, President of Mount Allison University, and J. Robert Winters, Chairman of the Board of Regents, announced jointly today that Mr. MacKay will be leaving his position with the University, effective July 1, 2004. The date will bring the nationally renowned legal scholar and specialist in human rights to the completion of the full 3-year term to which he was appointed in 2001.

“I am deeply indebted to the students, faculty, staff and members of the Board of Regents and National Advisory Council who have worked with me. As a community of Allisonians we are all attached to the high ideals for which our university stands and each of us attempts to attain them in our own ways. I am passionately attached and deeply grateful to Mount Allison and to the Sackville community. For both Jo Ann and me, it it true to say that part of our hearts will always be here.

“The decision to leave is not one that I take lightly,” he continued. “Nevertheless, I feel that I have accomplished all that I can at Mount Allison and the Board and I have reached a mutual agreement that the most opportune time for a change is June 30, 2004, before embarking on a second term as previously announced.”

“My term at Mount Allison has been deeply rewarding and fulfilling. I have enjoyed it greatly. It is an experience from which I have learned much that I will carry with me as I move forward. Nevertheless, I made it clear from the outset that I did not view my appointment here to be the final step in my career. The time has now come for me to move onward,” said President MacKay, in making the announcement. “In the days ahead I will be exploring many career avenues, including a return to my original loves of law, teaching and human rights advocacy.”

Mr. Winters also expressed regret at Mr. MacKay’s departure. “Speaking both personally and on behalf of the Board of Regents, I wish to express our deep gratitude for the many positive contributions that President MacKay has made to Mount Allison. He has brought the attributes of civility, respect and leadership to his presidency.

“President MacKay has accomplished a great deal in his three-year term at Mount A,” he continued. “His enlightened and positive approach to human relations has fostered morale and contributed to the atmosphere of harmony that exists, not only among faculty, students and administration but also between the University and the wider community beyond the boundaries of the campus.

“He has overseen the process of strategic planning and has implemented important initiatives to renew Mount Allison’s physical plant and establish a student health clinic while, at the same time, being a champion for the maintenance and expansion of excellence in the teaching and research missions of the institution. The positive future of the University that has emerged under his guidance is one to which the Board is proud to subscribe.”

A. Wayne MacKay, B.A., B.Ed., M.A., Ll.B., was born in Pictou County, Nova Scotia and earned degrees at Mount Allison University, the University of Florida, and Dalhousie University Law School. He is the author of numerous books and papers, especially in the field of constitutional and educational law and has received many honours and awards for his excellence as a teacher and his commitment to human rights.

“We wish Mr. MacKay continued success in his endeavours,” stated Mr. Winters. “I have no hesitation in saying that, on this occasion, Mount Allison’s loss will mean a gain for Canadian jurisprudence.”

(Sackville, NB) — The Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) announces that the faculty and librarians of Mount Allison University have approved the proposed new four- year collective agreement between the Union and Board at Mount Allison, with 91% voting in favour.

Rick Hudson, MAFA President, said, “I am very pleased with the level of participation in the vote, and I want to thank our negotiating team for their many hours of hard work.”

The tentative agreement between the two sides was reached in mid-December with the help of the provincially appointed mediator. MAFA Chief Negotiator Brian Campbell said, “We are happy to arrive at an agreement without a strike. This was a team effort that was made possible because of the strong support from the membership at every stage in the process.”

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For more information contact:

Dr. Richard Hudson, President:

• (506) 364-2331 (office)
• (506) 389-2239 (res.)

PO Box 6314 Sackville NB E4L 1G6 tel:(506) 364-2289 fax: (506) 364-2288 www.mafa.ca e-mail: mafa@mta.ca

(Sackville, NB) – Members of the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) voted in favour of strike action if necessary in a straw strike vote conducted Monday and Tuesday (November 18 and 19).

The vote was 85% in favour of the motion that “Whereas, MAFA and the Employer have been unable to reach a collective agreement, MAFA resolves that its members are willing to take job action, including a strike, in support of MAFA’s contract proposals.”

Brian Campbell, MAFA’s Chief Negotiator in the contract talks said: “That’s a very clear vote. It shows the members support the call for a collective agreement that will help achieve fairness and quality at Mount A.”

Rick Hudson, MAFA President, said “I’m really gratified that the members voted so strongly. This is a wake-up call for the Board of Regents to address the underfunding of academics at Mount Allison. We believe that a fair settlement now will help us retain a high quality academic environment for now and into the future.”

A number of items remain unresolved in the contract negotiations including sabbatical leaves, release time, wages and benefits. The faculty are seeking a wage settlement that would have them earning salaries in line with UNB and St. Thomas.

The union and the employer have jointly applied for conciliation and are waiting for the provincial government to name a conciliator.

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For more information contact:

Dr. Richard Hudson, President:

• (506) 364-2331 (office)
• (506) 389-2239 (res.)

PO Box 6314 Sackville NB E4L 1G6 tel:(506) 364-2289 fax: (506) 364-2288