BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
With the Oct. 12 strike deadline for the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) looming, students are becoming nervous their school year may be interrupted.
At Northern Life press deadline, the union and university administration were negotiating along with mediator Martin Teplitsky in an attempt to avert a strike.
The 400 professors and librarians belonging to LUFA want wage increases, improved working conditions and better benefits.
?I am definitely worried. The faculty I have spoken with seem to think it?s pretty imminent. Even though I know the work and the readings I have to do, it?s going to be difficult to keep on track,? says 24-year-old Suzanne Murdoch, a fourth-year film student.
Murdoch doesn?t think a strike will last longer than a week. Past faculty strikes at Laurentian have never lasted more than three weeks, she says.
?But if it goes longer than a week, there?s a possibility people are going to get behind. Being in my fourth year, this is a big concern. I don?t want to be
here any longer than I have to, and I don?t want it to influence my education,? says Murdoch, who is planning to apply to graduate school next year.
?That being said, I?m sure that everyone will do as much as they can to make it possible for everyone to finish on time. Even if you add a few weeks at the end of the year, they?re going to do something to accommodate us.?
Murdoch says she understands the position of faculty, who claim they are paid $8,600 less per year than the average university faculty member in
Ontario.
In the long run, students will benefit from professors who are getting paid what they deserve, she says.
Fourth-year psychology student Sal Meli, 22, thinks a faculty strike is pretty much guaranteed at this point. The young man isn?t worried about getting
behind because he will continue studying by himself in the event of a strike.
LUFA and administration have done a poor job of communicating with students about the strike, he says. They?ve only received a few e-mails about the subject over the past month, and most of those notices have come from the faculty union.
First-year psychology student Candace Jacko, 25, says she?s depressed that her professors might be going on strike. She worked many years to get to LU, and doesn?t want her studies interrupted now.
?I just got here, and was kinda looking forward to going to university, and then this happened. I am worried about losing my academic year, and then being behind a year (from) what I had planned,? she says.
?I hope that doesn?t happen. I hope that they?ll just pay them what they want. They?re the lowest paid faculty in Ontario.?
Jacko?s friend, first-year native human services student Karen Shawanda, 30, says she?s nervous because she?s never had to deal with a strike before.
?I don?t know how long it?s going to be, or what to expect when they come back, or if I?m going to lose my credits,? she says.
?I?m hoping they?re going to work it out over the weekend, because my education is really important. I know that for them, as a faculty, teaching us is
really important. I hope that it will be a win-win situation for faculty, students and for the whole university itself.?