Nov 3 Letter for Support for Nipissing University Full-Time Academic Staff

November 2015

Board of Governors
Nipissing University
100 College Drive, Box 5002
North Bay, ON
P1B 8L7

Dear Members of the Nipissing University Board of Governors;

In support of the Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA) members currently out on strike, I am writing today to urge you to intervene now and get your university back to work.

NUFA has made every effort to reach a fair deal at the bargaining table, one that works for both full-time professors and the university community as a whole. NUFA’s proposals have been prudent and responsible in a time of difficulty. Their package would have helped Nipissing save money through retirement incentives, rebuild the faculty complement, and take small steps to close the salary gap with other comparable universities. Their proposals would have revitalized the collegial governance structures so integral to the university’s mission.

NUFA is also bargaining to protect tenure-track and tenured positions. Without full-time professors, Nipissing cannot sustain the quality of education that professors value, students need, and the Nipissing community expects. As the third largest employer in North Bay, the university cannot go further down the dangerous path of insecure and unfair employment. The city of North Bay deserves better.

Despite NUFA’s reasonable proposals, the administration has proved intractable to positive change or even compromise. It is their resistance that has forced NUFA out on strike. But they are not the employer at Nipissing. You are the employer, the stewards of this great university. You have the power to instruct the university administration to return to the table in the spirit of cooperation and compromise, not conflict and obstruction.

Today, we are joining the members of NUFA in their call for the Nipissing University Board of Governors to demonstrate the leadership that the senior administration has been unable to provide. For the sake of professors walking the picket line and students unable to go to class today, please send the senior administration back to the table with a clear mandate to reach a fair deal that secures the future of Nipissing University.

Sincerely,

Friskjen van Veldhoven
President