vintage

Or, more appropriately, “sitting on my ass for 84 days” — because that’s how long we were out of school during the mammoth CUPE 3903 strike at York University. The Ontario government passed back-to-work legislation on January 29, ending the strike at twelve weeks; since that day was a Thursday, classes didn’t resume until today, making the total time without class 87 days.

To put it in perspective: the last time I had class, Stéphane Dion was still the leader of the federal Liberals, Barack Obama had been president-elect for a grand total of one day, nobody had heard of the word “prorogue”, and Freddie Hubbard and John Updike were still alive. Your Halloween candy was only a week old, and 2008 still had almost two months to go.

And now here we are.

As a result of the mammoth “academic disruption,” some changes have been made to the calendar; fall semester will end February 19 and winter semester will begin March 4, with the days in between allotted for fall exams (no buffer days). Classes will end May 21 and exams on June 2 (also no buffer days). Considering the year usually ends the first week of April and exams are done before May, this is a serious inconvenience to most, especially those graduating. I’m going to try not to complain too loudly, though — school is back, so the worst is over.

In other news, most of the lineup for Canadian Music Week has been announced. Here are some highlights.

First, the CHART showcases at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern — and believe me, it’s pretty legendary. Thursday night is probably the best lineup, featuring $100, Women, Chad VanGaalen, Gentleman Reg and The Lovely Feathers. Saturday’s is nothing to sneeze at either, with the bill including the Golden Dogs, Hexes and Ohs and Two Hours Traffic. Check out the full showcase details here.

Equally delicious, and arguably the most hard-hitting showcase lineup of the festival, is Saturday night at the also legendary Lee’s Palace. Start to finish, it boasts Jon-Rae Fletcher, Herman Dune, Basia Bulat, Elliott Brood and Cuff the Duke. I know where I’ll be that night!

Other highlights include Friday night’s Eye Weekly showcase at the Gladstone Hotel (Castlemusic, Angela Desveaux & The Mighty Ship, The Week That Was, Slim Twig and the Rural Alberta Advantage); Priestess at Sneaky Dee’s (Friday); Sloan at the Mod Club (Thursday); Malajube at the El Mocambo (Thursday) and, for those who make connections, Laura Borealis at the Central (Saturday).

I’ve applied for a press pass with this blog, but won’t know for another three weeks whether it was deemed worthy or not. Either way, you’ll be seeing some CMW content — there’s no way I can pass up lineups like this! And finally, a chance to see Elliott Brood and Cuff the Duke.

If any of you are headed for the festival as well, let me know what you’re looking forward to and where you’ll be! For the curious, check out the CMW site here.

This may come as news to some of you, and is old news to many, but York University’s classes have been suspended for six weeks and counting due to a strike of CUPE local 3903. This union represents 3,400 people comprising contract and part-time faculty and teaching assistants.

There have been countless media releases and discussions on the strike, and many of them are ill-informed or incredibly biased. The university’s press releases have been inexcusably biased and lie directly to the 50,000 undergraduates who are waiting around for this dispute to end, but CUPE 3903’s have not been all that virtuous either; third party media often fail to get the full picture, and instead stir up panic because of presumptuous statements (such as mentioning a forfeit year when the strike was three weeks old).

As you can imagine, it’s difficult to get the idea of what’s happening here. The more it is discussed, though, the easier it is to formulate one’s own opinion. Here are some starting links, though:

CUPE local 3903 official website
CUPE 3903 strike microsite
York University FAQs on labour disruption
York University: Academic remediation
York Strike 2008 — a blog by a disgruntled student
And of course, there’s always Google.

After constant complaining from uninformed students and members of the public, bickering between sides, and general spreading of misinformation, one York faculty member has resolved to set the record straight, at least from their side. Gerard Naddaf, a philosophy professor, recently released an open letter, and in his own words, it is “is meant for York students, parents and the general public. It was written to promote serious consideration and dialogue both about the validity and implications of the present strike. Hopefully this piece will do its part to help both sides to reach an acceptable agreement and get our students back into class where they belong.”

I remain neutral on this issue, but there have been few chances for educated dialogue that isn’t union- or establishment-bashing and I am glad someone from York has finally taken the plunge. As such, I’m reproducing Professor Naddaf’s letter here for anyone who’s interested in reading it. It’s long, but it touches on quite a few important issues related to the dispute, such as how professors are chosen, the difference between contract and tenured faculty, and what the professor’s role really is. If you’re interested, feel free to read ahead (after the jump if you’re reading on the main page or an RSS).

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