ON CAMPUS Daily update – 23 Jan 08

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT *MACLEAN’S *ONLINE

IN THE NEWS

Three University students killed in Ottawa crash

Story not reposted as copyright for it belongs to *The Canadian Press *and I do my best to respect copyright. You can read this section on Macleans.ca.

St. Thomas University faculty union ordered to vote

Striking faculty at St Thomas university have been ordered to hold a final offer vote early next week by the New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board. The union had attempted to block a final offer vote from taking place in favour of their own vote, but the Board ruled against them. The union is recommending its members reject the university’s latest offer.

The university requested the employment board order the vote after the faculty union rejected a ruling by Milton Veniot, the government appointed mediator, that the union should accept the university’s pre-lockout offer. The university locked out the faculty on December 27 after 10 months of failed negotiation. The faculty then voted to go on strike earlier this month.

The university’s offer would see wages rise by three percent for two years of a three year contract, and 3.5 percent in the final year. The union wants to see wages increase by 43 percent over the same three year period.

The union claims that St. Thomas University is paying faculty at a rate significantly below comparable universities. However, Veniot concluded in his report that STU’s compensation was actually first for associate professors, and full professors at the ceiling of their wage scale, when compared to other undergraduate universities in the region such as Acadia University and Mount St. Allison. STU also ranked second in its compensation of assistant professors and newer full professors, according to Veniot. “The Union position on wages is based upon another model I did not find convincing,” he wrote.

Veniot was the mediator who settled the recent labour strike at Acadia University.

Classes have been cancelled but the university believes the so long as students restart their studies by Jan 28, the semester can be salvaged.

Oshawa moves closer to removing students near university

The city of Oshawa has moved one step closer to enacting a controversial housing bylaw that would leave hundreds of students without a place to live. On Monday the city’s development services committee approved the bylaw for city council consideration.

The new regulations would limit the number of bedrooms in houses, close to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College, to four, and place restrictions to keep bedrooms from comprising more than 40 per cent of total floor space.

The official goal of the bylaw is to control “density.”

Councillor John Neal, who represents the ward where UOIT is located, says the proposed bylaw does not go far enough. He wants restrictions placed on the number of houses that can be rented in the area, as well as laws requiring a set distance between rental houses. “This will bring the neighbourhood back to what it should be, what it was . . . it was quiet,” says Neal.

Students and the University both feel that the bylaw is unfairly targeting students. The university sent out a news release prior to Monday’s meeting stating that it fully supported the position of the students’ association against the bylaw.

The bylaw is the first in Ontario designed to restrict students from living in an area near a university. Many other university towns such as London and Hamilton are looking to pass similar restrictions on student housing.

The city of Oshawa denies that it is targeting students.

British police offer to train academics to spot extremist students on campus

Story not reposted as copyright for it belongs to *The Canadian Press *and I do my best to respect copyright. You can read this section on Macleans.ca.

Cape Breton University student to stand trial on property damage charge

Story not reposted as copyright for it belongs to *The Canadian Press *and I do my best to respect copyright. You can read this section on Macleans.ca.

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