A hit, a veritable hit!
11:29 p.m.
The university is required to contribute to the pension plan in addition to what the employees have deducted from their salaries. For the past five years, the university has not done this, and when an investigation was launched, it appeared that millions of dollars were missing from the fund. This is highly illegal. The union�s lawyers have told the university that it must pay back the money owing and find the money missing. It was at this point that our veep was pulled out of the negotiation process and a new contract offered to us which set us back a year and-a-half. The corporation is acting as though it is our fault that the money is missing, saying that they will have to take it out of the operating budget, which of course means that there will be less money to pay professors, hire lab technicians, replace aging equipment�. You get the picture.
Our vice-principal academic is a good man. Even though he is presently in administration, he was once head of the union. So he is sympathetic and is able to see both sides of the coin. I think he even continues to teach a class or two (in the drama department), so he has his finger firmly on the pulse of the institution. He has now been completely cut out of the process, and the union has to deal with nameless and faceless people who are totally out of touch with the truth of the situation. They are trying to run the place as though it were a business, which it is not. It is an institution of higher learning, a place where young people can have their minds expanded and where academics have the freedom to pursue their research and pass on their knowledge and experience to those same young minds. Our university especially is not churning out doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs, although we do have a very healthy education department and a business school.
Interestingly, the business school does not suffer cutbacks when other departments do. Mainly this is because of a bequest of several million dollars made a few years ago by an alumnus specifically for the care and feeding of business students. The part of the building that houses this department is lavishly outfitted with ergonomic chairs, fancy computers and wall-to-wall carpeting, while the rest of the building is painted institution-green (or is it blue?) and has to make do with decrepit furniture and disintegrating floor tiling.
On Enterprise last night, Dr. Phlox said, �I�m a physician, not an engineer!� in the best Dr. McCoy tradition. It warmed the cockles of my heart.
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