The Joy of Sue

I think they said the same thing on the Titanic:

"we will work absolutely with your interests in mind"

So says Sue Horton here, here, and oh, here... about the issues that concern us the most. Has anyone been following up in The Record? Maybe I'm missing out on something. Before I started doing this, I was not quite sure how to react to Sue Horton or why did most faculty members really dislike her. A little bit of her own words can always clarify that statement... you know... stuff about "our" interests in mind and how they are "front and centre."

Well Sue here are our interests - give our part-time profs what they deserve, now. Right, that's settled it then, expect to see an update on the WLUFA website how they have concluding bargaining, beer at the pub at 6:00. Oh? That hasn't happened yet. Odd... well ok then, moving along - there's always the quality of our education they should consider (since you know, we're stupid and don't know better). Well our education falters under the current deal when some departments, like Communication Studies, can barely man all their courses - so we should pay our profs more in that scenario. Then there are the interests of the full-time faculty (I see "Full-timers support the CAS" on every single door I walk past), staff (the ones who strongly support WLUFA), alumni (from whom we've gotten encouraging e-mails), donors, and community members. Well, I don't know about these mysterious donors and community members but the support of the entire campus for the part-timers cause kinda weights the balance in their favour, y'know... just a tad. If you are ignoring what we say then you are not being "cognizant" of your "roles and responsibilities" as an administrator. (You're also not being "cognizant" in your math skills by ignoring to add health and other benefits as well as to account for the current academic year when comparing Laurier's pay to that of other universities but more on that later).

Moving on:

“It’s like high-stakes poker,” explains Sue Horton, VP: Academic. “You want to make your best possible case before you fold. And everyone wants to calculate it right; no one wants to miscalculate in those last minutes.”

Hold on a sec... you're saying that 365 people fighting for their livelihoods to afford shoes, socks, and gas for their cars is... a game. That is beyond mere slip of words - it shows the pompous nerve of this woman who is gambling with peoples lives by equating it to something one does in a stuffy jacket in some secluded room in Vegas. The poker chips are hundreds of people who have suffered under the previous regime and led our education to suffer and it's all a game? Wow... Sue certainly is a classy lady. Maybe high-stakes poker isn't quite her game in this situation - it's Russian roulette and she's holding the trigger toward the heads of the CAS while they're frantically try to gather up some scraps before the right bullet finds them.

Finally, to add an asinine cherry to the icing of insult upon the sundae of injury, here's what one of Laurier's alumni (you know, the sort that she cares about), received when she showed her concern to one of her favorite profs:

Thank you for your email. I am happy to tell you that Dr. Haxell has a full time appointment this winter. I expect your time at U of T is giving you a good understanding - the part-time faculty at U of T also do not have permanent offices even though U of T is better funded than Laurier. We are working hard to reach a fair and sustainable agreement, and thank you for your input.

And then a little bit later, another e-mail:

My apologies. I should have written Prof Haxell not Dr Haxell.

Yep... so let's summarize - Dr. Haxell is part-time full-timer, woo! He gets paid a bit more and he can't go on strike. Congrats... oh but it ends in the fall. U of T's part-time faculty's treatment sucks also - that means we're not as bad! (Via Horton-logic: Just because Nike has sweat shops too, Wal Mart's sweat shops aren't bad.) "We will work absolutely with your interests in mind." Oh and since he doesn't have his Ph.D. (and its true) and since it doesn't matter that he worked here for 18 years, we should still make sure to not call him "Doctor"... in case he'll get offended.

Wow... The nerrrvvveeeee of this woman. And that's the person dealing with this situation? Fortunately, she won't be around for much longer - she's "retiring"... to academia. After this petition, we can start a new one to Max Blouw - to rehire her as a CAS worker. We'll be nice and ask WLUFA to invite her to their union.