I usually tell people that there is no better place to be in the world, during the fall season, than Nova Scotia. As a part time instructor at SMU for close to 2 decades, I find myself this fall preoccupied and just not noticing the vibrant colors of the season. The strike continues, and to pass the time on the picket line, I pace, and think about the disrupted routines, the precarity of employment, and the strength of the people who surround me. I am humbled as I support their efforts, which are also my efforts for equity in an increasingly polarized society. While I walk, I hope our signs of resistance are the catalyst to a much-needed conversation about the future of our institution and the value of the work we do.
From the outset, I want to acknowledge that I personally, like many of my colleagues, don’t want to be on strike. We are deeply committed to our students and their education is at the heart of everything we do. But rising workloads with wages that have failed to keep pace with inflation have made it increasingly difficult to provide the quality of education we know our students deserve.
It’s also become impossible to ignore the reality facing many of us, as precarious workers, who diligently fill in the gaps, often at a moment’s notice to ensure the viability of the university, and its courses. But these efforts are all too often rewarded with little recognition or adequate compensation. Precarious in that at the end of each semester, when we know the contracts are to be posted, we anxiously wait for that course, the one we know we can teach, and may have seniority in, the one that, if it doesn’t come through, sees us staring down the economically bleak months of another underemployed semester. This anxiety is tempered in the stress of rising inflation, undervalued contributions, and the weight of that smiling façade that we erect as the students enter the class. A stress that with each passing semester leaves fissures of frustration that make this not just an academic employment issue, but an issue of human dignity and mental and social well-being.
The strike isn’t just about financial compensation, although that is undeniably a part of the conversation. It’s about ensuring that we as members of the SMU community have the resources human, financial, and physical to continue offering a top-tier education so that we can continue to contribute to vibrancy of the institutions that are, personally, the cornerstones of our academic identities, and, collectively, the benchmarks of creativity, critical discourse, and innovation. To this end, significant, institutional change is what this strike is ultimately about.
I have to say that in some ways it’s been a pleasure to picket as I am reminded that in unity there is strength. And let’s not forget the incredible work of our organizers. From my perspective there has been every effort to address any perceived inequity, every opportunity for inclusion is exercised, and I have yet to walk past Erica without getting a warm and disarming smile.
I am also grateful to our students for their ongoing patience and understanding during this time, and I hope, as they do, that we can get a fair deal, and back into the classroom without any further delay.
In Solidarity….