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The York University strike appears to be nearing an end, but the timing of any resolution remains unclear.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty will recall the provincial legislature to session at one o’clock tomorrow afternoon to take up back-to-work legislation aimed at ending the York University strike.
In a statement this morning, McGuinty said he had been advised by the strike mediator “that there is no reasonable prospect of a negotiated settlement between York University and CUPE Local 3903.” He is asking the legislature for unanimous consent to the measure, and is hoping to have classes resume “this week.”
2:14 pm Update: News outlets are reporting that if the legislature unanimously approves the bill tomorrow, classes could resume as soon as Monday. If any legislators vote against it, passage could take as much as two weeks.
3:05 pm Update: Initial responses to McGuinty’s action from York and CUPE are online.
3:08 pm Update: The Globe and Mail is reporting that the New Democratic Party will not agree to unanimous consent to the back-to-work legislation, delaying passage until “at least Wednesday.”
January 24 Update: Our coverage continues here.
Ireland’s public universities have been tuition-free since the mid 1990s, and the country’s national student union is organizing to keep it that way.
More than two thousand students marched in an anti-fee protest in the city of Waterford on Wednesday, and the Union of Students in Ireland is predicting 30,000 will join a march in Dublin on February 4.
According to the USI, the planned fees could be as high as eight thousand Euros a year, the equivalent of more than $10,000.
Just for the record, and because I haven’t seen the specific numbers anywhere else…
The York University Strike hit a milestone today: At 79 days, it became the longest strike in York history, and the third-longest in the history of Canadian higher education.
The second longest strike in Canadian higher ed history was the Laval University strike of 1976. A bunch of online sources say it lasted for “four months,” but I’ve been able to confirm that it clocked in at exactly 108 days.
The longest such strike was the 1976-77 strike at the University of Quebec, at 123 days.
To sum up:
- On January 23 the 2007-08 York University strike became the third longest university strike in Canadian history.
- On February 22 it will become the second longest.
- And on March 9 it will enter the record books as the longest higher education strike in the history of Canada.
Mark your calendars, kids.
The Obama Youth Inaugural Ball was a logistical and political disaster, says author and organizer Michael Connery.
The ball was over-booked, ticket-holders were barred from the event or sequestered in side rooms, and the whole event was locked down by police for more than an hour, Connery says. On top of all that the Youth Ball’s emphasis on service projects rather than policy issues left student and youth organizers at the “kiddie table” once again.
It’s a great piece. Go read it.
A federal judge has ruled against a high school student who was barred from running for re-election as class secretary after she called school officials “douchebags” on her blog. The ruling highlights the unsettled nature of First Amendment law as it applies to high school students’ off-campus speech, as well as the limited protections courts have granted to student government.
The court had previously found that participation in student government “is a privilege,” and that students do not have a constitutional right to run for student government office “while engaging in uncivil and offensive communications regarding school administrators.” It found that the school had punished Doninger for “vulgar language,” not for criticizing school officials’ actions, and that they were within their rights to do so.
In its latest ruling, the same court found that although an appeals court had cast their previous argument into question, the administrators were protected from legal action. The underlying question at issue in this case is whether a student has “a right not to be prohibited from participating in a voluntary, extracurricular activity because of off campus speech” that the student has reason to expect will become known on campus, the court said, and that question is unresolved.
In 1979, an appeals court ruled in strong language that students generally cannot be punished for off-campus speech. The Doninger court, however, argued that…
“we are not living in the same world that existed in 1979. The students in Thomas were writing articles for an obscene publication on a typewriter and handing out copies after school. Today, students are connected to each other through e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, social networking sites, and text messages. An e-mail can be sent to dozens or hundreds of other students by hitting ‘send.’ … Off-campus speech can become on-campus speech with the click of a mouse.”
studentactivism.net 
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