October 4, 2008

Part of the employer's strategic response to the BUFA strike has been to shut down all faculty access to email, on the mistaken assumptions, apparently, that this will hamper communications among Members, and that there is nothing essential to the interests of Brandon University associated with its use.

Wrong on both counts.

In preparation for strike action, alternative communication systems were set up well in advance - including telephone fan-out lists and off-campus email systems, so the Faculty Association has not suffered for the loss of BU email access. And if anything, Members are in closer contact with each other than ever before. Loss of access to mundane email communications pursuant to BU affairs is, if anything, a blessing of sorts.

On the other hand, in preparation for strike action, the employer endorsed certain strike protocols, intended to assure that concerns vital to the university's interests would not be disrupted: animal care, plant care, etc. What the employer did not consider (or alternatively, did not care about?) were the long-term adverse impacts of an arbitrary, blanket withdrawal of email access to all faculty members.

In this technological age, Internet and Email are vital tools supporting the delivery of services to the international community of scholars - an obligation that is vital to the mission and the reputation of this university. For instance, at least two very significant international scholarly journals are edited by Brandon University faculty members. These journals receive all manuscript submissions, all inquiries, and all communications through email, and Brandon University is happy to have its name associated with these journals.

That name and reputation are significantly sullied when submissions and correspondence go unacknowledged and unanswered because it is never received.

Unlike personal email correspondence (the kind the employer apparently seeks to disrupt), the correspondence destined for scholarly journals arrives daily, in large quantities, and from previously-unknown scholars from around the world.

In the current E-lockout, all emails destined for all faculty "brandonu.ca" email addresses go into a black hole. Their receipt is unacknowledged because they are unknown to the intended recipient. Meanwhile, correspondents (often-times, individuals whose professional careers hang in the balance) have every reason to believe their submissions and queries have been received, because they receive no "failed delivery" notice from Brandon University.

Likewise, the McKee archives, a significant repository of historical documents that is used regularly by scholars outside the BU community, is managed by a BUFA member. Most correspondence related to the archive is received electronically. One would think that the University's obligation as home to this collection should include at least the courtesy of acknowledgement that a message has been received.

How many other institutional duties and relationships are compromised by the E-lockout? We wonder if the University really cares. Apparently, Brandon University considers its services to the public and the international community of scholars inessential and dispensable. So, too, its reputation.

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VI. Rights and freedoms of higher-education teaching personnel

A. Individual rights and freedoms: civil rights, academic freedom, publication rights, and the international exchange of information

29. Higher-education teaching personnel have a right to carry out research work without any interference, or any suppression, in accordance with their professional responsibility and subject to nationally and internationally recognized professional principles of intellectual rigour, scientific inquiry and research ethics. They should also have the right to publish and communicate the conclusions of the research of which they are authors or co-authors, as stated in paragraph 12 of this Recommendation.

30. Higher-education teaching personnel have a right to undertake professional activities outside of their employment, particularly those that enhance their professional skills or allow for the application of knowledge to the problems of the community, provided such activities do not interfere with their primary commitments to their home institutions in accordance with institutional policies and regulations or national laws and practice where they exist.

Source: UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization: Resolution concerning the status of higher education teaching personnel). Canada has endorsed this resolution.