Capilano University students will be writing their final exams this week as a strike by faculty members has been suspended.
The university announced Sunday that the exam schedule, which was supposed to start Monday morning, had been postponed to Thursday after late-night meetings between the Capilano Faculty Association and the university’s bargaining team produced nothing.
But, the two sides met again on Monday afternoon and agreed to non-binding mediation to solve the impasse — at least until the semester is over.
“We’re going to stick with the revised exam schedule because we don’t want to throw students’ worlds into a tizzy at this point,” said Richard Gale, Capilano’s academic vice-president. “Exams will begin Thursday at 8 a.m.”
Under the agreement, the two sides will meet with a mediator with significant post-secondary experience, according to the university. In the event an agreement is not reached, the mediator will issue non-binding recommendations. The parties will then have 10 days to either accept or reject the recommendations. At issue in the labour dispute: academic freedom, benefits for part-time faculty and control over layoffs.
“Essentially, the university has accepted the proposal that we had put on the table on Saturday and where we got to Saturday night where we asked for either arbitration or a mediation-arbitration process,” said faculty association president Brent Calvert. “We’re happy that it’s done now. We wish it could have been done on Saturday because that would allow the original exam schedule to proceed.”
More to come on Tuesday.
