Local 88 – Open Letter to Administration and Board of Governors re: cuts to support staff

StFX Administration and Board of Governors What Are You Thinking?

Open Letter to:

Hon. Frank McKenna (Chair of the St. F.X. Board of Governors),

Dr. Sean Riley (President and Vice-Chair),

St.F.X.Board of Governors

We are the staff of StFX University; the women and men who teach and support more than 4,200 students and keep this campus running smoothly.

We write this open letter to express our deep concern for the future of StFX.

In just a few years, we have seen the number of student support staff dwindle as vacancies have not been filled. We have just learned you are laying off another 17 support staff for a total of 28 positions eliminated this year alone. Yet, you continue to pay top salaries and bonuses to senior administrators. We wonder, what are you thinking?

You have $600 per table suppers, like the President’s Gala, and lobster boils for the Board of Governors, while you cut the number of employees who directly support your students. We wonder, what are you thinking?

You build gold leafed domes, construct even more new buildings while running up huge deficits, and then attempt to balance the books on ba­cks of the working women and men who keep those same buildings functioning. We wonder, what are you thinking?

The reputation of StFX is supported by the employees, not elaborate buildings, bloated administration, or fancy dinners.

Your employees are not disposable. As a result of your decisions, local jobs will be lost, families will be uprooted, some will be forced to move away from this community to find other work. These layoffs will have a serious impact on Antigonish, the County, and northeastern Nova Scotia.

Competent managers make sound, responsible judgements and compassionate choices. We ask you to rethink your decisions. There has to be another way.

­­A message from the staff at StFX University.

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