Time for Acadia to go green

Well, the strike at Acadia has been resolved. I’d like to applaud both sides for their success, but I can’t quite find it in me just yet to put my hands together.

I’m sure many issues were on the table, but let’s face it; whenever a group walks off the job, it’s usually about money. Slice it any way you want and spin it five ways from Sunday, this job action was ultimately about a better deal financially for Acadia’s professors.

I don’t blame them – who wouldn’t want a few more bucks, right? – but I think it’s important for everyone to admit the obvious. Classes were disrupted for nearly a month because professors felt they were underpaid.

Fine. It’s over now and things have returned to normal. Propitiously, Acadia was named number one in a two-way tie for top spot with Mount Alison in Sackville, NB, in Maclean’s magazine’s annual poll in the primarily undergraduate category.

What a golden opportunity for the university as a whole to take advantage of such good fortune. Labour unrest is resolved and ba-bing! The joint’s ranked number one in the nation for its undergraduate program and educational experience.

Conspiracy theorists are likely screaming “Fix!” at this point, suspecting collusion on a national scale due to the sheer coincidence of the announcements.

I don’t see it that way and neither should you. For the university and its teachers, it’s a happy accident and a win-win. The strike’s conclusion and the excellent ranking should be celebrated, and I have a way to do it that’ll make the situation morph into a triple win.

Give the students a credit against tuition to start the post-Christmas session. The strike’s resolution and the Maclean’s nod are great and things upon which to build. Acadia took another step in the right direction by extending the fall term by a week to make up for some of the loss.

Still, a week’s worth of work doesn’t address a month of lost time. And the university has had the kids’ money, proffered likely in September for the term -- or perhaps the year -- while the students weren’t in class.

Hmmmmm…. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Especially if the money was banked and collecting interest while the students were at home, twiddling their thumbs and calculating how high their debt’s going to be when they graduate.

Acadia should do the right thing and give credit where it’s due. I’m not a bean counter, but if you lose something through no fault of your own, those responsible should issue a credit to account for the loss.

By my reckoning, there’s a pile of unpaid wages the university could apply to every student’s account come January. It’s a small gesture, to be sure, compared to the inconvenience of a truncated academic experience and the anxiety created by the strike, but it could make the students feel quite a bit better about things.

Indeed, optics are everything and if Acadia wants to come out smelling like a rose, the best way to do it is to fork over some green.