Thread by @amandajfollett

Great news: @UNBC faculty have a collective agreement after more than a decade. The turning point appears to have come with new interim president @GWPayne18, who has focused on improving relations between the board and @UNBCFA. My latest for @TheTyee. 1/6
thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/0…

In 2019, I wrote about then-chief negotiator Barb Daigle’s comments about closing #northernBC’s only university. “Universities don’t typically die, but there’s always a first,” Daigle told colleagues at a 2018 conference. 2/6
thetyee.ca/News/2019/11/2…

Faculty were in the midst of a second walk-out in five years. They returned to classrooms a week later, in time to save the semester. Instead they took their grievance to the Labour Relations Board, accusing the university of bargaining in bad faith. 3/6
thetyee.ca/News/2019/11/3…

Then, in January 2020, both Daigle and university president Daniel Weeks stepped down from their positions amidst controversy. Payne took over as acting, then interim, president. He says his first call was to #UNBC’s faculty association. 4/6
thetyee.ca/News/2020/01/3…

Given two recent strikes and a pandemic, I’m so relieved to see some stability come to this important northern institution. In a region as large as #northernBC, having a university in the hub of #PrinceGeorge is huge. 5/6

It gives people from rural, remote and Indigenous communities an opportunity to get an undergraduate degree or do graduate studies without leaving the region. (I believe northern colleges only offer associate degrees, which is also important.) Congrats to everyone at UNBC! 6/6