November 5 2012 Open Letter on the SFU labour dispute: We, the undersigned SFU faculty members, are

in solidarity with the TSSU and CUPE in their struggle for better working conditions. The workers represented by TSSU and CUPE deserve a better dealthey deserve better working conditions, they deserve a better wage, and they deserve more respect from their employer for the work they do. And they deserve a real contract, having been without one for two years now. The campus unions' struggle, however, goes beyond their immediate bargaining demands. The primary mission of this public universityto teach its students wellis not accomplished only in the classroom. It is also accomplished by the example the university sets. The university should be an engaging and engaged intellectual environment, and a good and fair and decent place to work. But working conditions at SFU have been worsening for years. Wages have been frozen while workloads have risen. The educational system is under increasing stress, from reduced faculty numbers to larger classes, from rapidly rising fees to streamlined academic programs. Students are paying more for reduced programs, and graduate student workers are being paid less for doing more work. Everyone is told to "do more with less." But that is another word for austerity at SFU and in the university sector in BC at large. The university administration is passing on the burden of austerity to its workers. While administrators raise their salaries at a rate faster than faculty and staff salaries, while resources are diverted to areas of the university that are not of direct benefit to its education mission, SFU's most vulnerable employeesTAs, sessionals, contingent faculty and staffare being hit the hardest. The TSSU and CUPE struggle is a struggle against this austerity. It is more than a demand for better wages for the unions members; its aim is more than better working conditions. Its aim is for a better university, a university worthy of being called a place of higher education. It is a demand for a university that is truly engaged in the world and that is a truly engaging place to work and teach and learn. In other words, TSSU and CUPE's struggle is a struggle that concerns every member of the SFU community and we should all, wholeheartedly, support and engage in this struggle. Signed, Ian Angus, Professor, Department of Humanities Yildiz Atasoy, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Sabine Bitter, Assistant Professor, School for the Contemporary Arts John Bogardus, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology John Brohman, Associate Professor, Department of Geography Enda Brophy, Assistant Professor, School of Communication Adrienne Burk, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Clint Burnham, Associate Professor, Department of English John Calvert, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science Wendy Chan, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Elise Chenier, Associate Professor, Department of History David Chariandy, Associate Professor, Department of English Allyson Clay, Professor, School for the Contemporary Arts Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Professor, Department of Political Science and Gender, Sexuality and Womens Studies Stephen Collis, Associate Professor, Department of English Dara Culhane, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Leith Davis, Professor, Department of English Anne-Marie Feenberg-Dibon, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities Jeff Derksen, Associate Professor, Department of English Parin Dossa, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Daniel Dunford, Lecturer, Faculty of Education Monica Escudero, Senior Lecturer, Spanish Language Program, Language Training Institute Michael Everton, Associate Professor, Department of English Samir Gandesha, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities Tom Grieve, Associate Professor, Department of English Rick Gruneau, Professor, School of Communication Peter Hall, Associate Professor, Urban Studies Program Gary Harris, Senior Lecturer, School for the Contemporary Arts Steven Hill, Assistant Professor, School for the Contemporary Arts Meg Holden, Associate Professor, Department of Urban Studies and Geography Christine Kim, Assistant Professor, Department of English Dany Lacombe, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Mark Leier, Professor, Department of History Carolyn Lesjak, Associate Professor, Department of English Michelle Levy, Associate Professor, Department of English Margaret Linley, Associate Professor, Department of English Sonia Luehrmann, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Sophie McCall, Associate Professor, Department of English Eugene McCann, Professor, Department of Geography Geoff Mann, Associate Professor, Department of Geography Robert Menzies, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Marina Morrow, Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Director, Centre for the Study of Gender, Social Inequities and Mental Health Gerardo Otero, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Roxanne Panchasi, Associate Professor, Department of History Cindy Patton, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Canada Research Chair Christopher Pavsek, Associate Professor, School for the Contemporary Arts Stacy Leigh Pigg, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Stuart R. Poynts, Assistant Professor, School of Communication Elspeth Pratt, Lecturer, School for the Contemporary Arts Deanna Reder, Assistant Professor, First Nations Studies and Department of English Bernhard Riecke, Assistant Professor, School of Interactive Arts and Technology Michael Schmitt, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology Carl James Schwarz, Professor, Statistics and Actuarial Science Jamie Scott, Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and Faculty of Health Sciences Eleanor Stebner, J. S. Woodsworth Chair, Department of Humanites Paul Matthew St. Pierre, Professor, Department of English Janet C. Sturgeon, Associate Professor, Department of Geography Gary Teeple, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Ann Travers, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Michele Valiquette, Senior Lecturer, Department of English J. R. Welch, Associate Professor, Department of Archeology and School of Resource And Environmental Management Jin-me Yoon, Professor, School for the Contemporary Arts Jerry Zaslove, Professor Emeritus, Departments of English and Humanities Kirsten Zickfeld, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography