The University of British Columbia Faculty Association and administration have reached an agreement to provide the first general salary increases since January 1994. After several months of intensive bargaining, the parties reached a four-year settlement covering the period July 1, 1997 to June 30, 2001. The agreement required the approval of the provincial Public Sector Employers' Council (PSEC).

On Feb. 2-3, members of the Acadia University Faculty Association voted 91.3 per cent in favour of strike action. This vote likely gives Acadia faculty the strongest strike mandate in Canadian academic history. "The overwhelming strength of the vote is a clear sign of faculty solidarity with its negotiating team. There is no question about the seriousness of this situation. There is no question of our determination to achieve a fair and decent contract," said AUFA President Jim Sacouman.

The last issue of the CAUT Bulletin gave details of the program closures and layoffs -- currently threatened at Carleton University. Since then there have been several notable developments.

his book asserts that government underfunding, technological change, the unpreparedness of students, the defence of tenure by CAUT, the attack on academic freedom by campus feminists, and the incompetence of most professors, who either publish too little, too much or on the wrong topics, have created a mess in Canadian universities.

his book profiles the rise of the Net Generation, which is using digital technology to change the way individuals and society interact. Essential reading for parents, teachers, policy makers, marketers, business leaders, social activists, and others, Growing Up Digital makes a compelling distinction between the passive medium of television and the explosion of interactive digital media, sparked by the computer and the Internet. Tapscott shows how children, empowered by new technology, are taking the reins from their boomer parents and making inroads into all areas of society, including our education system, the government, and economy.

The primary purpose of higher education is the cultivation of intellect for its own sake, not a preparation for a specialized job-market. This book contends that most universities today are failing to fulfill this purpose since they have instituted the kind of academic programs, policies and practices that have actually subverted intellectual life and literacy in academia.

t its December 1997 meeting CAUT's Collective Bargaining and Economic Benefits Committee decided to make significant changes to the collective bargaining training program sponsored by CAUT.

One of the standard fallacies of reasoning is "the slippery slope." Many of us learned about it in history courses, perhaps by considering the example of John Foster Dulles and American foreign policy in the 1950s. The argument went that if a non-communist state fell to communism, neighbouring non-communist states would also fall, one after another. Eisenhower applied the theory to justify military aid to South Vietnam in the 1950s.