The Canadian Association of University Teachers this month launched a major campaign - Our Universities, Our Future - to raise public awareness about the impact of reduced government funding on Canada's colleges and universities.

Ron Melchers, a leading authority on compensation and benefits in universities, began his term as CAUT's first Visiting Research Fellow in Post-Secondary Study on July 1. Ron's initial work is focussed on longitudinal analysis of university budgets over the past 30 years.

"The freedom to pursue research and the correlative right to transmit the fruits of inquiry to the wider community -- without limitations from corporate or political interests and without prior restraint or fear of subsequent punishment -- are essential to the advancement of knowledge. Accordingly, principles of academic freedom allow professors to publish research findings that may offend the commercial sponsors of the research, potential donors, or political interests ..."¹

On July 8, 1999, CAUT's travelling educational program "The Collective Bargaining Workshop" touched down in Charlottetown, PEI. Organized in concert with the UPEI faculty association, the workshop provided an introduction/refresher course on the art of collective bargaining. Don Gillis, the association's president, managed to gather an enthusiastic crowd of 20 participants, an impressive summer turnout.

More than 100 faculty and librarians from across Canada will descend on Parliament Hill on Nov. 18. Delegates to CAUT's November Council meeting will be asked to come to Ottawa a day early to participate in a national lobby day for post-secondary education. Lobbyists will present a first-hand account of the consequences of government underfunding.

The Mount Allison Faculty Association has won a significant victory for their members heading out on sabbatical leave

University and college students are borrowing more money than ever and finding it more difficult to pay it back, according to a study recently released by Statistics Canada.

A new report by Statistics Canada and Human Resources Development Canada confirms the findings of an earlier CAUT study that the march of highly educated and skilled Canadians to the United States -- the so-called "brain drain" -- has been grossly exaggerated by business groups advocating tax breaks for upper income earners.

Education unions and associations are warning that new rules being considered by the World Trade Organization will lead to the further subordination of post-secondary education to the dictates of private corporations.

Pitting professor against professor, a university administration announces that only junior faculty can expect a salary increase in the new contract. Can the faculty association maintain membership unity in the face of this divisive ploy?

The knowledge economy is becoming manifest in the burgeoning number of patents being issued for ideas rather than objects. Private individuals and companies are staking claims to large swathes of knowledge that are increasingly limiting the ability of researchers and developers to further the boundaries of knowledge.

The battle over the ownership of the intellectual property produced in Canada's universities is going to heat up, particularly if the recommendations of the Expert Panel on the Commercialization of University Research are adopted by government.