A potential walkout by faculty members and librarians at NSCAD University has been averted after a tentative deal was reached with university administrators March 7.

The 110 regular and contract academic staff represented by the Faculty Union of NSCAD had been working without a contract since the previous 18-month agreement expired Dec. 31. A provincially-appointed conciliator had been working with the parties.

“We were able to achieve some short-term protection for our most vulnerable programs in the face of unprecedented external and internal threats to the university,” union president Alvin Comiter said in a statement. “The struggle to protect our programs and our members continues. The support from our students has been overwhelming.”

Details of the new agreement were not immediately released, and Comiter cautioned they still need to be ironed out fully.

The majority of both the university’s board of governors and faculty union still need to ratify the agreement.