Members of the Acadia University Faculty Association (AUFA) and the board of governors are meeting with a conciliator Sunday in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a strike.
Rachel Brickner, spokesperson for the Acadia University Faculty Association, says the two sides will continue talking until they reach a tentative agreement or an impasse.
Brickner says AUFA is hopeful an agreement can be reached but that staff are prepared to strike Monday morning.
READ: Acadia University’s faculty association sets Nov. 27 strike deadline
The Acadia University Faculty Association represents 331 full-time and part-time professors, librarians, archivists, and instructors.
According to the faculty association, the two sides began negotiations for a new collective agreement in late March, but talks reached an impasse in June when the board refused to discuss key faculty proposals.
AUFA filed for the assistance of a provincial conciliator in early September. After conciliation stalled on the first day, AUFA members voted 81 per cent in favour of strike action.
No one from the board of governors was available Sunday for an interview on the issue.
In an emailed statement, Jeff Banks, spokesman for Acadia’s board of governors, said “We are currently working with the Union through the Conciliator. I am unavailable because I am on the University Bargaining team.”
Faculty at Acadia University have walked off the job twice before, once in 2004 and again in 2007.
READ MORE: NS university faculty call on 5 schools to drop lawsuit against teachers’ union
Hannah Dawson-Murphy, a third-year student studying politics at Acadia, says students are caught in the middle.
“It’s really surreal and it causes a lot of uncertainty,” she said.
Dawson-Murphy says she has class scheduled for Monday at 8:30 a.m. and is unsure if that will go ahead at this time.
“People are stressed about the whole situation,” she told Global News, adding that exams are supposed to start a few weeks from now and that students are unclear whether or not they will be going ahead as planned.
Dawson-Murphy says she feels students are being given conflicting information about what’s happening and that they just want to continue learning.
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