ESL instructors to negotiate new agreement with SMU

The collective agreement between Saint Mary's University and the instructors at the university's TESL Centre expired in August. TESL stands for "Teaching English as a Second Language."

The university's human resources director, Kim Squires, says the university and the teachers need to sign a new agreement. Robert Lanning, chief steward for the union representing the teachers, says negotiations have been scheduled for late November and early December.

The TESL Centre helps SMU recruit international students

Aayoosh Sapra, vice-president for university affairs at the SMU Students' Association, says international students make up about 25 per cent of the overall student population. The administration's planning documents refer to international student recruitment as a major priority for the university.

International students pay much higher fees than Canadian students. These higher fees can help offset losses from decreasing enrollment from domestic students. According to SMU's 2009/2010 financial statement, higher-than-expected enrolment from international students brought in an extra $1.3 million in revenue that year.

Sapra says that besides being important to the campus community, the TESL Centre is also an important part of Saint Mary's business model; it helps the university build relationships with future undergraduate students.

He says international students who come to Canada to learn English at the TESL Centre get a taste of what life is like at Saint Mary's. Those who decide to stay on in Canada to pursue undergraduate degrees are already familiar with the atmosphere, and are probably more likely to choose Saint Mary's.

The negotiations

The TESL teachers at Saint Mary's are represented by CUPE Local 3912, a larger union which also represents teaching assistants at Dalhousie University and part-time faculty at Dalhousie, Saint Mary's and Mount Saint Vincent University.

Leitch represents the Saint Mary's TESL instructors on the executive council. He explains that financial decisions don't usually take up a huge chunk of time during the negotiating process; both sides know roughly how much money is available.

Privatisation has been an issue elsewhere -- a year ago Dalhousie's faculty union criticized the administration's plans to outsource the education of international students to a company called Navitas. Leitch doesn't expect that this will be an issue in these negotiations.

He says Saint Mary's has generally had a good relationship with the various unions it works with.

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