RAAS Report
RAAS REPORT
Friday, May 28, 2021
PRESIDENT’S UPDATE
I hope that each of you have been able to enjoy the warmer weather and we all feel some sense of hope for an end to the pandemic as the spring and summer unfolds.
Today is your pay day for May! As of May 1st, all RAAS members will receive their negotiated pay raise for this year. This pay increase is in addition to the retroactive pay increase from last year that you received in March. If you were found to be Satisfactory in all categories of your workload and you are not above the Threshold 2 of salary ($192, 946 for Lecturers and $221,630 for Assistant, Associate and Full), then you will receive the Progression Through the Ranks (PTR) amount of $4,046 plus 1% cost of living increase into your base salary. For more specifics on compensation, please refer to Article 33 Faculty Compensation (pages 102 and 103) in the Collective Agreement.
A reminder that the Collective Agreement can be found on the RAAS website at www.renisonassociationofacademicstaff.org. Please ensure that you are indeed above the floor of compensation for your category of employment. If you are below the floor for any reason, we ask that you get in touch with any member of the RAAS Executive.
RAAS will hold one more membership meeting before the summer months. We can confirm that the membership meeting with be on Thursday, June 24th from 1-3pm. I will send an Outlook invitation shortly and the agenda will be distributed at least 10 days prior to the meeting. We are fortunate that CAUT President, Brenda Austin-Smith, will join our next meeting to discuss many of the challenges in the sector. We will be sure to leave time for you to ask questions of Brenda. We will have a couple items for decision towards the end of the meeting.
Kristina Llewellyn
RAAS President
BRASS TACKS AND RAAS FAQs
The Grievance Three-Step
There are three stages to the grievance process for RAAS Members:
Informal Inquiry (Article 14.1.4)
Step 1a (Articles 14.6.1 to 14.6.4)
Meeting with the Administration with a view to resolving a grievance
Step 1b (Articles 14.6.5 to 14.6.7)
Ad hoc Dispute Resolution Committee [DRC]
Step 2 (Article 14.7)
Arbitration before an external labour arbitrator
Step 3
Judicial Review (exceedingly rare)
As ever, please visit the RAAS website for further details.
Jason Blokhuis
RAAS Grievance Officer
SATIRE
Ontario school opening/closing policy determined by a cat who wants in or out
Geoff Cork, The Beaverton (April 28, 2021)
Ontario’s Ministry of Education cat has determined that schools will be closed after he decided to come inside. The feline, Misty the COVID Cat, was at first hesitant to make a decision as Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce held bated breaths watching the long-haired domestic take into account the public health data.
NOT SATIRE
Protests after North Carolina university denies tenure to 1619 Project journalist
Amanda Holpuch, The Guardian (May 20, 2021)
Protests erupted at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill after the school’s board of trustees decided to not give tenure to Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose pioneering work on institutional racism includes the 1619 Project. Demonstrators, many of them UNC faculty members, gathered at a board of trustees meeting on Thursday morning with signs in protest of the decision. Some chanted: “We will not be moved.”
BOARD UPDATE
We have four updates from the Board meeting on May 26, 2021:
1. Christina Parker joined the meeting to discuss how dialogue, inclusion, and peacemaking have the potential to enable cultural inclusion and advance social justice. Special thanks to Christina for joining us and sharing your important and timely work.
2. Hearty congratulations to Kristina Llewellyn on her promotion to the rank of Full Professor. Motions to approve the recommendation from the Promotion and Tenure Committee were unanimously (and enthusiastically) carried.
3. The Teaching Award Committee designated a senior faculty member and a pre-tenure faculty member for 2021. It is purely coincidental that both are Board reps. We are honoured and thank the Committee for this award.
4. The nine members of the President Search Committee were appointed. This Committee will consist of the following nine members: Joseph Olubobokun, Ashton Romany, Karen Spencer, and Liz Vitek (four Board members not employed by Renison); Tanya Missere-Mihas (one member of the Managing Directors Group); Doug Cowan and Edwin Ng (two regular faculty members); Shelby Bolitsky (one student); and Brenda Doyle (one staff member). A motion to approve Karen Spencer as Chair of the Committee was carried. The process of selecting a search firm to facilitate the search is ongoing.
As always, please reach out to either or both of your Board reps for further details.
Edwin Ng and Jason Blokhuis
Faculty Board Representatives
FAUW COUNCIL UPDATE
Dan Brown Stands Down [How’s that for alliteration? -ed.]
FAUW President Dan Brown has announced his resignation as of July 1, 2021. There will be a special election to select a new president. Nominations are being accepted until May 31, 2021. For more information, please see https://uwaterloo.ca/faculty-association/news/special-election-notice
Meg Gibson
RAAS Representative
FAUW LECTURERS COMMITTEE UPDATE
A Synopsis of Activities in May, 2021
1. A small revision of Policy 76 – Faculty Appointments
Prompted by a memo of the Policy 76-77 Drafting Committee to the UW Vice-President, Academic & Provost and to FAUW President, the motion to change the mandate of the University Appointments Review Committee (UARC) as to appointment length was approved by Waterloo President and Senate this May. From now, UARC’s approval of appointments of exactly two years will no longer be required. This small change will hopefully help to eliminate infamous 2-year-less-a-day contracts.
2. Teaching-stream faculty at Waterloo
In an attempt to collect information about Waterloo lecturers and secure improvements in the working conditions of teaching-focused faculty, FAUW has been interviewing different lecturers across campus. The blogs summarizing these interviews will be available on FAUW Blog. One can be found at Meet the lecturers: Clive Forrester.
3. Teaching-stream faculty at UBC
Kate Lawson, Associate Professor, English Language and Literature, asked the LC for feedback on another one of her posts about teaching-stream/teaching-track faculty, this time at UBC. The post is available at Professors of Teaching at UBC.
4. Vacation entitlement
The LC has looked at the opportunity of teaching-focused faculty to use their vacation entitlement in a typical academic year and prepared a report on this topic for the FAUW Board. The report considered a possibility for taking full vacation entitlement from fall 2018 to spring 2022. Subsequently, FAUW and its Policy 76-77 Drafting Committee members published a blog related to this topic (Help Dr. X take their vacation!).
Aga Wolczuk
RAAS Representative
CAUT NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), a nation-wide association of our peers.
CAUT objects to decision to lay off four senior librarians at OCAD University
CAUT News (May 20, 2021)
The termination of four senior librarians and elimination of two other library positions at OCAD University raises red flags that the University’s administration is not respecting principles of collegial governance as it moves forward with restructuring plans for its library. In a letter to OCADU President Ana Serrano, CAUT President Brenda Austin-Smith and CAUT Executive Director David Robinson, noted, “the reorganization was done without meaningful consultation that included librarians amounts to a devaluing of the skills and knowledge librarians bring to the institution. Layoffs seriously deplete very important expertise.”
OCUFA NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), a province-wide association of our peers.
Canada Christian College denied university status, name change
CBC News (May 21, 2021)
Canada Christian College, a school run by a social conservative ally of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, has been denied university status by an independent provincial board after a months-long review process.
Universities taking different approaches to preparing mental health services
Rose Simpson, University Affairs (May 19, 2021)
As the 2021 fall semester approaches, health care strategists at Canadian universities admit they are swimming in treacherous waters as they attempt to address the future mental health needs of their students, faculty and staff who were rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Slow death by a thousand cuts: Why microaggression can be insidious
Loraine Balita-Centeno, Waterloo Chronicle (May 20, 2021)
“No, but where are you REALLY from?” people will insist. It’s a question many racialized persons, even those born in Canada, are often asked, because for some people, “Toronto or Vancouver” can’t be the right answer. People who ask this are often not aware of the derogatory message they are sending.
Anger, dismay [but not surprise? -ed.] as McGill board of governors blocks racial justice motion
Jonathan Montpetit and Antoni Nerestant, CBC News (May 18, 2021)
McGill University's board of governors swatted down a motion endorsing racial justice last month, angering staff and student groups who have been pushing the school to more decisively address racism on campus. The motion was drafted by Ehab Lotayef, a board member at the time, in consultation with by more than a dozen groups, including the major student societies and associations representing Muslim and Black students. It also had the backing of Charles Taylor, the eminent philosopher and one of the university's best-known professors.
Province to spend $800K on Algoma U, Sault College online programs
SooToday.com (May 17, 2021)
Sault College and Algoma University are getting a funding boost for online learning. The provincial government announced today it would spend over $800,000 to support virtual learning and both institutions. In a press release issued this afternoon, the province said courses, microcredentials, and other online sources will be developed with the funding.
FAUW NEWS
RAAS has a service agreement with the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW), a campus-wide association of our peers
FAUW Presents 2021 Appreciation Award to Monica Vesely
FAUW News (May 13, 2021)
The FAUW Appreciation Award recognizes people from across the University who have gone above and beyond to improve the lives of faculty members. Monica Vesely is the recipient of the 2021 award. Monica is an educational developer in the Centre for Teaching Excellence and has been a driving force behind new faculty orientation for some time, putting exceptional, thoughtful work into programming new faculty events, particularly recruiting and liaising with speakers, and inviting and gathering valuable feedback from attendees.