RAAS Report
RAAS REPORT
A biweekly newsletter from your
Association of Academic Staff
Friday, September 13, 2019
RAAS MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 27th
RAAS will hold its first meeting of the new academic year on Friday, September 27th from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the Dunker Family Lounge. Refreshments will be provided. Members and non-members are welcome to attend, though only members may vote. Please make plans to attend!
RAAS PRESIDENT’S UPDATE
RAAS represents faculty at Renison University College who are definite-term lecturers (one year or greater), continuing lecturers, and tenure-track/tenured. RAAS was founded in 2018 to represent the interests of faculty, including ensuring there are clear and equitable working conditions.
Since our founding, we have signed a service agreement with the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW). FAUW strongly supports our work and our members in a variety of areas. RAAS members can request the support of FAUW's Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, for example, with issues ranging from job security to promotion concerns. We like to say that we are RAAS + FAUW! We are a smaller association, so this agreement gives us the backing of UW faculty and supports our working relationship as an affiliated university college with UW.
FAUW also facilitates our membership with the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). RAAS is a full, voting member of both these organizations. OCUFA and CAUT advocate on behalf of post-secondary education with provincial and federal governments. These issues range from student funding and copyright to education funding and academic freedom. RAAS members receive newsletters in their mailbox from both organizations, along with this very fine publication by email every other Friday.
RAAS is currently working hard on Renison's first Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between the administration and faculty. This agreement will make clear our working conditions (e.g. workload, compensation, dismissal and discipline, and much more). RAAS members are in consistent consultation with us on the terms of the agreement.
We expect the agreement will go for a ratification vote to RAAS within this academic year. It is an agreement that will define your working conditions! In the meantime, RAAS members come to us for support on any issue related to their employment, from equity to discipline.
LEAD NEGOTIATOR’S UPDATE
Negotiations were on hold over the summer, as people have been away. The RAAS team, nonetheless, has developed several proposals to take to the table when negotiations resume on September 20th. Our aim is to get into negotiations on salary and other compensation by the end of October, with hopes of completing negotiations before the end of the calendar year. Topics up for negotiation at the next session include finalizing articles describing appointments, discipline process, terms and provisions for chairs and directors, academic misconduct, working conditions, privacy, sabbaticals, and other leaves.
With Jason Blokhuis on sabbatical, we are in need of a replacement on the negotiating team for about two months. This is not a significant time commitment, but it would be an enormous help. It may also be quite rewarding at this point, with an end to negotiations in sight. Please talk to Daniel Bratton, Kristina Llewellyn, or Rob Case if you think you might interested (or to suggest a colleague who might be).
BOARD UPDATE
With the Renison Annual General Meeting approaching on October 23rd, the September Board of Governors meeting on September 25th is going to be an important one. Typically at the September meeting, items going forward for ratification at the AGM are first approved by the Board, including things like by-law amendments. There are also three board positions open for election at the upcoming AGM. Whether or not the September board meeting includes a report on nominations or a draft slate of candidates remains to be seen. Please watch for updates here, or talk to your board representative (Rob Case) closer to September 25th for more details.
SATIRE
McConaughey forced to apply for food stamps after month as adjunct
Staff, The Onion (September 12, 2019)
AUSTIN, TX — Struggling to scrape by on his meager salary, actor Matthew McConaughey was reportedly forced to apply for food stamps Thursday after his first month working as an adjunct professor.
Doug Ford to privatize birds
Joel Buxton, The Beaverton (August 11, 2019)
TORONTO — This week, Premier Doug Ford announced a bold plan to privatize birds in the province of Ontario. “We’ve been wasting money on public birds for too long,” said Ford. “We simply can’t afford all these birds.”
NOT SATIRE
US universities face federal crackdown over foreign financial influence
Erica L. Green, New York Times (August 30, 2019)
WASHINGTON — The Education Department has begun cracking down on universities that fail to disclose donations and contracts from foreign governments, hoping to give far more scrutiny to funding that has washed into the United States’ higher education institutions from countries often at odds with American policies but eager to tap the country’s brightest minds.
OCUFA NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), a province-wide association of our peers.
Doug Ford says students can opt out of activity fees
Martin Regg Cohn, Welland Tribune & Toronto Star (September 11, 2019)
Campus radio stations. Student councils. Clubs for LGBTQ or other minority students. Student newspapers. Debating clubs. Support for disabled students. Marching bands. Child care. International student clubs. [These are examples of the] "crazy Marxist nonsense student unions get up to," Ford explained in a PC fundraising appeal earlier this year. "So, we fixed that. Student union fees are now opt-in."
Why Ontario schools could soon face labour disruptionsNick Boisvert, CBC News (September 11, 2019)
Ontario's students are settling into the new school year with the threat of labour disruption hanging in the air. Contracts for the five major unions representing teachers and education workers expired in September, and some unions are making moves toward possible job action
University students start letter-writing campaign to protest OSAP student-aid cuts
Kristin Rushowy, Toronto Star (September 10, 2019)
Ontario undergraduates are not at a loss for words when it comes to how they feel about changes to student aid made by the Ontario government — and they’re now launching a letter-writing campaign to the premier and MPPs.
Responses to Ontario government’s performance-based funding model YUFA Staff, York University Faculty Association Updates (September 10, 2019)
YUFA would like to draw to your attention two important statements that were issued in the last week in response to the Ford government’s new performance-based funding model for post-secondary education in Ontario.
Speaking Out against Student Evaluations
Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed (September 10, 2019)
Sociologists and more than a dozen other professional groups take a stand against using student evaluations of teaching as a primary measure of teaching effectiveness.
CAUT NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), a nation-wide association of our peers.
CANADIANS WANT AN ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE, AND HIGH QUALITY POST-SECONDARY SECTOR
CAUT Staff, CAUT News (September 10, 2019)
OTTAWA – Results from a national survey commissioned by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) indicate that a large majority of Canadians value post-secondary education (PSE) and think cost should not be allowed to prevent anyone from pursuing it.
FAUW NEWS
RAAS has a service agreement with the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW), a campus-wide association of our peers.
UW responds to the climate crisis
FAUW Staff, FAUW News (September 12, 2019)
From paper straws to the “Green New Deal” to the arrival of Greta Thunberg in North America, the climate crisis is a regular topic in the national and international media. But you might not know how UWaterloo is responding. Here’s a high-level overview about the status of the University's responsible investing commitments, a faculty member's role in the City of Kitchener declaring a climate emergency, and the September 27th global climate strike.
FAUW responds to MTCU proposal to reduce salary
of faculty members collecting pensions
FAUW Staff, FAUW News (August 7, 2019)
FAUW sent a written submission to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
(MTCU) on July 31st regarding proposed MTCU regulations that would reduce the salary of university sector employees who are collecting a pension.