RAAS Report
RAAS REPORT
A biweekly newsletter from your
Association of Academic Staff
Friday, February 28, 2020
RAAS PRESIDENT'S UPDATE
Thank you to all RAAS members for your active engagement with our next steps initiatives over the past several weeks. It has been wonderful to speak with so many people. We even have two new members as a result of these discussions. Welcome aboard!
It is wonderful to see just how united we are as an Association. Please refer to my long emails, rather than the RAAS Report this time, for updates on our current initiatives. If you are not receiving these critical updates, please let me know. As always, we want to hear from all RAAS members, so please keep in touch with me or any member of the Executive or the Negotiation Team.
Also, our T4s are now available on Workday. As you prepare your tax returns for 2019, please remember that your Association dues are tax deductible!
Kristina Llewellyn
RAAS President
NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE
Negotiations resumed on February 5, and we have dates through April. We are getting very close to completing everything other than proposals on Compensation. Agreement was reached on February 24 on Sabbaticals and onAcademic Misconduct. Besides compensation-related articles, still on the table is Management Rights, Chairs & Directors, Pregnancy/Parental Leave, and Jury & Witness Duty Leave, along with proposals regarding the Librarian.
Current members of the RAAS negotiating team are Rob Case (SDS), Kristina Llewellyn (SDS), Trish Van Katwyk (SSW), and Daniel Bratton (CLS).
Rob Case
Lead Negotiator
SATIRE
Signs You Are a Second Semester College Senior
Raya Machaca, McSweeney’s (February 3, 2020) [Caution: Contains vulgar language]
NOT SATIRE
Externally scorned, internally mismanaged: Why Canada’s universities are in deep crisis
Joseph Brean, National Post (February 24, 2020) [Caution: Contains language from a former UW Dean of Arts]
Universities are in crisis, we are told, in reputation, operation and foundation. They are externally scorned, internally mismanaged and facing financial calamity, such that they cut corners and exclude nearly all but the privileged and spoiled. Their adjunct lecturers are overqualified but underpaid, fed by their own expensive PhD programs into the glut of a crowded academic market that cannot afford to replace retiring Boomer professors.
OCUFA NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), a province-wide association of our peers.
Canada's high schools are underfunded and turning to international tuition to help
Lana Parker et al., The Conversation (February 28, 2020)
Despite months of work to rule and weeks of job action, the Progressive Conservative government in Ontario has failed to negotiate a deal with teachers to date. Amid news about negotiation sticking points, such as class size and mandatory e-learning, a key issue at stake is that education has been chronically underfunded tax base. In fact, Ontario, like other provinces, is increasingly relying on private revenue streams as a solution.
Association at Université Sainte-Anne critical of board decision to change term for president
Eric Bourque, The Chronicle Herald (February 26, 2020)
At issue is a recent decision by the university’s board of governors to change a clause in its internal management policy regarding the president’s term of office. Previously, the clause had said the president’s term would be five years and could be renewed once. Under the change announced in early December, the president’s first term would be for a maximum of five years and the incumbent would be eligible to have one or several additional terms, up to five years for each term.
Canadore College will not release investigator’s report to the public
Michael Lee, North Bay Nugget (February 19, 2020)
Canadore College will not release the investigator’s report into the post-secondary institution’s workplace culture. A statement provided by Canadore College spokesperson Cindy Males says with an investigation such as this it is “normative” that the report not be released publicly.
Worldviews 2020 – The Myth of Meritocracy: From Satire to Social Inequality
OCUFA News (February 25, 2020)
The concept of meritocracy suggests that anyone can ascend the social and economic ladder if they work hard enough, regardless of their social position. This rather ambitious claim originated as a satirical take on social mobility in the 1950s. And yet meritocracy is now embedded at the heart of our economic, social, cultural, and academic institutions in a way that obscures the role meritocracy plays in social exclusion. This year’s Worldviews lecture will attempt to make meritocracy satire again.
Speaker: Professor Jo Littler
Date and time: Tuesday, April 7, 2020, 7–9pm
Location: YWCA Toronto, 87 Elm Street, Toronto
Registration: This is a free public event but advance registration is required.
Call for Submissions: Annual OCUFA Teaching and Academic Librarianship Awards
OCUFA News (February 25, 2020)
Each year, OCUFA is proud to celebrate outstanding achievement in teaching and academic librarianship at Ontario universities. Through the Teaching and Academic Librarianship Awards, we recognize those individuals whose pedagogical leadership and support have made a positive and enduring difference to their students and colleagues.
Anyone within the university community can nominate a faculty member or academic librarian for an award, so long as the nominee is a member of an OCUFA affiliated faculty association. For the first time, this year’s award guidelines include special nomination criteria for contract faculty to facilitate the nomination of historically marginalized members of the academy. Award recipients are selected by an independent OCUFA committee made up of faculty, librarians, and student representatives.
This year, the deadline for nominations is May 22, 2020. Guidelines for the award can be found here:
Nomination packages should be saved as a single pdf file and submitted online at: https://ocufa.on.ca/awards_application/
CAUT NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), a nation-wide association of our peers.
ALBERTA EDUCATION CUTS CONDEMNED
CAUT News (February, 2020)
Deep cuts alongside imposition of an “outcomes-based” approach to funding of post-secondary education in Alberta have prompted CAUT Council to express their unanimous condemnation of the moves to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.
CAUT URGES REVIEW OF LABOUR RELATIONS AT UNBC
CAUT News (February, 2020)
CAUT is raising concerns about the state of labour relations at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and is urging the institution to agree to an external independent review.
“In my many years of experience with CAUT, I can say without hesitation that I have not come across a more difficult and acrimonious labour relations environment than exists at UNBC today,” wrote CAUT executive director David Robinson in a letter to the Chair of the UNBC Board of Governors. [Note: We look forward to welcoming David Robinson to Renison — ed.]
CAUT IN SOLIDARITY WITH TEACHERS AND EDUCATION WORKERS
CAUT News (February 2020)
The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) stands in solidarity with Ontario’s elementary and secondary teachers who have been without contracts since last summer. The four major teachers’ unions are conducting rotating strikes and work slowdowns as they oppose cuts to the province’s publicly funded education system, along with wage-cap legislation imposed by the Ford government on all public sector workers.
FAUW NEWS
RAAS has a service agreement with the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW), a campus-wide association of our peers.
March 10, 12:00–1:30 p.m. in EIT 3142
A panel of retirees (Nancy Theberge, Kinesiology, retired 2014; Mary Thompson, Statistics and Actuarial Science, 2009; Rohan Jayasundera, Physics & Astronomy, 2019; and Alan Macnaughton, Accounting & Finance, 2019) will share their experiences and advice on preparing for and making the most of retirement. Beth Jewkes will moderate the panel.
Please register by March 3 at noon to reserve your lunch.
Promotion to Full Professor For Women
March 4, 2:30–4:00 p.m. in MC 2054
This workshop will help female-identified faculty navigate the process of applying for promotion to full professor.
At Waterloo, the proportion of female faculty declines as we move up rank. We have too few female full professors, for a variety of reasons. This workshop will seek to demystify the process and offer support. Registration is not required for this event.
Our regular information session on PROMOTION is now held every two years. The next one will be in 2021. You can download the slides from the 2019 session on our website. There is also a page on promotion in our Faculty Guide,
and it is covered briefly in our Mid-career workshop, April 9.
Full FAUW Events Calendar
FAUW has a full slate of events posted on our website and open for registration, and we’ll be scheduling more, including our annual tenure workshop later in the term.