RAAS Report
Friday, May 27 2022
Ann Dennis, Editor
PRESIDENT’S UPDATE
It is my hope that you have all been enjoying the warmer weather and that you are all safe from the storm last weekend. The spring term has certainly started off with a flurry of union work. RAAS members have been showing up in relatively large numbers for a series of OCUFA and CAUT events, including talks on contract faculty rights and governance workshops. Thank you to all the members who have engaged in these events. I was fortunate to attend virtually the annual CAUT Council and OCUFA Board of Directors meetings this month. ACTION ITEM: Please take a moment to watch OCUFA’s short video about the incredible work of faculty associations this past year. CAUT and OCUFA discussed the unprecedented labour unrest at post-secondary education institutions and the unprecedented lack of financial support for the post-secondary education sector. The calls from these bodies were for faculty associations across the country to be watchful of the erosion of collegial governance structures and to be prepared for tough collective bargaining.
RAAS is working on strengthening our position on both fronts. Most immediately, we are calling for faculty to put their names forward for the Renison seat on the University of Waterloo Senate. Renison holds 2 seats, one of which is reserved for the President. We have long advocated for the second seat, in keeping with past practice (prior to the last VPAD), to be held by a regular faculty member (not an administrator). We have consulted with St. Jerome’s University Staff Association on this issue. STJ has 3 seats as a federated institution with two held by administrators. They agreed that if they had only 2 seats then they would insist that 1 be held by a regular faculty member. It is important for our academic work that faculty are engaged in collegial governance systems. Given that our academic programs and many of our governing policies are guided by the UW Senate, it is vital to our work that regular faculty assume this role. ACTION ITEM: Please consider nominating yourself or getting the permission of a colleague to nominate them for the UW Senate position. You simply need to email Lisa Kessig with the nomination before 9am on Tuesday, May 31st.
RAAS is also advocating for Academic Council faculty representatives to remain vigilant about the budget. There was a call at a previous meeting for transparency between the degree and non-degree programs regarding budgeting. It is important for our collective work that we understand where the stresses are for the financial future. We are hearing from many members that they are being asked to do more with less, from the erosion of teaching supports to a lack of direct research funds. We are proud that AC faculty representatives were successful in securing a sub-committee to work with the President on the renegotiation of the UW equity funding formula. The funding formula is the lifeline of the financial stability for degree programs. It is critical that we all understand the current model, alternate models at affiliated institutions, and what we need from negotiations to thrive as an institution. I urge all RAAS members to resist doing more for less and to engage in conversations about the funding model we need going forward.
As you all know, RAAS is transitioning to its new Executive Committee. The old and new Executives met recently to discuss the appointment of a Lead Negotiator and Grievance officer. We are very pleased to announce that Rob Case has agreed to once again be your Lead Negotiator. This is extremely welcome news as Rob has the experience and expertise needed at this stage in our young life as a union. Thank you, Rob, for your willingness to serve both as RAAS President and as the Lead Negotiator. We anticipate that active negotiations will begin in late fall 2022. There has been no appointment yet for the Grievance Officer. ACTION ITEMS: Please consider volunteering for the position of Grievance Officer by simply emailing me with your expression of interest. This position is extremely important for member advocacy and for the integrity of the Collective Agreement. The role involves some training and collaboration with partner associations through OCUFA and meeting regularly with the Grievance Committee. This will be the last call for volunteers before the Executive seeks to appoint a member to the role. Lastly, the Executive anticipates sending out a member survey in the next couple of weeks. This survey is an inquiry about your relationship to the union and what you envision for our priorities going forward. Please complete this survey as the new Executive seeks to better understand the needs of the membership.
To conclude, the provincial election is in less than 1 week. Please take any action you deem appropriate to advocate for post-secondary education to be a priority. ACTION ITEM: Take a minute to use OCUFA’s email action to send a message to your local Ontario election candidates to tell them it's time to revitalize public postsecondary education in Ontario or if you attend an all candidates meeting use OCUFA resources to ask questions about their support for the postsecondary education sector (Candidate Questions in English or French or Provincial Election advocacy 2022 - Power Point Slides.pptx).
As always, please be in touch with me or any member of the RAAS Executive with concerns or questions. Until my next (and last RAAS Report) in June, I hope you all continue to be well.
Kristina Llewellyn
RAAS President
NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE
It is with some trepidation, but also great appreciation, that I have accepted the invitation of my colleagues on the RAAS executive (and the encouragement of others) to serve as Lead Negotiator for our second Collective Agreement. I will do my best to earn or maintain your confidence. But I will need everyone's help...
Negotiating Timeline and Team
We expect that negotiation of our next Collective Agreement will begin in January 2023 (for an April 2023 agreement), which means we will need to form a negotiating team early in September. Participation on the negotiating team is the most direct input you will ever have into the principles and language of the Collective Agreement. While as Lead Negotiator I reserve the right to select team members, I would be most interested in knowing who is interested and available for the team.
Members of the negotiating team conduct research to identify useful and relevant language in other CAs, consult with colleagues on priorities for the CA, help to craft the language of new proposals and updates/revisions of our existing CA language, meet with the Employer's negotiating team, review proposals from the Employer and help draft responses/counter-proposals, and give input into the priorities and strategies of the negotiation process. If you are interested and willing to help, but not sure Negotiating Team is the right role for you, get in touch and we can figure out together what makes sense for you.
CA Priorities and Revisions
Whether you are able to join the Negotiating Team or not, if there are specific issues with the CA that you think need to be addressed in the next CA, please let me know and/or send details to Ann Denis for the Negotiating Team to consider when it meets.
Rob Case
Lead Negotiator
BOARD UPDATE
We have a few quick updates from the public portion of the Board meeting on Wednesday, May 25, 2022:
Endowment
The Board subcommittee has created a shortlist from respondents to the RFP for endowment management services. The shortlisted candidates will be invited to give presentations to the sub-committee.
Renison Steering Committee
The first meeting of the Board’s Reconciliation and Re-Storying Steering Committee was held on May 5. This steering group is focused on four key areas: 1) re-storying our narratives and self-understanding for a postcolonial era; 2) our connection to the Anglican church, and the historic colonial practices of the academy and the practice of social work; 3) our College name; and 4) our commitment to the ongoing work of reconciliation.
Sabbatical
A motion was approved for a 6-month sabbatical for Dr. Doug Cowan (Jan 1, 2023 – June 30, 2023).
Teaching Excellence Award
A motion was approved to delegate decision-making authority for the Teaching Excellence Award to the AC Teaching Committee, which is chaired by Dr. Sharon Roberts. Brian Hendley and Thomas Littlewood will also serve on the adjudication committee.
Edwin Ng and Jason Blokhuis
Faculty Board Representatives
EQUITY AND INCLUSION COMMITTEE
I am very pleased to welcome Arshi Shaikh, Edwin Ng, and Kelly Laurila as committee members!! We will be planning together what our contributions to the RAAS community can be. If you have any ideas that you would like us to consider, please do pass them along to me at pvankatw@uwaterloo.ca.
I have been taking an incredible course "Embodied Social Justice", an international certificate course offered by the Embody Lab. This week, we learned about conflict and the work of creating more equitable spaces. We were introduced to the “Developmental Wheel of Conflict”, as developed by our teachers, Zea Leguizamon and Dr Sam Grant. Here, we see the movement through conflict towards change, the roles and responses that can characterize the different stages of change, with the goal of reaching a place where change becomes fully realized and incorporated, alongside the anticipated yield & grab, push & pull tensions that come with change. Thoughts? Send me an email!
Trish Van Katwyk
RAAS Representative
RAAS LECTURERS COMMITTEE (LC) UPDATE
1. Recognition of Yan Li’s achievements
The RAAS LC congratulated Yan Li for her achievement as a recipient of the UW President's Award for Excellence in Research 2022. A blurb about this recognition, the background behind the research, and a congratulatory note from the RAAS LC for Yan Li were posted on Lecturers’ Corner of the RAAS website
FAUW LECTURERS COMMITTEE (LC) UPDATE
1. Policy 76-77 (teaching stream) updates and FAUW consultation survey results
As a result of the changes in the UW Administration approach to the bottom-line asks regarding the Policy 76-77 revisions for teaching stream faculty, the FAUW Board administered a survey to guide FAUW in further steps. The aggregate quantitative results of the survey have been shared with the LC, but are confidential. The qualitative results will be processed and shared with the LC at a later date.
There are a lot of questions related to the Administration backtracking on some of its December 2021 promises as well as to the actual meaning of the recent FAUW survey options for moving forward. Hence, the FAUW Board is considering an information session and consultations on these topics. LC members are willing to participate in such consultations but wonder what the starting point for the next steps as well as the timeline and process for different options will be.
2. Proposal for FAUW Teaching Committee
FAUW Board has initiated discussion on the need for a new standing committee: FAUW Teaching Committee (TC). The LC has been invited to provide its feedback on this idea. However, the committee is not entirely clear what the overall goals or terms of reference for such a committee would be. The support for teaching excellence is under purview of the CTE. One possible overall goal for such a TC would be advocacy for teaching needs, including accommodations and workplace safety. The LC expressed concerns about possibly overstretching the resources in the process.
3. Report on the March 2022 Lecturers’ Town Hall
Wolczuk has prepared a report on the FAUW LC Town Hall on March 24, 2022. The TH focused on the Spring 2022 and Policy 76-77 updates. After the LC reviews the report, it will be posted on the FAUW website.
4. Gender statistics update
Prompted by a low representation of female faculty at UW (approximately at 31%), the FAUW LC and Equity Committee (EC) started collecting information about the gender representation across the faculties and departments. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered these joint efforts. However, the LC members involved have a draft of a blog post on this topic and are asking the LC for feedback before passing this along to the EC.
5. LC Membership Update
To replace the three members stepping out at the end of June this year, the FAUW LC is looking for new members: one from Arts, one from Math, and one from Engineering.
OCUFA CONTRACT FACULTY COMMITTEE (CFC) UPDATE
1. OCUFA President’s and Executive Director’s Reports
Wurtele and Ahn summarized the OCUFA’s efforts related to
Provincial elections – in order to combat the Ford government chronic underfunding of the education sector & insufficient financial assistance for students
Support for precariously employed faculty (contract faculty) - to order to ensure equity and fairness
Inadequacy of The Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA)) and university governance issues – in order to learn lessons from the Laurentian crisis
2. Faculty strategies to combat burn-out
The attendees shared their experiences of the pandemic and work-related burnout, especially among contract faculty. A discussion on strategies for individual and collective self-care followed. Important points were discussed, including those about bounds for student email communications in the evenings and over the weekends.
3. Organizing for contract faculty rights! panel
With nine of OCUFA member associations bargaining for contract faculty rights in 2022, the committee hosted an afternoon panel discussion on how contract faculty has been organizing to actively participate in collective bargaining at their institutions. The panel featured speakers with a wide range of experience, who highlighted efforts by their bargaining units and gains on campuses and in communities.
The panelists included:
JP Hornick, Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) President and former Chief Negotiator for Ontario College Faculty (CAAT-A)
Ryan Devitt, Chief Negotiating Officer for St. Jerome's University Academic Staff Association (SJUASA) Contract Academic Staff unit
Honor Brabazon, SJUASA Full-time Faculty Liaison and Coordinator of the Bargaining Mobilization Campaign
Orvie Dingwall, President of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA)
Nigmendra Narain, University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) President
The presenters invigorated and inspired contract and tenured faculty members alike to see how organizing with colleagues can help to win improvements to working conditions of precariously employed faculty members.
4. Elections for Chair and Vice Chair
The final segment of the meeting was the elections for Chair and Vice Chair. Colin Montpetit of the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa (APUO) was elected as the new CFC Chair, and Andrew Chater of Brescia FA, as the Vice Chair. Montpetit and Chater are strong advocates for contract faculty at their institutions.
Aga Wolczuk
RAAS Lecturers Committee Co-chair
Renison Representative on FAUW Lecturers Committee
OCUFA CFC Member
SATIRE
Amid rising gas prices, Flintstone cars top sales
Josh Chau, The Beaverton, May 10, 2022
Flintstone cars, officially known as Cavemobiles, top car sales in Canada amid rising gas prices as Canadians try to cut costs wherever they can.
CAUT NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), a nation-wide association of our peers.
CAUT welcomes new leadership
CAUT News, May 3, 2022
CAUT elected new leadership at its 92nd Council meeting, a hybrid in-person and online meeting held in Ottawa.
CAUT is soliciting nominations for the 2022-23 CAUT Lee Lorch Award.
OCUFA NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), a province-wide association of our peers.
YUFA encourages members to energetically mobilize the vote in the next Provincial Election
YUFA News, May 24, 2022
In the upcoming election on June 2, YUFA asks members to vote for a government that will ensure better working conditions for university colleagues and contract faculty and adequate compensation for their work.
Ontario parties attach different price tags to pledge to boost student grants
The Sudbury Star, May 23, 2022
Three of Ontario’s four main parties are pledging to reverse cuts to the province’s student assistance program, but they’ve all attached different price tags to the promise.
McMaster sessional instructors give union strike mandate
Teviah Moro, The Hamilton Spectator, May 15, 2022
Hundreds of sessional instructors at McMaster are prepared to go on strike if talks with the university fall apart.
University of Guelph-Humber says potential move from Etobicoke to Brampton could happen in four years
Graeme Frisque, Brampton Guardian.com, May 3, 2022
Brampton might be getting a downtown university campus in as little as four years.
University of Sudbury receives $1.9M from feds as it works toward ‘le rêve’ of a Francophone institution
Heidi Ulrichsen, Sudbury.com, May 1, 2022
University of Sudbury president Serge Miville spoke about the $1.9 million funding boost from the federal government at a press conference.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to our fellow RAAS members who are featured in the uW President’s Excellence in Teaching and Research 2022 awards page for their achievements:
Edwin Ng, President’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Jason Blokuis, President’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Kristina Llewellyn, President’s Award for Excellence in Research
Yan Li, President's Award for Excellence in Research
We celebrate your accomplishments and your well-deserved success! Your contributions cast a spotlight on the exceptional talent amongst Renison faculty.
Member Spotlight
by Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani
Hello everyone! My name is Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani (she/her). It is my great pleasure to join you in RAAS at Renison College University! I will be starting my position as an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work in July. I am originally from rural Japan and was raised by my maternal grandmother, who taught me the importance of respecting and taking care of the land. I have had the privilege of working with diverse communities in different countries, including Morocco and India. In Canada, I have mainly worked with newcomer communities in Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto.
I have an MSW from Wilfrid Laurier University and Ph.D. in Social Work from York University. My scholarly and pedagogical approaches are shaped by these diverse experiences and I look forward to sharing my interests and passions with you all. I love working with communities. Currently, I lead a community-based research project with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT) on Indigenous- Refugee relations which aims to facilitate reconciliation and wholistic healing through land-based education. I hope to expand this project to include broader migrant communities and think about what the Truth and Reconciliation means from the perspectives of migrant settler communities, and how we can reconceptualize migrant integration and Canadian citizenship.
Another important aspect of my work is related to nature-based healing and ecological justice. I am a registered social worker and trained in horticultural therapy and forest therapy. I am interested in nature-based healing, not just at the individual level, but at the community and ecological level. I believe that as we deepen our relationship with the natural world, our human health gets better and our ecological health gets better because as nature takes care of us, we will want to take care of them!
In my spare time, I enjoy tending my plant friends, vegetable gardens and chickens, playing in ravines with my family and biking along the beach. I look forward to working with you and fostering good relations as I make Renison my academic home!