RAAS Report
Friday, February 24, 2023
Ann Dennis, Editor
FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION!
PRESIDENT’S UPDATE
I hope everyone's having a great term so far. There are certainly stresses, and we're not out of the COVID-19 fog yet, but I can't help marvelling at how you all continue to get the job done and done in style. I still don't know all of you very well, but the greatest privilege of my position on the union executive so far has been the opportunities it creates for getting to know more of you better, often by working through tough conceptual and practical challenges together.
Given the focus on preparing for negotiations, the RAAS Executive has not met as regularly as normally. I expect this will change as we get the heavy lifting of negotiations behind us and begin planning for the AGM. Our AGM is an important opportunity for us to get together and review the years, establish a budget for the coming years, and elect our Executive officers. This year there is an opening in the position of Secretary-Treasurer, currently held by Jason. Watch for a call for nominations, some time in March, but start thinking now about whether you are willing to take it on or if there is a colleague you'd like to nominate. We have not yet decided on a format, but the AGM will take place on April 11 (1:00-3:00 p.m.). A face-to-face meeting might be a nice change -- we have a budget for some coffee and baked goods, and we can build in some social time together -- but we are not out of the pandemic yet and a remote meeting might make the meeting accessible to more of you. I would be interested in your input on this decision.
I will be attending the OCUFA Board meeting this weekend in Toronto, which is always a great opportunity to connect with other Faculty Association presidents and to get caught up on developments in our sector. Members of several Faculty Associations (e.g., Trent, Wilfrid Laurier) are receiving salary increases to compensate for restrictions placed on salary negotiations by the now-defunct Bill 124. FAUW reports indicates that the administration of UW has agreed to re-open their 2021 salary settlement in lieu of this development. We have a commitment in our Collective Agreement that our compensation will remain "related to" faculty members of similar rank and experience at UW.
An ongoing concern that OCUFA has been taking some leadership on is university funding, and resisting -- or at least doing damage control on -- "performance-based funding" model the Ford government has been imposing on Ontario universities and colleges. You can find a concise breakdown of the implications for the role universities play in society in the latest issue of OCUFA's Academic Matters (Marc Spooner: What are universities for? Canadian higher education is at a critical crossroads), with links to further information and analysis of the threat (including Spooner's "The ugly side of performance-based funding for universities"). Both the approach to and the amount of spending on high education is at issue, with Ontario spending considerably less than any other province as a proportion of overall revenues.
The Laurentian debacle continues to reverberate through the higher education sector in Ontario, and there are still things we each can do to help prevent it from happening again. Specifically, there is a movement afoot -- and legislation before Parliament and the Senate -- to ensure that public post-secondary institutions are treated differently from for-profit corporations when it comes to financial exigency. You can lend your voice to that effort right now, in under 2 minutes, by sending a letter to the federal Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry to show your support for the bills currently before Parliament and the Senate. CAUT has prepared a letter that you can adapt as you see fit or just add your name to and send in. Parliamentarians need to know that Canadians (voters!) support these bills. Go here to take this small action now.
Here at Renison, many of our Members report facing escalating service expectations combined with reduced committee autonomy, and increasing class sizes, both of which have workload implications. Despite Wendy's optimism about financial recovery, we are being persistently asked to do more with less. We do not have to accept workload increases without compensation, particularly in the middle of negotiations. If this is your experience and/or you have ideas about how we can resist such impositions, your union executive would be most interested in hearing about it.
Rob Case
RAAS President
NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE
Negotiations have begun. In our first session (Feb. 17) we spent some time agreeing on some protocols to keep our negotiation productive and cordial, and then we introduced our first package of proposals, which included what we think are fairly non-controversial language updates, corrections and clarifications. Our next session is scheduled for March 1 at 9:00 a.m. At that session we hope to finalize and sign a Negotiation Protocols agreement, to exchange articles or topics on our agendas for negotiation, to receive the Admin team's response to our first proposal package, and to introduce two of our more substantive proposals.
Your negotiating team is comprised of Rob (Lead Negotiator, SDS), Edwin (SSW), Susan (SSW), and Arshi (SDS), with Crystena (SDS) serving as an alternate. None of the (8) CLS members we approached were able to join the Negotiating Team, but Julia (CLS), Cindy (CLS), and Aga (CLS) have agreed to serve as a Lecturers' reference group to support the negotiations.
Rob Case
Lead Negotiator
GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE UPDATE
The RAAS Grievance Committee was in attendance for a Grievance Officer Orientation workshop on February 9th.
The workshop was intended for grievance officers who are responsible for dealing with member complaints and handling grievances and arbitrations. The day addressed familiar complaints a grievance officer will encounter, the issues raised by the complaints, and the spectrum of suitable responses and strategies. Addressed in the afternoon was guidance in the practical dimensions of being a grievance officer, including those related to matters specific to the provincial labour relations regime, to handling complaints and to maintaining well-being.
A related grievance issue presented was that of academic mobbing and contra-power harassment within academia presented by Goldblatt Partners which was reported as an increasing issue within university settings.
Respectfully Submitted,
Colleen McMillan
Grievance Committee Representative
EQUITY AND INCLUSION COMMITTEE UPDATE
Hello!
As you know, renegotiations of the Collective Agreement have begun at Renison University College. These efforts are in the name of a fair and protected work environment. Equity and belonging are significant aspects of this work, and the RAAS Equity Committee is paying special attention to the processes to ensure that equity is embedded in all aspects of the Collective Agreement.
Committee member Sam Clarke attended the 6th CAUT Equity Conference: Activism for Equity in February 2023 in Ottawa and her report has been shared below. Sam has requested the audit from CAUT, and we will follow up with the information that Sam receives.
Our committee has also been working with our PALS, Edwin Ng (also a RAAS Equity committee member and a negotiation team member) and Kristina Llewellyn to create an equity statement to guide our negotiation work in developing a renewed Collective Agreement. This statement is currently in its almost-complete draft form. It will be shared with y'all when it is finalized.
A very huge thank you to Rob, Edwin, Susan, Arshi and Crystena for their work at the negotiating table. They have carefully listened to us, and will be thoughtful and committed in their renegotiation work. I am confident that they will ensure that the equity-lens features strong.
Warmly,
Trish Van Katwyk
RAAS Representative
CAUT – Equity for Activism Conference
Attended by Samantha Clarke, Lecturer – Social Work
I attended the 2-day Equity for Activism Conference on behalf of RAAS in Ottawa. The overall theme was to identify areas where equity can be embedded in all faculty association work. The specific focus was to understand and apply an equity lens in the following areas: collective bargaining and grievances, campaigns and communication. For anyone interested, there are a number of great equity resources made available to Faculty associations through the CAUT website under the equity toolkit section through the following link: https://www.caut.ca/equity-toolkit. Also, Susan Ursel, a union lawyer provided a collective agreement audit checklist on Human Rights which I made available to the RAAS executive.
Warm regards,
Samantha Clarke
Equity & Inclusion Committee Member
RAAS LECTURERS COMMITTEE (LC) UPDATE
1. Consultations of the RAAS LC working group with RAAS President
In January this year, the members of a small working group of the RAAS LC prepared some arguments in support of their two main negotiation priorities of lecturers at Renison. Subsequently, communications between this group and the RAAS President followed and are expected to continue over the process of current round of bargaining between the RAAS Negotiation Committee and RUC Administration.
FAUW LECTURERS COMMITTEE (LC) UPDATE
1. A meeting in January 2023
At the end of January this year, the committee held a meeting to briefly discuss the results of that month’s FAUW Panel on Moving Forward to Mediation over P76-77 Development and the update from the Policy 76-77 Development Committee re. teaching stream faculty. The committee also started planning the 2023 Annual Town Hall and formed a salary anomaly working group.
OCUFA CONTRACT FACULTY COMMITTEE (CFC) UPDATE
1. Opening 2023
During the first meeting this year, the OCUFA CFC discussed the results of the survey about contract faculty (CF) and academic librarians. The survey revealed how common precarious type appointments are currently among OCUFA members, with CF constituting 23% of the confederation’s total membership. According to the results, the most common appointment types are “limited term, fixed term” and “sessionals without the right of first refusal.”
CFC also advocated its support for the QUFA bargaining team by sending a support email for the team’s key demands of ending precarity and securing a living wage for adjunct faculty. The full list of demands is available here QUFA's Bargaining Demands
2. Preparing for 2023 social media day of action (SM DoA)
This year’s SM DoA is scheduled for Tuesday, February 28 with the theme of Solidarity is our Strength. The CFC members liked the idea of creating and posting short videos of conversations between their tenure and contract colleagues. The videos, which will be posted on the OCUFA’s website, will focus on why job security, equal pay, and improved benefits matter.
Aga Wolczuk
RAAS Lecturers Committee Co-chair
Renison Representative on FAUW Lecturers Committee
OCUFA CFC Member
FAUW UPDATE
Call for Compensation Negotiating Team members
Our next round of compensation negotiations with the University begins late this year, and we are assembling our negotiating team now. We are looking for a Chief Negotiator and two team members to represent FAUW in the formal negotiations which are scheduled for fall 2023 and winter 2024.
SATIRE
New Brunswick purchases Super Bowl ad by selling Moncton
February 12, 2023, Ian MacIntyre, The Beaverton
During the Super Bowl broadcast, viewers will see a new ad encouraging tourists to visit scenic New Brunswick, which the province financed by selling off the city of Moncton.
NOT SATIRE
Public universities should cut pay for presidents
February 5, 2023, Amir Barnea, The Toronto Star
Educational institutions funded by taxpayers have settled into a dynamic where the pay for the top job just keeps going up and up, but it doesn’t need to be that way.
CAUT NEWS
For more conference information and registration details, please click here.
OCUFA NEWS
RAAS is a member of the Ontario Confederation of University CAUT Associations (OCUFA), a province-wide association of our peers.
Canada moves to restrict research funding to protect intellectual property
February 15, 2023, Blair Gable, Reuters
Canadian authorities on Tuesday announced new restrictions on research grants designed to block funding to projects that include researchers who are affiliated with institutions with ties to foreign governments posing a risk to national security.
Profs disappointed, students mixed on lifted mask mandate
February 13, 2023, Adshayah Sathiaseelan and Sophia Schiefler, The Gazette
Western professors have taken to social media to express discontent about the university lifting its mask mandate last week. But many students said they’re happy that the change gives them the choice of whether to wear a mask or not.
Graduate students at Queen’s rally to abolish tuition
February 10, 2023, Aimee Look, The Queen’s Journal
Queen’s graduate student union, PSAC 901, wants Principal Patrick Deane to abolish tuition for graduate students and increase working wages.
Ontario health-care graduates stripped of degrees after finding out school wasn’t accredited
February 9, 2023, Pat Foran, CTV News Toronto
Ontario is in dire need of health-care workers, but more than 90 students who graduated from a private college program to be ultrasound technologists have been told they won’t be allowed to get jobs in their chosen field.
Mark Your Calendars!
Please make note of the following three items that are coming up in February, March, and April:
| ITEM | KEY DATE |
|---|---|
| Social Media Day of Action (SM DoA) | Tuesday, February 28, 2023 |
| Call for nominations for RAAS Secretary-Treasurer position | TBA in March, 2023 - Stay tuned |
| 2023 RAAS AGM | Tuesday, April 11, 2023, 1pm to 3pm - Format TBD |
Happy Birthday to RAAS!
On February 12th, we toasted 5 strong years as Canada’s newest Faculty Association. We all have a great deal to celebrate! Since we first formed, we built up our Association policies and procedures, certified as a union, and negotiated our first collective agreement. Our union has successfully advocated for individuals among us, helped to protect DTLs jobs under threat of discontinuation, and negotiated and defended accommodations for those who have needed them to keep themselves and their families safe in the context of COVID-19. Together, we have weathered unprecedented challenges caused by COVID-19 and we are growing in strength and capacity, as a community, as more and more members take on roles on various committees and initiatives, and in external bodies like FAUW, CAUT and OCUFA. We have become an active participant in the effort to strengthen higher learning not just at our own institution, but across our province and country.
Happy Birthday, RAAS, and let’s celebrate our achievements and look ahead to the many successes that lie ahead!!
Member Spotlight
Hello, to the RAAS community!
My name is Christa Schuller. I was born and raised in Kitchener and received my undergraduate degree from the University of Waterloo. After studying in Germany for a year in my third year at U of W, I decided to move to Europe after graduation to pursue my master’s degree. Well, two years turned into fifteen, and in that time, I also completed my PhD in English Language and Literature and taught at the University of Klagenfurt (Austria) for five years. In 2008, I returned to Waterloo and started teaching at Renison: I had come full circle.
Over the past 15 years, I have been teaching a variety of English for Multilingual Speakers (EMLS) undergraduate and graduate courses as well as APPLS and ARTS EMLS courses and have been a Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Culture & Language Studies (CLS) since 2016. The courses I teach include communication skills courses ranging from pronunciation to oral communication to graduate theses writing. Various programs at the University of Waterloo and Renison that I have been involved in include the International Optometric Bridging Program (IOBP) at the School of Optometry as well as the ACE-TESOL Teacher Training Program. My fields of interest include Pronunciation, Second Language Acquisition, Language and Communication, and Second Language Teaching.
When I am not working, I enjoy spending time with family and friends as well as cooking and gardening. I also like to spend time on the water – in it or on it – as well as travelling the globe, exploring new places and meeting new people.
Warm regards,
Christa Schuller