Western Regional Conference “Navigating the Future: Unlocking Opportunities Amid Financial and Political Challenges” October 17–19, 2024, Victoria, British Columbia The Western Regional Conference provides a yearly forum for Canadian faculty associations in the west to meet and exchange information about negotiations, grievance arbitration, and current trends impacting universities in our provinces, region, and across Canada. […]

As you are aware, the new collective agreement contains the following new article: 7.3 Consistent with the principles of employment equity, diversity and inclusion, the parties are committed to eliminating or modifying those employment policies, practices, and systems, whether formal or informal, shown to have an unfavorable effect on the hiring, retention, tenure and promotion […]

If, as a condition of employment, you are required to maintain a certification or license in order to perform your academic duties, you may be eligible for reimbursement of some or all of your licensing or certification fees (Article 22.12.2). Eligible fees are those paid between December 1, 2023 and November 30, 2024. The last […]

The Collective Agreement is crafted so that every tenurable member may proceed through the ranks with a complete understanding of specified criteria for standards of performance to move on to each stage, from renewal of probation through tenure and promotion to the rank of full professor. In this issue of Collectively Speaking, we discuss the […]

As part of the 2023-2027 Collective Agreement, effective July 1, 2024, all Assistant Professors who have disclosed they are not male and who were hired on or after July 1, 2017, will receive one Career Development Increase (CDI), which counts toward the CDI ceiling.  For this round we looked at starting salaries from 2015–16 through […]

The recently ratified 2023 – 2027 Collective Agreement includes the creation of new ranks of academic faculty appointments – Assistant Professor of Teaching, Associate Professor of Teaching, Professor of Teaching. Creating standards that are appropriate and achievable for your unit now means your unit will not need to fit its standards under college and university […]

The 2023-2027 Collective Agreement contains provisions affirming the commitment to reconciliation and decolonization. It also contains provisions that take action on these important principles. Advocate support will be available to candidates in critical collegial processes – searches, renewal of probation, tenure, promotion, and appeals. This is possibly one of the most significant new provisions in […]

USFA members continue to identify workload as a bargaining issue. Various factors including increasing student numbers, and a decreased faculty complement are resulting in greater workloads for faculty. Several provisions in the 2023-2027 Collective Agreement are intended to be some measures to address this issue.   Guidelines for the Assignment of Duties Several new provisions are […]

USFA members are invited to submit an application to the Executive Committee for reimbursement of expenses incurred in attending a conference/workshop/meeting related to the USFA, including but not limited to, labour relations, academic freedom, employment equity, and workplace health and safety. The USFA Conference/Workshop/Meeting Attendance Policy was instituted as a way to ensure that there […]