usfa@usaskfaculty.ca

December 31 Deadline for Flexible Spending Program

It’s important to regularly check on the balance in your Health Spending and/or Personal Spending Accounts under the Flexible Spending Program and note when available funds “expire.” Unspent funds can only be carried forward for one year and funds you do not spend after two years revert to the employer. You can find account balances […]

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Let’s set the record straight

Statements being made by Senior Administrators are leading to the unfortunate conclusion that the ‘dire straits’ in which the College of Medicine finds itself is the fault of lazy faculty not willing to fulfill their duties. Let us set the record straight. Reliance on the expertise of clinical faculty to deliver clinical service has impacted […]

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Is there really a $44.5 million deficit?

Senior Administrators and the Board of Governors have budgeted an operating deficit of $44.5 million by 2015-16. This budgeted deficit is very different than having a deficit in the audited financial statements, and is based on a number of questionable assumptions that can fluctuate from year to year and have a significant impact on the […]

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Incentive Plan for Retirement – application deadline and FAQs

USFA members who have a combined age and years of service equal to or greater than 85 are eligible to apply for the Incentive Plan for Retirement (IPR). The application deadline is October 31, 2013. See http://www.usask.ca/vpacademic/collegial/index.php for application form and additional information. Members are reminded that they may withdraw an application for the IPR […]

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Get science right

Get Science R!ght is a CAUT campaign to raise awareness about the way the federal government policy and funding decisions are threatening Canada’s future in science and research. We have a limited number of posters from this campaign which we are distributing to FARs so they can be posted in prominent locations.  Go to www.getscienceright.ca […]

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Big Science with little output?

In a recent article entitled Big Science vs. Little Science: How Scientific Impact Scales with Funding (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0065263).  Fortin and Currie from University of Ottawa provide a quantitative analysis of the impact of recent changes in NSERC funding. They conclude that scientific impact (measured in a variety of ways) was generally a decelerating function of funding. […]

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From The Editors September 2013

The U of S feels as if it is in crisis mode. A prediction has been made that there will be a hefty shortfall, over 10%, in the annual base operating grant from the provincial government. What’s to do? Well, the flock of sheep is gone, dispersed to more appreciative pastures. The Kenderdine facility has […]

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