The work of faculty is changing in response to the Administration’s decision to shutter campus in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The continual erosion of direct, administrative and technical support for faculty has only increased the burden on faculty as we take on the work of schedulers, IT equipment installers, purchasers, instructional designers, and in […]

Teaching evaluations are an unnerving aspect of the job for untenured faculty and for those going for promotion, and are more so because of the unanticipated move to online instruction forced by COVID-19. Peer evaluators sometimes criticize unfairly or get some facts wrong, and students can be rather harsh. With many of us feeling we […]

Over the summer we have been meeting with representatives of the Pandemic Response Team (PRT), carrying on discussions with the employer about the COVID-19 response, and insisting on efforts to resolve matters affecting USFA members. We have raised a number of concerns in these discussions including the need for clarity on copyright of recorded lectures, […]

We write with thanks to faculty who responded to our request for information about the diverse challenges caregivers are experiencing with work demands in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a few days of our e-letter, another 100 signatories joined the initial group of 50 petitioners: as we expected, this issue is a significant […]

Dear USFA members. We have heard from  many of you that you are concerned about the impact of workplace arrangements caused by the pandemic.  Would you please consider completing this short survey, attached, being conducted by a fellow faculty member.  This research investigates how faculty are affected differently by the move to remote work.  Findings […]

Dear Faculty members, We have had a number of emails expressing dismay that parking fees continue to be charged while the campus is closed and faculty are working at home. We raised this issue with the employer when we were negotiating the COVID Letter of Understanding early in the spring. However, the employer’s response was […]

Dear colleagues, We are writing to encourage faculty to consider reallocating unneeded funds from your Accountable Professional Expense Funds (APEF) to support students during COVID-19. Faculty and staff who have either an Accountable Professional Expense Fund (APEF) or a Department and Senior Administrator Expense (DSAE) account can allocate funds for Emergency Student Support grants or […]

Information provided in the June 9 edition of the YouSask Faculty and Staff Newsletter regarding office access has created some confusion. The use of “one-time access” in conjunction with a different protocol, in the Newsletter led many to believe that the previous protocol for access to offices was discontinued.  That is not the case. While […]

We have had a few inquiries about the ownership of materials faculty develop for teaching remotely.  The copyright article, which has remained almost unchanged since the first Collective Agreement (1977–79), stipulates that faculty own the copyright to their lectures but do not own copyright in recorded works if such works are created in the course […]

We received many responses to the Caregiving Demands e-Letter circulated to members last week. Faculty members have written about their concerns about equity for caregivers in various collegial processes in the future, such as tenure, promotion, and salary review, the lack of acknowledgement from the University of the stress on faculty, the additional stress of homeschooling […]