The recent announcement of restructuring in the College of Medicine has surprised and shocked affected faculty members in the College. The draft discussion paper, titled “Academic Reorganization and Administrative Alignment in the College of Medicine”, which proposes dramatic changes, is being rushed to University Council on May 17, 2012, in the final months of the […]
Read More »The USFA Constitution provides for two general membership meetings per year. The official meeting notice for the Spring General Meeting will be going out in the next few days. This meeting is scheduled for April 20 at 2:00 p.m. in Arts 143 and will include information about negotiations, a discussion of the recent provincial budget, […]
Read More »The USFA Constitution mandates an annual election of one-half of the members of the Executive Committee. By now you should have received the 2012 election package. Any regular member of the Association is eligible to run for a position and the term of office is two years. While, it has long been recognized that serving […]
Read More »Our current Collective Agreement expires on June 30, 2013 and preparation for the next round of bargaining by the USFA has already begun. Faculty Association Representatives (FARs) will play an integral part in the preparation process and we ask that members consult with their FARs regarding bargaining preparations. We have already met and provided FARs […]
Read More »One of the most thought-provoking presentations at the 2011 Western Regional Conference of Faculty Associations was with respect to administrative practices at universities. Faculty members are faced with an ever-growing burden of administrative requirements. An incremental change to university administrative practices that may appear logical from the viewpoint of administrative personnel may, in some instances, […]
Read More »It has come to our attention that junior faculty have been counseled by some senior administrators not to publish results from their PhD thesis, as the various standards require that tenure candidates provide “compelling evidence that a body of high quality scholarly work has been completed beyond that demonstrated at appointment” (our emphasis). Thus it […]
Read More »The University Standards for Tenure and Promotion state that for tenure as an Assistant or Associate Professor or promotion to the rank of Associate Professor a candidate must demonstrate a “defined program of research or scholarship”. But what does this mean? Will a faculty member with a very narrow focus of research on a highly […]
Read More »A few years ago, senior administration clawed back unit budgets to the tune of $10 million, claiming it was necessary to deal with the global financial crisis and, amongst other things, to shore up the pension plans. These budget reductions were difficult for units and resulted in cuts to academic programming. A change in legislation […]
Read More »There is no question that your Head of department is a vital cog in the academic wheel. At U of S and just about every other institution in Canada, the head is ‘in scope,’ that is, a member of the faculty association and therefore protected by the collective agreement. The role of the Head should […]
Read More »One long-standing feature of the Collective Agreement has been the Reduced Appointment Plan (RAP), which allows faculty members over 55 with at least 10 years of service to gradually downsize their careers by reducing to part-time without a corresponding reduction in benefits. The Collective Agreement states “[e]mployees who wish to participate in the Reduced Appointment […]
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