YUFA
Executive
YUFA Executive Meeting Summaries 2011-2012
by Jay Rahn, Communications Officer
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
Executive has filed policy grievances concerning:
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LA&PS policies and procedures regarding full-time faculty teaching;
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teaching-load documents regarding Contractually Limited Appointments (CLAs) in LA&PS;
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a tenure-track hiring protocols document that has been distributed by the LA&PS;
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the refusal of the Dean’s office in LA&PS to approve the short list for a hiring;
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the hours for the exam-booklet pick-up / drop-off location;
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teaching load for Alternate Stream hires in the Faculty of Science and Engineering;
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Tenure & Promotion procedures (Article 13).
YUFA President Arthur Hilliker has sent a letter to Vice-President Finance & Administration Gary Brewer concerning YUFA obtaining actuarial information about the Pension Plan and has written, with Association of Retired Faculty and Librarians Representative Al Stauffer a communication to YUFA members indicating that the Association is making all efforts to maintain all current benefits and reiterating YUFA's goals and strategies.
Executive directed President Hilliker to send a letter to Vice-President Academic & Provost Patrick Monahan taking issue with the fact that LA&PS held information sessions on Tenure and Promotion in October and November 2011 without either notifying or including YUFA.
Communications Officer Jay Rahn and President Hilliker have sent a letter to Faculty Relations Executive Director Barry Miller indicating the Association's opposition to the possibility of the Employer requiring students to use Google g-mail accounts insofar as g-mail servers are located in the USA and thus subject to the Patriot Act and students’ emails are sent and/or replied to by YUFA faculty.
Communications Officer Rahn has confirmed that the recommendations at the conclusion of his survey of workload changes reported by members have been communicated to Joint Committee on the Administration of the Agreement (JCOAA) for follow up.
Executive directed the Subcommittee on Tenure & Promotion (Article 7.11) to submit a final proposal to the Employer.
After a discussion of campus safety issues, Vice-President Finance & Administration Brewer indicated that a business plan would be needed in order to determine how a Faculty Club would be funded and that finding space, especially a central location, would be very difficult.
Executive has decided to include, as a standing item on the Stewards' Council agenda, a five-minute report by the Stewards’ Council Representatives to Executive, the Stewards’ Council Representatives to alternate this reporting duty monthly.
Executive decided to file policy grievances concerning the incompleteness of the report on the Diversity and Inclusivity Survey that the Employer released to JCOAA and concerning a breach of Article 25.06 c and Appendix C (1).
Executive agreed that Sheila Embleton and Livy Visano will examine the new Tri-Council Policy on Academic Misconduct with a view to determining whether changes to the Collective Agreement will be necessary and will report to Executive.
An advisory to YUFA members concerning Employer requests to convert existing traditional courses to Internet courses has been uploaded to the Website.
Executive decided that a donation of $25,000 to the CAUT Academic Freedom Fund be included in the proposed budget for the next Annual General Meeting.
President Hilliker has received the report on pensions to the Board of Governors from the Vice-President Administration and Finance and has forwarded it to YUFA’s lawyer and actuary. President Hilliker has also requested that the Employer provide Executive with detailed proposals for solvency relief by 31 January 2012 and has scheduled a series of three meetings with the Employer concerning pension issues to begin on 5 December 2011.
In view of YUFA members’ concern about workload, Executive has requested information from JCOAA on increases in enrolment, class sizes, student-faculty ratios and teaching by appointment type. This information is to include a breakdown by faculty and unit and cover the past three years.
Because of the urgent need to receive the results of the Inclusivity and Diversity Survey, Executive decided that if the data collected by the Task Force mandated in Article 7.10 of the Collective Agreement are not received by 30 November, a policy grievance will be filed.
Executive agreed to hold an informal New Faculty Reception, Wednesday 14 December, 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm for faculty members and librarians hired in the last two years.
Executive appointed the following YUFA members to the Research Development Fellowship Committee: Hassan Qudrat-Ullah and Joan Samuels-Dennis. Executive also appointed the following YUFA members to the Teaching-Learning Development Grants / Release-Time Teaching Fellowship Committee: Ali Asgary and Hassan Qudrat-Ullah.
Executive decided that the Community Projects Committee (CPC) continue to have the Vice-President External as an ex officio member. As well, Executive decided that any surplus in the CPC funds that does not exceed the amount of the special levy (if applicable) shall be treated as dedicated money remaining from the levy and therefore shall be made available as a carry-forward for CPC programs for the following budget year and any part of such a surplus that exceeds the amount of that year's levy shall be reabsorbed into YUFA general operating funds prior to any new allocations. Further, in each year's proposed budget for the CPC the carry-forward shall be reported and the justification for new requested money shall take account of these available funds.
In view of the large number of YUFA members who have applied for support to attend the OCUFA Conference “Ensuring Student Success,” Executive decided to approve support for up to ten applicants.
In the interest of transparency, the Executive decided to post to the YUFA Website, in advance of bargaining, a summary of the results of the bargaining survey.
As well, Executive determined that the results of the survey of members’ reported difficulties with the new copyright procedures be posted to the YUFA Website and YUFA-M. In this regard, Executive also agreed that representatives from the Executive Committee, including Jay Rahn (as facilitator), Richard Wellen, and Arthur Hilliker should meet with relevant officials of the Employer.
Executive directed YUFA JCOAA Co-Chair Lorna Erwin and the Chief Stewards to prepare a list of concerns, to be sent to stewards, concerning the LA&PS Dean’s positions on cross-appointments and teaching assignments as well as the request for confidentiality about tenure-track hiring protocols he brought to the LA&PS Chairs’ meeting.
Executive also directed YUFA representatives to JCOAA to circulate the approved minutes of each meeting to members of Executive.
In keeping with Article 6.6 of the YUFA Constitution, Executive appointed Danielle Beausoleil as interim Recording Secretary for the Winter 2012 term.
In response to the Treasurer’s submission, Executive approved the Audited Financial Statement and received the Management Report.
Executive provided financial support for the one-day Symposium "Academic Librarianship: A Crisis or an Opportunity?" being convened in response to the McMaster "Future of Academic Libraries Symposium" as well as recent events affecting academic librarians in Ontario (such as the recent strike at the University of Western Ontario). In the meantime, enrolment for the one day symposium has been very strong and a larger venue has been found.
Executive provided financial support for YUFA members to attend the January 2012 OCUFA Conference “Ensuring Student Success” and to the Brandon University Faculty Association during its ongoing strike.
Executive ratified the following appointments, which had been made via email deliberations between June and August 2011:
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Peter Duerr as Alternate Trustee to the CAUT Defense Fund for the term ending 31 May 2012,
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Lorna Erwin and John Amanatides to the Joint Health & Safety Committee,
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Peter Duerr, Ildiko Kovacs and Lelia Young to the Grievance Subcommittee.
John Amanatides and Lorna Erwin presented an update to Executive concerning ongoing negotiations with the Employer at the Joint Committee on the Administration of Agreement concerning stipends and minimum course releases for academic administrative positions (Appendix P).
Melanie Cao, Penni Stewart and Walter Whiteley of the Joint Subcommittee on Tenure and Promotion (Article 7.11) reported to Executive that, if ratified, proposed amendments will increase transparency in a number of small but significant ways: e.g., entrenching in the Collective Agreement that candidates, upon request, are entitled to receive copies of the whole file (with identifiers removed from referees’ letters). As well, the File Preparation Committee will make best efforts to ensure that at least one reference letter is from the candidate’s list, and the Employer has made a commitment that the Deans shall produce Letters of Transmittal within 60 days.
Executive approved a policy grievance regarding the multiple breaches of the Tenure and Promotions Policy, Criteria and Procedures in LA&PS.
Mary Kandiuk reported that we are still awaiting the analysis of the results of the Inclusivity & Diversity Survey (Article 7.10) currently being undertaken by the Institute for Social Research (ISR). There is concern that any further delay will mean that the information will be dated and that YUFA will be unable to use the survey results to inform preparations for bargaining.
Executive agreed that a call be posted to YUFA-M asking members to report by 3 October 2011 any difficulties they have encountered with recent changes to copyright procedures at York University.
Equity Officers Ida Ferrara and Rose Steele will be canvassing other Ontario universities that have Teaching Streams concerning their experience with respect to equity issues and will present to Executive a draft report based on mostly closed-ended questions circulated to relevant faculty associations.
Executive approved the 2011-2012 Executive Officers’ Workplan.
In preparation for the upcoming round of negotiations, Executive approved the Draft Primary Negotiating Positions, which will be presented to the Stewards’ Council for approval at its next meetings and, if approved there, to the YUFA membership.
Mary Kandiuk reported that highly productive orientation sessions for new stewards have been held, with a total attendance of more than half the new stewards and attempts will be made to accommodate those who were unable to attend.
A reception for new faculty will be arranged.
As Brenda Spotton-Visano has stepped down from the OCUFA Collective Bargaining Committee, Executive agreed that Arthur Hilliker will serve in this capacity until a Chief Negotiator is in place. Executive also finalized revisions to President Hilliker’s report on Important YUFA Summer Activities for dissemination via the YUFA Website.
Treasurer Richard Wellen presented the Association’s quarterly budget report.
Finally Executive agreed to provide financial support to the Centre for Social Justice and to the striking librarians and archivists at the University of Western Ontario.