The University of Saskatchewan Faculty Association represents more than 1,000 full-time academic employees at the University of Saskatchewan.
Due to a delay in the delivery of ballots for Executive Committee elections to some Colleges, the deadline for submitting ballots to the USFA office has been extended. Ballots must be received at the USFA office by 2:00 pm on Thursday, April 24th.
If you have not received your ballot by April 17th, please contact the USFA office at 306-966-5609 or usfa@usaskfaculty.ca .
The USFA Constitution provides for two general membership meetings per year. The meeting package for the Spring General Meeting will be going out next week.
This meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 25th at 2:30 p.m. in Arts 241, Neatby-Timlin Theatre.
Following the meeting please join us for a social in the Windows Room at the University Club.
Mark your calendar and plan to attend!
The General Academic Assembly (GAA) is required to meet once per year at which the President reports on the state of the University. This year’s GAA meeting takes place tomorrow, Wednesday, April 9th, at noon in Convocation Hall.
More than just a body to which the President is required to report the GAA is a component of collegial governance at our University. It has specific powers through legislation, including the ability to require University Council to reconsider certain decisions as well as the power to dissolve Council and require new elections. The easiest way for you to be involved in the governance of our University is to attend this meeting.
With surpluses instead of deficits for the last two years in the operating budget, an increase of 2% to the operating grant from the Provincial Government, the elimination of positions and upcoming retirements, what will the President say to the GAA about the State of the University?
Plan to attend the GAA meeting tomorrow. It is an opportunity for you to join colleagues from across campus and engage in an open dialogue with the highest level of University administration.
Today is the best day to start thinking about your promotion/tenure case. You have a lot of resources to help you with your case.
By May 31, your Department Head or Dean should have met with you to discuss your progress with respect to the approved standards, with which you should be familiar.
You don’t give students much credit for answering a question other than the one you asked them to answer. Similarly, your colleagues will not give you much credit for activity other than that needed to meet your standards.
Be sure you understand the meaning of all terms. If your standards are vague, you should ask how they have been interpreted in the past. Your Dean, Department Head, or faculty mentor should be able to provide you with further advice.
It is the responsibility of your Department Head or Dean to gather information and documentation for your case file. It is your responsibility to know what has been gathered and to add whatever you consider necessary to demonstrating you have met the standards.
For tenure, and promotion to full professor, your department or college committees will select several independent external reviewers. Your standards will describe the selection process, and you generally will have an opportunity for input.
Notify your Department Head or Dean as soon as possible that you intend to go forward for tenure or promotion, but no later than June 15.
By June 30, you should have been advised to provide anything you want included in your case file and it needs to be in by August 1.
If you have questions about the tenure or promotion procedure, feel free to include them in a reply to this email, and someone will get in touch with you.
Don’t forget, if you are planning to go forward for renewal, tenure or promotion this fall, consider joining USFA representatives at the University Club from11:30 to 1:30 April 8 (in the Red Room) or April 14 (in the Club Room), to talk about the process. Lunch will be provided, so please reply to this email if you are interested in attending or let us know by phone (306-966-5609).
Claims for reimbursement from any of the benefit plans must be submitted to Sun Life within 90 days of the end of the calendar year in which the expense is incurred. This means that the deadline for submitting claims incurred between January 1 and December 31, 2013 is March 31, 2014.
You can find account balances on the Sun Life website (http://www.mysunlife.ca). Log in and click on “My Health and Wellbeing.” The amounts in the accounts are specified as well as the year in which allocations were made.
Information on what expenses can be covered using the Health Spending Account can be found at http://working.usask.ca/documents/findmybenefits/benefitplans/faculty/usfa_hsa.pdf.
Information on what expenses can be covered using the Personal Spending Account can be found at http://working.usask.ca/documents/findmybenefits/benefitplans/faculty/usfa_psa.pdf.
Yesterday, the Provincial Government brought down its 2014-15 Budget. As Chair I want to provide you with the USFA reaction to the Budget and to the comments from President Busch-Vishniac in her Provincial Budget Announcement.
We are concerned about choices being made by the Provincial Government with respect to the way in which it allocates funding to the U of S. With a deficit predicted by Senior Administrators and the Board of Governors to be $44.5 million by 2015-16, the choice of the Provincial Government to direct funding to specific projects and initiatives is a bad choice for the University. The Government is tying the hands of U of S administration by targeting funds to particular uses. By restricting the use of government funding, it removes the autonomy of the university. It removes the flexibility necessary to use funding where it is most needed.
While a 2% increase in the operating grant is welcome, it is not enough. We have been told that the costs associated with university operations are increasing at a faster rate than increases to the operating grant. Alternative revenue sources and tuition end up being needed to offset costs. With last week’s Board decision, the average U of S tuition has increased more than 17% in the last four years. Tuition increases are making a university education for Saskatchewan students less affordable and the quality of that education is being impacted because the Provincial Government is not funding Saskatchewan Universities appropriately to maintain and grow our programs.
I also want to say that the USFA is deeply disappointed with the President’s comment questioning the security of the future of our University. The USFA is still not convinced that the structural deficit is anything more than a convenient manner for Senior Administrators and the Board to soften the resistance to institutional change through the use of fear and anxiety amongst those within the institution. This kind of comment only reinforces our view.
The U of S is a top notch institution with world renowned scholars and high quality degree programs. The USFA believes that the future of our university is secure and we will continue to work diligently on your behalf. We will continue to ask questions about choices being made by our Provincial Government and Senior Administrators.
In solidarity,
Doug Chivers, USFA Chair
Rawson Professor of Biology
The Collective Agreement is clear – you can elect to go for tenure or promotion in any year if you believe you have met your standards.
The applicable standards may be less clear, and it may be difficult to gauge how strong your case should be.
First, be sure you know which standards apply to you.
For example, if you are in a department without standards, you will be required to go by the college standards. Where the standards differ, the Collective Agreement is clear that department standards take precedence over college standards, and college standards take precedence over university standards. As well, department standards must be at least as stringent as college standards. The guiding principle is that the unit best understands the local academic culture.
Additionally, for tenure cases, the standards in effect at the time of appointment apply. For promotion, the most recent standards apply.
If you are planning to go forward for renewal, tenure or promotion this fall, consider joining USFA representatives for lunch to talk about the process. The Red Room at the University Club has been booked for 11:30 to 1:30 on Tuesday, April 8th and the Club Room for Monday, April 14th. Please reply to Tammy Stieb at tammy.stieb@usask.ca if you are interested in attending one of these lunches or by phone (306-966-5609).
You can also reply to this email with questions about tenure and promotion and someone will get in touch with you.
Claims for reimbursement from any of the benefit plans must be submitted to Sun Life within 90 days of the end of the calendar year in which the expense is incurred. This means that the deadline for submitting claims incurred between January 1 and December 31, 2013 is March 31, 2014.
You can find account balances on the Sun Life website (http://www.mysunlife.ca). Log in and click on “My Health and Wellbeing.” The amounts in the accounts are specified as well as the year in which allocations were made.
Information on what expenses can be covered using the Health Spending Account can be found at http://working.usask.ca/documents/findmybenefits/benefitplans/faculty/usfa_hsa.pdf.
Information on what expenses can be covered using the Personal Spending Account can be found at http://working.usask.ca/documents/findmybenefits/benefitplans/faculty/usfa_psa.pdf.
Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women’s Day (IWD). For more than a century IWD has been observed around the world to raise awareness of issues affecting women. It’s a day to recognize and celebrate the progress that’s been made in bettering the lives of girls and women while renewing our resolve to keep going.
IWD 2014 is about Inspiring Change. As academics, that is part of what we do. Whether through our research or our work with students and others, we inspire changes. Use IWD as a day to acknowledge this important role and use every other day to be an inspiration for positive changes for girls and women.
The CAUT Statement on International Women’s Day 2014 can be found on the CAUT website at http://www.caut.ca/news/2014/03/07/caut-statement-on-international-women-s-day-2014.
The Canadian Labour Congress, in partnership with Western University, is conducting a survey on the impact of domestic violence on workers and workplaces. Whether or not you have personally experienced or witnessed domestic violence, all workers over the age of 15 are encouraged to complete the survey. The survey is available online until June 14 at http://fluidsurveys.com/s/DVatWork/.
Important changes are facing all of us as members of the University. TransformUs, in particular, has been the lightning rod for critical comment by colleagues not only in the pages of VOX but in other print media. Nor should it surprise us that the “Dickeson model” guiding TransformUS has been rejected by universities and colleges in both Canada and the United States because of the lasting damage it can cause. If history is of any value, a faculty member at University of Northern Colorado where Dickeson was president more than 25 years earlier has noted recently that his actions “still have not healed… created wounds of distrust and fear in faculty that have not gotten better over the years and they became part of the institutional culture… Maybe it’s good for the bottom line but it can destroy a school.”
Our colleagues have argued in VOX that it is unbecoming of an institution in the U15 club to gamble its strategic plans to a prescription that is arcane, flawed and ill-conceived. If we have a fiscal problem it is due to mishandling of priorities by the administration in the last decade. None of our programs is a luxury. They are all necessities for a distinctive U15 institution. The administration should show its leadership through creative resolve in examining options and execution of its mandate in collegial dialogue with the faculty who teach these programs.
This is the eighth issue of VOX to appear this year and we have reached our approved limit. As a forum for the expression of opinions of USFA members, however, we want you to know that should we receive more submissions we will approach the USFA Executive Committee with a request to sponsor further issues.
The Editors
(Click here for a pdf of this issue of VOX.)
Professor Franz-Viktor Kuhlmann
Department of Mathematics & Statistics
University of Saskatchewan
Many of our students and also many faculty members are concerned about what is going on presently at our university, but many also feel that they do not know enough about the details and the background of the TransformUS process. Appended at the end of this article are several links to sources where you can find more information.
The TransformUS process has severely damaged the morale of students, as well as faculty and staff, on campus. The danger that many of them see is that the diversity of academic offerings, the number of programs, will be cut significantly. This means less service for ever higher tuition. It also means a shift away from education towards training (but that one can receive as well, and even better, at SIAST). Ultimately, this constitutes a shift away from the well educated, mature and alert citizen towards the well trained worker and willing consumer.
The administration tries to assure our students that they will be able to finish their program before it is phased out. Even if this is true, they will end up with a degree from a program that no longer exists, and therefore will have less value in the perception of future employers. In fact, the ways these programs are selected to be cut, the rankings in the TaskForce reports, often downright discredit these programs.
While some tend to believe that administration will not cut a program until the last student has finished it, we cannot rely on this at all. We have seen examples of bold administrative intrusion into programs. Around three years ago, this brought down the smaller programs in the Languages Department. It happened that students one day, when they logged in to PAWS, suddenly found that they were no longer enrolled in their program simply because it did not exist any longer. There had been no prior warning or any sort of consultation with them.
This is not only about our students, the opportunities offered to them at our university, the safety of the programs they are currently in, and the value and reputation of the degrees they will earn. It is also about future students, those our current students had thought of recommending their program to, their younger friends or siblings. It is about future generations, possibly your own children and children’s children, who once should also receive a top education from a university that will still be a university with its traditional values of culture, knowledge and academic freedom, and not a Walmart.
Many students have now signed the open letter to the President. Are they more willing to fight for the future of education and of this university than their professors? Will we dare to use academic freedom to speak up against the loss of the traditional values of our university and against the tuition hikes which now leave our students with huge debts at the end of their studies? If we fail to do so, professors will fail their responsibility for their students, for future generations and society, and tolerate the systematic destruction of the search for knowledge and truth at the University of Saskatchewan.
I encourage you to attend the next Council meetings on Thursday, February 27, March 20, and April 17 at 2:30pm in Room 241 Arts (Neatby-Timlin Theatre), and the next General Academic Assembly on April 9 at noon in Convocation Hall.
Links:
The VOX web page, where one can find several articles concerning TransformUS, as well as the open letter: https://staging.usaskfaculty.ca/category/vox/
The official UofS web site about the “Academic Programs Transformation Task Force report” which also includes lots of blogs, together with some (for various reasons quite interesting) answers from the ruling “elite” of our university: http://words.usask.ca/transformus/reports/aptreport/
The independent “Free Academia at USask” blog site, where one can read the open letter and the list of signers, and read and engage in a lively discussion about TransformUS: http://freeacademiausask.blogspot.ca/
On this site are also lots of interesting links to articles in the media and on the internet that provide further background information about what is going on at the universities here and all over North America.
It is not too late to sign the open letter; signatures are still being collected and there is no dead line for feedback. One can sign the letter on the blog site, or write to the email address: OpenLetterUSask@gmail.com
Professor Claire Card
Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences
University of Saskatchewan
In the early days of the academy students came together and identified scholars of their choosing to instruct them. These scholars included writers, philosophers, musicians, artists, and scientists who collectively formed a knowledge community. Many of their discoveries and works including essays, paintings, and compositions continue to enlighten us today.
How far we have come! We now inhabit a reality where lamentably administrators have engaged a process called TransformUS to displace academic decision – making. This process puts primacy on the dollar generated per program rather than the program’s academic merit. Make no mistake some administrative calculations in this regard have routinely been done. The difference is that now that central administration has eliminated 250 support staff positions, and they have convinced the faculty to do their job! This was a gargantuan task and my purpose is not to criticize those who volunteered their efforts. My purpose is to have you consider the outcome of the TransformUS process, which is the removal of academic decision – making at the College and department level regarding the programs you offer. The worth of academic programs you teach has been quintiled in a reductionist process based on incomplete information and justified because of a “structural deficit” (a deficit projected to occur based on future choices), i.e. sketchy fiscal magical math.
The TransformUS process is clear in that it is a process intended for resource allocation. It means Programs will be eliminated in a “process determines outcome” manner. The process appears to be rule based but has been shown to be arbitrary and discretionary, not objective and transparent. Most clearly it is not a peer review process, and there has been no comparison of the peer “Systematic Program Review” process with the results of the current TransformUS process. The numbered rankings generated by TransformUS are poor numbers, devoid of validity, which are being applied to fundamentally used alter our governance and policy decisions.
The best process for academic decision – making remains that Deans, Department heads and faculty meet to decide how to make financial adjustments when resources are lean. If there is financial uncertainty then a best – case, worst – case scenario can be planned for and engaged. These individuals have direct knowledge of their discipline, talents and resources. The Transform US process removes decision making from the faculty, departments and deans who are best poised to make decisions about academic programs based on merit, rather than the primacy of a programs’ economic value to the University. The Dickeson methodology applied in the TransformUS process more or less forces programs into quintiles even when they have same starting categorical ranking, by invoking arbitrariness.
A careful evaluation of the TransformUS “Academic Template” shows that a mere 26% of the template is based on “academic criteria.” The academic criteria are found in Criterion 5: Quality of the Inputs (degrees granted, research revenues, average number of publications) and Criterion 6: Quality of the Program Outcomes (accreditation, describe successes). The remainder or 74% is based on: Criterion 1: History; Criterion 2: External demand (such as applications per student admitted); Criterion 3: Internal demand (do non-majors enroll, are services provided to other units? what is the teaching load per faculty?); Criterion 7: Revenue and Resource generation; Criterion 8: Cost and Expenses Associated with the program; Criterion 9: Impact (alignment with Integrated Plans and Strategic Directions); and Criterion 10: Opportunity (for efficiency, for reconfiguration). “Demand” as defined by popularity of enrollment, is a far cry from “demand” as defined by societal needs. The very need to educate specialists makes it impossible to assess the value of their training programs by enrollment.
The TransformUS process refers to the Integrated Plans and Strategic Directions,
but fatally ignores our Mission (to achieve excellence in the scholarly activities of teaching, discovering, preserving, and applying knowledge) and Foundational Documents. The focus is instead on “themes.” It has been my long – standing academic experience that excellence is not achieved by a dollar value per program calculation. The dollar value per program is a corporatist approach and is absolutely inappropriate for a University. In addition TransformUS is wrong-headed in that the U of S is largely comprised of professional programs and Colleges whose accreditation obligations leave very little room to align with the themes, and are therefore penalized for lack of fit.
To date the overwhelming majority of people directly involved in the Transform US process describe it as “deeply flawed.” Main criticisms include the Transform US process is: too fast, overly inward looking and ignores external factors, lacking in accurate information, inadequate in its consultations, particularly with students, and uses templates that are insufficiently flexible to capture the complexity of the programs and services on the forms. The TransformUS operational process forces programs into ranks rather than looking at those that did not meet acceptable academic standards.
I have repeatedly heard President Ilene Busch-Vishniac state ” the rest of the world was watching” to see if they should take up this process. If the faculty accept the Transform US process which is a process of resource allocation, of a dollar value per program calculation through quintile rankings, and forced programmatic changes through resource allocations, it will set a precedent. The TransformUS methodology will be cloned and applied to other Universities putting “value for money” over “excellence” and “needed by society.”
What about the financial crisis? Ultimately crises and their resolutions are about choices. Fiscal responsibility anyone? Any public school board has much clearer and more transparent accounting than what is provided to the tax paying public from the U of S. For example the administration and Board of Governors has been prolifigate in deciding to approve building projects on campus: Canada’s largest science project, the CLS: VIDO – Intervac Biosecurity Level 3 facility, Expansion of the WCVM, Student residences, Health Sciences D and E wing, new Dairy Facility, and we are on deck with the Gordon Oakes Red Bear Center, a Children’s hospital, PET and isotope production facility, and a Hotel. The word “overleveraged” pops into my head. This building spree is continuing in the face of a below cost of living increase by the Provincial Government! Does anyone in the public sphere actually have the figures for how much it costs the UoS to service their growing debt? Beyond the building debt consider the size and scope of the operating cost for the CLS and Intervac alone. Last estimates I heard from a VP Finance was the operating cost for the CLS was 25 million, Vido Intervac was 5 million. These facilities are costly to run. Where is the line item for those operating costs on the University’s Budget and Operating Forecast? Why is the lack of inclusion of this information defensible? It was clear in the business plans that the administration was aware these projects would run at a continual deficit when they were built. When the call comes out to cut support staff, retire professors, and cut programs it is pretty clear where the buck is being passed.
The majority of people indicate the TransformUS process was flawed, and should not be used for resource allocations. That aside the Transform US information may inform the discussion on certain matters, but it should not displace a collegial process regarding academic program decisions. The best process for academic decision – making involves Deans, Department Heads, and Faculty. Accepting the outcome of the Transform US process to allocate resources means faculty support a ranking process of Programs based primarily on non-academic criteria. I am asking you to join me at University Council and in an open letter to the Board of Governors and President Ilene Busch-Vishniac in show of non-confidence in the TransformUS process as a means of academic resource allocation.
VOX is a forum for the expression of opinions of members of the USFA on topics of general interest to the membership. Submissions to be considered for publication should be sent to the USFA office to the attention of the VOX Editorial Board or they may be sent by email to usfa@usaskfaculty.ca, or to any member of the Editorial Board.
VOX is sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan Faculty Association and is published by an independent Editorial Board, whose members are:
George Khachatourians
Brian Pratt
Howard Woodhouse
VOX may appear up to eight times a year, depending on the volume of submissions. All articles remain the property of the authors, and permission to reprint them should be obtained directly from them. All opinions expressed in VOX are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the position of the USFA or the Editorial Board.