Author: usaskfaculty

Happy Holidays from USFA

The Executive and Staff of the University of Saskatchewan Faculty Association wish you a happy holiday and prosperous New Year. Our office will be closed on Monday, December 24th reopening on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013.  In the event of an urgent matter, please feel free to contact either of the following by email: Sarah Hoffman … Continue reading Happy Holidays from USFA

Cutbacks and Faculty

The USFA Executive has heard concerns expressed by members about the possibility of faculty lay-offs as our senior administrators address their current budget issues. There are no faculty lay-offs projected at this time for the New Year. Any cuts in programming must follow the provisions in Article 29.5.2 of the Collective Agreement with respect to… Continue reading Cutbacks and Faculty

Be Sure to Participate in Bargaining Surveys!

Part of our bargaining preparation includes conducting membership surveys on various issues relevant to bargaining. Survey participants are randomly selected from current USFA members. Full participation in these surveys is vitally important. If you receive an email invitation to participate, please take the two to three minutes necessary to complete the survey.

In the trenches

USFA recently circulated a letter written by your Chair, Doug Chivers, to senior administration regarding problems junior faculty have establishing research programs. Doug is the Rawson Professor of Biology and, as a very successful scholar, is empathetic with these issues. The letter struck a positive chord with faculty. One commentator observed that establishing a research… Continue reading In the trenches

Integrated or disintegrated planning

The third integrated plan describes strategies that will be used to advance academic priorities over the next four years.  These strategies are supposed to guide our planning and programing and include fostering creativity and innovation, learner-centred programming, promoting diversity and experiential learning.  With the recent decision to cut the Kenderdine Campus, an experiential learning environment… Continue reading Integrated or disintegrated planning

Due Diligence and Fairness

The Fall is the time of year when you deliberate on your colleagues’ renewal of probation, tenure and promotion. The Collective Agreement gives us the right – and the duty – to make these decisions and we have to exercise them with the greatest of all due diligence. If you are a committee member, the… Continue reading Due Diligence and Fairness

Reflections on my discussions with new faculty

This issue of Collectively Speaking is a memo composed by Doug Chivers, USFA Chair and Rawson Professor of Biology, to a number of senior U of S administrators including the President, the Provost and Vice-President Academic, the Vice-President Research, the Vice-Provost, Faculty Relations, the Acting Vice-President Finance and Resources and the Associate Vice-President Human Resources.… Continue reading Reflections on my discussions with new faculty

Lockheed Martin and the take-over of the Academy by the corporations: How far should we go?

By: Luis A. Buatois & M. Gabriela Mángano, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan A total $147 million budget cut for the three councils is under way. In particular, the situation of NSERC has been addressed in a recent news article published by the journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/canadian-budget-hits-basic-science-1.10366), where it reads “Canada’s latest budget will… Continue reading Lockheed Martin and the take-over of the Academy by the corporations: How far should we go?