Category: USFA e-Letter

Consider nominating someone you know for the USFA’s Dooley Award or Millard Award.

The Dooley Award recognizes people or organizations that have been champions of collegial self-governance in Canada.

The Millard Award recognizes USFA members who have assisted and/or supported a USFA member or members, or faculty generally, through their involvement with the Association.

How to make a nomination

• Nominations must be made by a USFA member or USFA committee.
• Send a letter of less than 1,000 words explaining how the nominee is deserving of the award, along with the nominee’s written acceptance of the nomination.
• Nominations may be submitted by email to usfa@usaskfaculty.ca .  Be sure to reference the award in the subject line.
• The deadline for nominations is on February 24.

Past recipients, current USFA Executive Committee members, members of the Selection Committee and USFA Staff are not eligible.

Claims for reimbursement for any expenses 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 deadline applies to 2016 claims made under the Dental Plan, Health Plan or Flexible Spending Program (Health Spending Account or Personal Spending Account).

The deadline for submitting claims incurred between January 1 and December 31, 2016 is March 31, 2017.

To our Muslim co-workers, to our Muslim students, to our whole community, the USFA joins with Canadians across the country in extending our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and injured in the attack in Quebec City on Sunday.

As scholars, teachers, and citizens we deplore the emboldening of racists and Islamophobes by President Trump’s recent executive order on immigration. USFA is resolved to contest any attempt to legitimate such views in our University, province, or country. Immigrants and refugees are welcome here. Hatred is not.

Nominations are now open for the Peter C. Dooley Legacy Award and the Peter T. Millard Award. In April we will be presenting these awards at a celebration dinner and we encourage you to submit nominations.

Nominations for these Awards can be made by any current USFA member or by any USFA committee. The nomination will take the form of a letter, not more than 1,000 words, from the nominator explaining how the nominee is deserving of the award. Nominators must also include a written agreement from the nominee that the nomination will be accepted. Terms of reference for the Awards can be found on the USFA website. Past recipients, current USFA Executive Committee members, members of the Selection Committee and USFA Staff are not eligible.

Send nominations to:

USFA
Room 20 Education Building
28 Campus Drive
Saskatoon SK S7N 0X1

Or usfa@usaskfaculty.ca. (Please reference the award in the subject line.)

The deadline for nomination is 4:30 p.m. Friday, February 24, 2017.

The Peter C. Dooley Legacy Award is intended to recognize and celebrate champions of collegial self-governance and to ensure that the role Peter Dooley played as such a champion in making the USFA what it is today is not forgotten. The Dooley Award is given to a person, persons or an organization who has, through a long-term, cumulative contribution or a single, particularly important event or action, championed collegial decision-making and collegial self-governance in Canada.

The Peter T. Millard Award is meant to provide a means for USFA members to acknowledge and recognize other USFA members who, through their activism and involvement in the USFA and with the administration of the Collective Agreement, have been champions on behalf of USFA members and faculty at the University of Saskatchewan. The Millard Award is given to individuals who have assisted and/or supported a USFA member or members, or faculty generally through their involvement in the work of the Association. This assistance and support could be a long-term, cumulative contribution or a single, particularly important event or action.

The USFA Executive Committee is looking for volunteers to draft a Strike Policy for the membership’s consideration at the spring general meeting on April 21, 2017. The USFA is now a member of the CAUT Strike Defence Fund. In the event of a strike lasting more than 2 days, we will receive daily strike benefits from the Defence Fund. The purpose of the policy is to outline how those benefits will be distributed among our membership.

Please contact Johanne Brassard (Johanne.brassard@usask.ca or 5610) if you are interested in serving on this committee.

USFA members are invited to submit an application to the Executive Committee for reimbursement of attendance at a conference/workshop/meeting related to the USFA including, but not limited to, labour relations, academic freedom, employment equity, and workplace health and safety.

In the Spring of 2016, the USFA Executive Committee replaced the USFA Policy for Association Spending on Conferences with the USFA Conference/Workshop/Meeting Attendance Policy.

The purpose of the new policy is to ensure that annual budget allocations are made to support training and development that assists Executive Committee members, FARs, members of USFA committees, and USFA representatives to fulfill their duties and responsibilities, and to support the USFA’s active participation regionally and nationally in organizations important to its work.

Criteria for approval of requests includes:

• Relevance to the mandate and activities of the USFA
• The anticipated cost to the USFA of the request for reimbursement given the budget allocation for these activities and the actual and anticipated expenditures on these activities
• Equity among members requesting USFA reimbursement
• Capacity-building and succession planning
• The applicant’s participation in USFA activities

Successful applicants are required to submit a written report within 30 days of their return.

Submit applications to usfa@usaskfaculty.ca referencing “Conference Fund Application” in the subject line.

Some upcoming eligible events:

Regina & District Labour Council Equity and Human Rights Conference

February 4, 2017

Saskatoon & District Labour Council Annual General Meeting

February 10 – 11, 2017

CAUT Equity Conference

February 24 – February 25, 2017

Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC Governance in the 21st Century

Meeting the Challenges of Openness, Accountability, and Democracy

March 3 – 4, 2017

Sask. Federation of Labour/Canadian Labour Congress 2017 Annual Spring School

April 3 – April 7, 2017

 Canadian Labour Congress 28th Constitutional Convention

May 8 – 12, 2017

Last year we heard from members who were asked to provide an accounting of their planned achievements, including desired research output, number of publications, and grant applications, and were told that this plan would be considered when awarding merit. This year some units are considering whether to incorporate achievement plans into Guidelines for the Assignment of Duties and treating “aspirational prospective research plans” as a concrete assignment of duties.

As dangerous as it is to use your goals as the basis for awarding merit, it is even more dangerous to incorporate goal-setting requirements into Guidelines for the Assignment of Duties or to use research aspirations as assigned duties: if you fail to achieve your goals, you may open the door to discipline for not fulfilling your obligations.

The contrast between what you would like to achieve and your actual achievements is not the means for evaluation in any of our collegial processes.

Clearly understand the purpose for providing an achievement plan and how this information will be used. The USFA recommends voting against Guidelines for the Assignment of Duties that include these sorts of provisions. You should contact the USFA immediately if it is being used as the basis for evaluation in the salary review process.