News Archive
Welcome Back!
September 28, 2011 | All News
The 2011-12 academic year is well underway. The usual bumps are being negotiated and some new challenges, like the recent changes respecting copyright, are presenting themselves. As you’re maneuvering your way through these and other matters, know that the USFA is here to assist you. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns. …
Copyright
September 20, 2011 | All News
So you’re all set to teach your courses… course syllabus complete, lecture notes in place and posted on PAWS/Blackboard, reading lists done, and assignments prepared. But have you thought about copyright? Much information has been circulated recently about changes to copyright policy on campus. Out of concern for implications for our members, USFA is alerting …
Thursday October 06, 2011 – New Member Lunch 11:30 a.m. Faculty Club
August 6, 2011 | USFA Events
Thursday October 06, 2011 11:30 am Are you a new faculty member at the U of S? Join Executive Committee members as well as USFA staff, for lunch. What you have to say is important to the USFA and we want to hear from you. What questions do you have about the Collective Agreement? What …
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Wednesday October 05, 2011 – New Member Lunch 11:30 a.m. Faculty Club
August 5, 2011 | USFA Events
Wednesday October 05, 2011 11:30 am Are you a new faculty member at the U of S? Join Executive Committee members as well as USFA staff, for lunch. What you have to say is important to the USFA and we want to hear from you. What questions do you have about the Collective Agreement? What …
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Friday September 30, 2011 – New Member Lunch 11:30 a.m. Faculty Club
July 30, 2011 | USFA Events
Friday September 30, 2011 11:30 am Are you a new faculty member at the U of S? Join Executive Committee members as well as USFA staff, for lunch. What you have to say is important to the USFA and we want to hear from you. What questions do you have about the Collective Agreement? What …
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Thursday September 29, 2011 – New Member Lunch 11:30 a.m. Faculty Club
July 29, 2011 | USFA Events
Thursday September 29, 2011 11:30 am Are you a new faculty member at the U of S? Join Executive Committee members as well as USFA staff, for lunch. What you have to say is important to the USFA and we want to hear from you. What questions do you have about the Collective Agreement? What …
Continue reading “Thursday September 29, 2011 – New Member Lunch 11:30 a.m. Faculty Club”
Wednesday September 28, 2011 – New Member Lunch 11:30 a.m. Faculty Club
July 28, 2011 | USFA Events
11:30 am Are you a new faculty member at the U of S? Join Executive Committee members as well as USFA staff, for lunch. What you have to say is important to the USFA and we want to hear from you. What questions do you have about the Collective Agreement? What are your concerns? How …
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Promotion/tenure: 8th in a series
July 4, 2011 | All News
Sorry, no substitutions! Something to be aware of during your qualifying period for tenure or promotion is that no special arrangements can be made regarding meeting the standards. As a hypothetical example, suppose a Dean asks you to become a Department Head and offers to champion your promotion/tenure case if your research suffers as a …
When to go for tenure or promotion: 7th in a series
July 4, 2011 | All News
Practice of professional skills remains a troublesome category for members in many units, particularly the professional colleges. When the university standards for tenure and promotion were last revised, there was a wish to distinguish recognize practice of professional skills, but still require practitioners to show ability in research, consistent with the teacher/scholar model. Unfortunately, the …
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Educators create wealth
June 9, 2011 | All News
Discussing the teachers’ job action, a local columnist commented that the arguments of the teachers’ union for “sharing the wealth” is flawed. The author writes that “fair share” “implies someone has contributed directly to creating what is they want to share” and that such reasoning “smacks of an entitlement mentality”. (Star-Phoenix, “Sharing the wealth not …
When to go for tenure or promotion: 6th in a series
June 7, 2011 | All News
It is surprising how often we evaluate a colleague’s research career by metrics like publication counts, page counts, or order of authorship, which border on numerology, rather than considering the actual contribution. Although time is the true test of research, the reason we do this is that the practicalities of our processes force us to …
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When to go for tenure or promotion: 5th in a series
June 1, 2011 | All News
Today is the best day to start thinking about your promotion/tenure case. You have a lot of resources to help you in the preparation of your case file. By May 31, your Department Head or Dean should have met with you to discuss your progress in meeting the approved standards, which you should make yourself …
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Salary Review Standards
March 18, 2011 | All News
Article 17 of the 2010-13 Collective Agreement contains significant changes to Article 17 with respect to salary review procedures and the awarding of merit. In this issue we summarize these important changes and provide some guidance for their implementation. These changes are aimed at improving the process, the reasons for the award of special increases, …
A Little Used Benefit
February 7, 2011 | All News
Apparently, not many members take advantage of the "Flexible Health and Wellness Spending Program". Slightly more than one quarter of USFA members per year have submitted claims for reimbursement since this program started in 2007. This round of negations has increased funds available in this program from $150 to $500 per year. These funds can …
Assignment of Duties
January 28, 2011 | All News
A Participatory Process This is the time of year when the process for the assignment of duties begins. Article 11 of the Collective Agreement covers this process. It is an open and transparent process that requires your participation. It is through your participation that transparency and fairness are ensured in the same manner as other …
What Do Faculty Think Of Merit?
January 28, 2011 | All News
Recently the Faculty Association communicated a series of e-mails about the merit-based part of our salary system. This multi-part communication generated a lot of faculty responses. We want to summarize and share with you some of these responses which express views both in favour and against the concept of merit pay. The Pros and Cons …
To SEEQ the Impossible Dream of Course Evaluations
January 14, 2011 | All News
Shortly before the end of 2010, the USFA sent out a series of e-letters regarding SEEQ. These e-letters touched on three concerns about SEEQ repeatedly raised by USFA members – the privacy of results and how they should not be used to compare units, statistical issues related to using the questionnaire in small classes, and …
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March 31 – Promotion Procedures – Article 16.6(ix)
January 3, 2011 | Promotion
by March 31, the President shall have advised all candidates for promotion of the decision of the Board, except those whose cases are pending before the Promotions Appeal Committee;