David Porreca, FAUW President
This week’s post will accomplish two things: bring you up to date on some of the outstanding issues that have been of concern to our members this year, and also to introduce the members of the Faculty Association board for next year.
Burning Issues Update
Covered, secure bicycle parking
As a pilot project, UW is looking into and costing out the installation of secure, covered bicycle parking in the vicinity of several buildings on campus. Any suggestions for good examples of existing secure, covered bicycle storage would be greatly appreciated.
FORE Research Accounts access
Dennis Huber informed us that a new user interface would be installed on the FORE accounting system to increase useability and user-friendliness. This process will take some time, however, so we are not to expect improvements before the end of the new academic year.
Advanced Doctoral Dissertation Supervisor (ADDS) Status
UW administration has accepted FAUW’s suggestion and agreed to set up a task force involving faculty members and graduate students, and chaired by the Associate Provost, Graduate Studies. The purpose of this task force will be to determine what the current ADDS regulations are intended to accomplish, and then to provide recommendations on how to accomplish those things without the drawbacks of the current arrangement. Faculty members hired in the last three years have been informed individually about their ADDS status and supervisory privileges. Sorting out the inconsistencies on the various faculty websites is still an unresolved task.
Short-Term / Long-Term Disability
This question of the improper collection and transfer of personal, confidential medical information has been a major concern for FAUW for almost a full year now, yet a resolution is still a work in progress. We can expect an official response to FAUW’s 8-point plan either before the end of this month or, more likely, sometime early in the Fall term.
Bright Starts: Amalgamated Daycare at UW
At long last, construction on the amalgamated daycare facility, known as Bright Starts, is well under way, and I understand that it is still on schedule for completion in November this year. I am the fourth Faculty Association president to be involved in shepherding this project through concept to implementation, so the relief at it reaching this advanced stage is spread quite widely. Many thanks are owed to all those who have been involved throughout the process. Future generations of UW faculty, staff and students will carry on being grateful for all the effort deployed.
Work-Life Balance Report
FAUW is working on an implementation matrix for the recommendations of the Work-Life Balance Report. The matrix will include suggestions for allocating responsibility for each of the recommendations, as well as an aspirational timeline for implementing them. We hope to have this matrix submitted to UW administration before the end of this year’s cycle of FAUW Board and FRC meetings (i.e., the end of June). The recommendations of FAUW’s Compassionate Care and Bereavement Leave Report will be considered simultaneously in this exercise.
2013-14 FAUW Board of Directors, effective July 1, 2013 |
|
| Voting Members | |
| David Porreca (Classical Studies) | president |
| George Freeman (Electrical & Computer Engineering) |
past president |
| Greta Kroeker (History) | vice-president |
| Frank Zorzitto (Pure Mathematics) | treasurer |
| Metin Renksizbulut (Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering) |
chief negotiator |
| Jasmin Habib (Political Science) | OCUFA director |
| Vivian Choh (Optometry & Vision Science) | director |
| Roydon Fraser (Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering) |
director |
| Bryan Tolson (Civil & Environmental Engineering) |
director |
| vacancy | |
| Ex Officio, Non-Voting Members | |
| Lori Curtis (Economics) | Pension & Benefits Committee liaison |
| Carla Fehr (Philosophy) | Status of Women and Equity Committee Chair |
| Christine Jewell (Library) | Library Liaison |
| Cyntha Struthers (St. Jerome’s/Statistics & Actuarial Science) |
SJU-ASA rep |
| Peter van Beek (Computer Science) | Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee Chair |
| FAUW representatives on the Faculty Relations Committee | |
| George Freeman, Greta Kroeker, David Porreca, Metin Renksizbulut, Bryan Tolson | |
The FAUW Blog 
Great to hear all this. I'm particularly a fan of covered, secure bike parking, although I don't have any knowledge of best practices in that area; the covered GO bike parking at the train station is a good start.Policy prohibits bringing bicycles into buildings. It doesn't need to. I've done a comparative survey of some other Ontario universities about this issue. I'd be interested in talking more about this with someone connected to the Joint Health and Safety committee. (In terms of extra wear and tear on buildings caused by bicycle damage, I'm pretty sure that it's much lower than the cost of more parking spaces!)Bicycles are my personal top priority in this list, but I also support the other priorities too.
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I agree on the bikes-in-buildings issue. University of Toronto has (or had – I haven't checked lately) a good policy language involving approval by the building safety person. Not all offices have a safe parking spot and not all office locations have a safe way in and out of the building. However, many do. The closest solution to parking in your office is the covered secure bike locker (with reserved access). That's the notion I have been pushing for a pilot project.
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This is your burning list? Have you talked to active faculty who bring in all the money? How about the load of paperwork put on profs? How about how expensive and bureaucratic it is to bring students in from other places? How about how disorganized the course planning is? The list goes on. I would love to worry about these other things once I am not overwhelmed by just doing paperwork.
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