David Porreca, FAUW President

I am pleased to announce the results of the two votes on modifications to the Memorandum of Agreement that were held in late June. I would like to extend thanks to those who cast their ballots and contacted the Faculty Association with questions and concerns.

Motion 1 (Article 12)

The modifications to this article will enable future housekeeping changes to the rest of the Memorandum of Agreement. The Board of Governors will need to approve this change at its next meeting in October 2013 in order for this change to take effect.
Results:
Decline 0
No 9
Yes 184

Motion 2 (Articles 8 and 14)

The modifications to these articles are necessary for UW to comply with the “Tri-Agency Framework for Responsible Conduct of Research.” All universities across the country receiving Tri-Agency research funding have been compelled to adopt analogous changes to their operating procedures to ensure compliance.
Results:
Decline 3
No 12
Yes 136

Some comments re: Motion 2

In the process of arriving at the wording that was voted upon, numerous reasonable objections were raised regarding the items contained under MoA section 14.2.2. Aside from item (n), these definitions of what constitutes breaches of research integrity are drawn directly from the Tri-Agency Framework and have been imposed verbatim upon all universities across the country, without anyone having the option of changing them.

I have been collecting the objections and suggested changes that have come my way from concerned faculty members and members of the FAUW Board of Directors [if you happen to have more, please send them to David Porreca, FAUW president: dporreca at uwaterloo dot ca]. The plan is to compile these and, with the help of the Secretariat, issue an official UW response to the Tri-Agency’s Framework that would suggest improvements for the Framework’s next iteration.

FAUW will also be contacting other faculty associations at research-intensive institutions to encourage them to formulate analogous responses in the hope that such aggregated pressure will prevail upon the Tri-Agency administration to arrive at a more acceptable wording for its list of unacceptable practices.

A final note

This blog is going on hiatus for the rest of the summer. Expect a brand-new post on 9 September that will provide details about ongoing issues that FAUW is carrying forward from the last academic year, as well as plans for new initiatives for 2013-14.

This blog has been in operation since the end of January, and has become one of the key communication fora between the Faculty Association and its membership. I would like to offer my personal thanks to those who have helped keep me motivated to produce the posts you have been reading and thereby make the blog possible: Pat Moore, Administrative Officer for the Faculty Association, and Jim Tigwell, Communications Coordinator for the Faculty Association.

Many thanks also to the guest contributors (George Freeman, Jim Tigwell, Peter van Beek) who helped keep the content flowing. Finally, thank you to YOU, dear Reader, for your comments and feedback these past several months. Your attention makes all the effort worthwhile. More in September!