Happy new year! Our big priority for this term is to keep moving forward on policy development and research professor representation. Here are some of the smaller (and not-so-small) things we talked about at the January 16 board meeting:
- OCUFA’s court challenge. OCUFA has voted to join ten unions representing more than 250,000 Ontario workers to launch a coordinated Charter challenge against the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act—formerly Bill 124—this is the legislation that forces our pay raises to be small for three years.
- The FAUW Appreciation Award. We’re starting to consider suggestions for this year’s recipient(s) of the FAUW Appreciation Award, which recognizes people from across the University who have gone above and beyond to improve the lives of faculty members.
- Professional licensing fees. We’re doing an environmental scan about how professional licenses are handled across campus. Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of variation in terms of who needs to be licensed, how many people in a unit need to maintain their license, and who pays for it. For anyone who doesn’t know what we’re talking about, professional programs (e.g. planning, optometry, engineering) typically need a minimum number of faculty members to hold professional licenses in order to maintain the accreditation for their school/department/program.
- The switch from Scantron to Akindi. You have at least three options for digital grading solutions, including Akindi, UW’s new go-to “multiple-choice exam processing service.” One of our board members recommends Crowdmark as a way to reduce your workload. We’re exploring the possibility of hosting a lunch & learn on digital grading systems—let us know in the comments if you’d be interested. Learn more and register for Akindi training on the IST website.
- Next month’s Council of Representatives meeting. We brainstormed some possible agenda items for the February 5 Council meeting, including faculty mentorship, workload (again), and departmental performance review addenda. Talk to your councillor if you have concerns you’d like them to bring to FAUW.
- Incorrect service dates in Workday. We’ve heard that HR is addressing this issue and we will have an update on their progress by early February. We’ll keep you posted.
- The benefits survey results. The committee has a preliminary (not public) report and is doing further analysis this term. You might remember we were not—and we’re still not—pleased that a Board of Governors subcommittee surveyed our members about benefits, in a way that potentially interferes with our ability to negotiate with the University.
- The Pension Investment Committee. This is a new joint subcommittee of the Board of Governors Finance & Investment Committee and the Pension & Benefits Committee. It will oversee pension plan investments and make recommendations to the Board of Governors (BoG) about how to manage the plan’s assets (for example: selecting and monitoring investment managers, recommending specific investments, and ensuring that the plan’s investment policy and procedures are followed). It was established in 2018 to replace the Registered Pension Plan Investment Subcommittee, which ceased to operate in early 2017. It is still not fully populated (three members from the BoG haven’t been announced yet), but we know that the faculty rep is Ranjini Jha. When it’s ready, all members will be listed on the Secretariat website.
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