This is a guest post from Dave Tompkins, a continuing lecturer in the School of Computer Science.
In July, FAUW’s status update regarding policy 76/77 revisions mentioned the possibility of mediation, and arbitration if necessary.
As an exercise, I sat down and thought about what solution I would come up with if I was an arbitrator, and I created a video that describes my solution:
My intent was to help shape the conversation around policy 76/77 and nudge negotiations forward so that mediation/arbitration won’t be necessary.
I want to be clear that I am doing this solely as an individual, and not on behalf of FAUW, the Lecturers Committee, the Faculty of Mathematics or any other group.
I am also now updating an FAQ to respond to any questions you may have.
The FAUW Blog 
I am absolutely appalled that FAUW would publish such a video. This is in direct contradiction with many of the negotiation points we have been hearing from FAUW from the last year. How can we trust an organization that changes their minds so quickly? Is this how major policy decisions are made now? Should every lecturer submit a video? Why is this position being endorsed?
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Dave’s position has not been endorsed by FAUW, and the video does not indicate a change in FAUW’s position. As stated in the blog sidebar, “the opinions expressed are of the authors, and do not represent the views of the Association.” We hope to hear more views at the general meeting on Friday!
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If the opinions expressed are not FAUW’s, why publish this at all? It is very confusing to me. I ask again: are we all allowed to submit videos/opinions on P76 for circulation on this blog?
Is anything in the video endorsed by FAUW? What specifically? Or is nothing at all endorsed by FAUW? Will the ideas presented in the video actually be taken into consideration at FRC? Please clarify.
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Per usual, the most pedestrian request for transparency/accountability goes ignored (see also https://fauw.blog/2022/05/24/the-full-promotion-of-teaching/). For shame.
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Hi… Dave Tompkins here.
I wanted my video to spark discussion and to help move things forward to avoid mediation/arbitration — which is a very timely issue.
However, I was at a loss as to how to disseminate it effectively.
My best recourse was to post a link to the video in the chat window of the scheduled MS Teams General Meeting in advance. However, there were technical reasons why that wasn’t working effectively, so I was at a loss as to what to do and requested a guest post on the blog. (I should note that I first approached the president of the Lecturers Committee, but they declined to distribute it in advance of the meeting).
In my mind, I think there is a big distinction between the official “news” section https://uwaterloo.ca/faculty-association/news and the less-formal “blog” here, which is why I thought it was okay, but YMMV.
Maybe my video will spark a *second* discussion on how to best disseminate opinion pieces such as this, because as you suggest — if everyone did this it could get cluttered. I encourage you make constructive suggestions on how this could be done. You clearly seem like you have a lot to say, and might welcome such a forum.
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The person who can best answer your questions is away this week. I have passed them on and will post a response when I have one.
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I want to augment So tired’s thoughts above.
How dare FAUW publish a member’s independent thoughts on an incredibly longstanding unresolved issue for faculty? Especially a member from the group of faculty most directly impacted by the issue! Even more galling that it is specifically from this member (Dave) given the last time Dave found a way to push his thoughts, not endorsed by FAUW, to membership on an issue. Some of you may not recall what Dave did. He super unhelpfully highlighted lifetime salary differences between professorial rank and lecturer faculty as controlled by different salary thresholds. His initial work put lecturers and FAUW on a path to recognize and finally resolve the threshold issue via the 2017 salary settlement mandated working group. So please FAUW, shut this man down!
One more thing FAUW, how dare you skirt questions on accountability? You have time to answer as no one is teaching in August and you are probably on holidays avoiding your other work. Besides, you have the answers to So tired’s questions online already in your guest blog guidelines. Typical avoidance not repackaging those words.
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So tired is clearly and understandably frustrated about this general issue. However, this blog getting posted is truly the wrong thing to get frustrated over.
PS – I don’t think my name is important to the issue so I did not include. However, if it is important to you, contact Laura who runs the blog and she will tell you.
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