News & Announcements

Faculty Stories: Winter Break Isn’t a Jolly Holiday for All

A reminder about precarity from one of your many Term Colleagues It’s that time again! We are in the final stretch until the end of the term. For many instructors this is a time of winding down and thinking about the next semester of teaching and looking forward to some well-deserved R&R. For term employees, it the stress and uncertainty of if there is a contract coming for January, how big it will be, and if the hours needed are like this past semester. Then there is the scramble to get the CV touched up and hopefully find work that accommodates the next semester. December is not the equal enjoyment that continuing faculty enjoy, where there is a form of rejuvenation prior to the start of January term. It is spent looking for work to make up for the time spent between contracts unpaid. This can be typically difficult during…

Continue Reading Faculty Stories: Winter Break Isn’t a Jolly Holiday for All

The Confluence

Member Resources

Know Your Right of First Refusal

We recently won an important arbitration about your rights. It pertains to the first level of job security that term faculty members can obtain (right of first refusal—see article 1.02 (g) in the Local Agreement).  Right now, we need your help to monitor whether the College will honour this ruling. We don’t always know when members are having trouble exercising their rights. Please get in touch with us as soon as possible if you have recently applied for right of first refusal, or if you are thinking about applying. Also, if you have retained correspondence on right of first refusal from any point in your employment and would be willing to share that with us, we would be grateful. This is the essence of our dispute with the College–under the Collective Agreement, faculty members who receive term assignments can apply for “right of first refusal”: 1.02 (g)(i) Term Faculty Members…

Continue Reading Know Your Right of First Refusal

Getting Our Houses in Order

Deans may come and go, but for most of us, our department is our home.  That’s where our closest colleagues are, it’s where the most important discussions take place, and, if we are lucky, it’s where we find our best support.  It’s also where collegial governance begins. I want to encourage you to take charge of some key areas in your department.  If you organize these points yourselves, amongst faculty members, disputes with administration are much much less likely to arise, and when they do, you’ll have an important track record of decision making.  All it takes is democratic will. Please consider establishing minimum teaching qualifications for all your courses.  Most departments have done this informally.  However, a formal document that you keep on file and update from time to time is more useful. Are the qualifications the same for all your offerings, or do some courses require specializations? Is…

Continue Reading Getting Our Houses in Order