Know Your Rights: New LOA XX Revising & Rescinding Term Appointments

When the college cancels offerings or fails to offer diverse learning content, particularly in Arts & Science, there can be a lot of negative effects:

1. Disruption to Student Plans: Students who were relying on a specific course to fulfill degree requirements or to maintain a certain pace of study may face disruptions. Cancelling a course they were counting on can force them to reevaluate their academic plans.
2. Delay in Graduation: If a cancelled course was a prerequisite for other courses, students might need to wait for the next offering of that course. This delay could extend their time to graduation
3. Limited Course Options: With fewer courses available, students may struggle to find suitable alternatives. This can lead to overcrowded classes resulting in work overloads or students settling for less preferred options causing dissatisfaction.
4. Impact on Progression and Graduation Requirements: Some programs have specific course requirements that must be met. Cancelling a course could make it challenging for students to fulfill these requirements.
5. Reduced Learning Opportunities: Students miss out on the content and learning experiences offered by the cancelled course. This can affect their overall education quality.
6. Faculty and Staff Concerns: Faculty members who’ve already prepared for the courses may face challenging working conditions from potential lost work and experience excessive workloads when administration rearranges teaching assignments due to last minute rescheduling.
7. Reputation and Trust: Frequent cancellations can erode student and community trust in the institution’s ability to provide consistent and reliable education.

Sure, there’s a ton of uncertainty on the horizon – partly due to the recent changes in International Student Visas. However, as we’ve all read in CamNews and has been reported to the Board of Governors by the President and the Acting Vice President of Enrolment and Community Engagement, who have said “we’re in good shape” and International student enrolment under the new system should “be about the same” as before. Based on what they’ve told us, there should be nothing to panic about, right? That’s what makes it so hard to understand why there is a growing number of courses that usually run in the Summer semester which are being set to zero enrolment.

That’s not what we’re being told, is it? We are being told that the college can’t stand the risk of offering courses that don’t fill. Now, how do they know these courses wont fill until they open them up for registration? I mean, sure, they wont fill up with a disproportionate amount of International students, but based on prior enrolment and historical waitlists, they will fill with Domestic students. This should really upset our students or future students, and it really disappoints me because it doesn’t have to be this way.

There’s a brand new Letter of Agreement (LOA) specifically designed for just this situation. 

This one’s is so new that it doesn’t even have a number designation, yet! While we technically called this Letter of Agreement a concession during bargaining, we negotiated it into the contract for a reason! The point of this new Letter of Agreement is, according to the college, so they (theoretically) could offer Term contracts earlier and test student enrolment! It’s supposed to make it easier to schedule classes, assign workload, and if necessary, cancel them. For example, when they’re unsure about what our International Student enrolment will be this summer and how that will affect overall enrolment.  But more than that, it creates a risk mitigation safety-net for our employer, that they’ve completely failed to use! 

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New LOA XX – Revising and Rescinding Term Appointments

In response to changes of enrolment, the deletion of a program, technological changes, or insufficient operating funds, the College may find it necessary to revise or rescind term appointments. When this occurs, the College will endeavour to give the Employee as much advance notice as possible. The following conditions apply when revising and rescinding term appointments:

1. If an offer of a term appointment is revised or rescinded more than two weeks prior to the appointment start date, no amount is payable to the Employee.
2. If an offer of a term appointment is revised or rescinded two (2) weeks or less prior to the appointment start date, and is not replaced by an appointment of equal or greater percentage, the Employee shall be paid a cancellation fee equal to two (2) weeks’ salary at the faculty member’s step on the salary scale for the lost” work.
3. If an offer of a term appointment is revised or rescinded within the first two (2) weeks after the appointment start date and is not replaced by an appointment of equal or greater percentage, the Employee shall be given a minimum of two (2) weeks’ notice in addition to the normal compensation for duties completed prior to the effective date of the rescission/revision.
4. If an offer of a term appointment is revised or rescinded after the first two (2) weeks of the appointment start date and is not replaced by an appointment of equal or greater percentage, the Employee shall be given the lesser of two (2) months’ notice or the balance to be paid of the term appointment, in addition to the normal compensation for duties performed prior to the notification date of the rescission/revision.
5. Where term appointments are rescinded or revised as described in this clause, the records of such Employees shall clearly indicate the reason.
6. The Employer will inform Employees of their right to Union representation when the Employer informs the Employee that their term appointment will be revised or rescinded.
7. The parties agree that this Letter of Agreement will supersede provisions of clause 1.02(d) paragraph 2 and 3.01, for the duration of the Letter of Agreement.

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We think this LOA could be a game changer for Chairs! We know how hard it is to complete workload assignments at the last minute each semester. Imagine if you were able make your recommendations for assignments earlier. You’d have an easier time determining schedules, you’d know what your gaps were much sooner, and have a better idea about what work you need to post. Imagine if HR could provide contracts in advance how much more efficient onboarding and account access would be.

The main purpose of this LOA was to mitigate the employer’s enrolment uncertainty and financial risks, especially important right now! Together we can make it work to everyone’s benefit. If you’d like help considering how your Department could apply this new LOA to future assignments, please contact us!