RRUFA November Monthly Meeting Minutes
November 12, 2015
Centre for Dialogue, LIC
Present:
| Niels Agger-Gupta | ✔ | Geoff Archer | Jo Axe | Brian Belcher | |||
| Geoffrey Bird | David Black | Judith Blanchette | Tony Boydell | ||||
| Elizabeth Childs | Kenneth Christie | ✔ | Robin Cox | Ann Dale | |||
| Audrey Dallimore | Matt Dodd | Juana Du | Catherine Etmanski | ||||
| Lois Fearon | Doug Hamilton | Brigitte Harris | |||||
| Julia Jahanzoosi | Ingrid Kajzer-Mitchell | ✔ | Frances Jorgensen | Leslie King | |||
| Richard Kool | Charles Krusekopf | ✔ | Zhenyi Li | Ron Lindstrom | |||
| Chris Ling | ✔ | Will Low | Eva Malisius | ✔ | Kathleen Manion | ||
| Virginia McKendry | Will Meredith | ✔ | Robert Mittelman | Jonathan Moran | ✔ | ||
| Terry Mughan | Mickie Noble | Eileen Piggot-Irvine | |||||
| Terry Power | Siomonn Pulla | Michael Real | Carolin Rekar Munro | ||||
| Chaseten Remillard | Wendy Rowe | Erich Schellhammer | ✔ | Bernard Schissel | |||
| Jean Slick | Marilyn Taylor | Eugene Thomlinson | ✔ | Mike Thompson | |||
| Phillip Vannini | George Veletsianos | Hassan Wafai | Jennifer Walinga | ||||
| Brian White | Rebecca Wilson Mah | ✔ | Michael Young | Amy Zidulka | ✔ |
(Present: 10 of 60 total Active Members)
CONTENTS:
- November Monthly Meeting called to order at 12: 10pm (President Kenneth Christie) 2
- Approval of September & October minutes:………………………………………………………. 2
2.1. September 8, 2015 minutes………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
2.2 October Minutes – to be approved in December…………………………………………………… 3
- New Business:……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
3.1 Amy Zidulka & Rebecca Wilson Mah to speak to an idea for a proposal for the Buttedahl and Skene Learning & Teaching Fund………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
3.2 Ken: Nippissing University Faculty Association are on strike……………………………….. 3
3.3 Economic Development Dividend: (Ken)………………………………………………………………. 3
- Previous Business:………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
4.1 RRU 75th Anniversary Gala (Charles)…………………………………………………………………… 3
4.2 Syrian Refugee Committee (Ken)………………………………………………………………………….. 3
- Regular Reports:………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
5.1 Bargaining / JCOAA: (Ken)………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
5.2 Board of Governors: (Charles)……………………………………………………………………………… 4
5.3 Academic Council: (Niels)…………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
5.4 CUFA-BC: (Rick)………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
5.5 Website: (Will)………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5
5.6 Social: (Ken)………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
5.7 Grievance Report: (David)……………………………………………………………………………………. 5
5.8 Health & Safety: (Rick)…………………………………………………………………………………………. 5
- Other Business:……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5
6.1 1PM – Rebecca and Amy on submitting a project to the Buttedahl & Skene Learning & Teaching Innovation Fund to free up a master teacher to help us with our teaching………………….. 5
- Adjournment at 1:35 pm:……………………………………………………………………………………… 6
1. November Monthly Meeting called to order at 12: 10pm (President Kenneth Christie)
2. Approval of September & October minutes:
2.1. September 8, 2015 minutes
These are lost except for the motion to contribute $20,000 to what, after a request from Bob Skene, will now be known as the Buttedahl and Skene Learning and Teaching Innovation Fund.
Motion was: That RRUFA contribute $20,000 towards the Skene and Buttedahl Learning and Teaching Innovation fund, such funds to be matched by Bob Skene and the university for an overall new contribution of $60,000…
Moved By Mike Thompson; Second: Rick Kool
All approved.
(Note that the guidelines for this fund are now appended to these meeting minutes. The description was a collective effort of Rick, Mike, Deb Zornes, Niels, and Mary.)
Mary will connect with John, Paz’s husband to let him know this Fund exists in Paz’s honour.
With apologies, there are no other minutes from this meeting as the Secretary was away and the alternate misplaced the draft minutes. As we have been trying unsuccessfully to pull this together since before the October meeting with no success, the above motion will stand as the official minute from the September 8 meeting.
2.2 October Minutes – to be approved in December.
3. New Business:
3.1 Amy Zidulka & Rebecca Wilson Mah to speak to an idea for a proposal for the Buttedahl and Skene Learning & Teaching Fund.
3.2 Ken: Nippissing University Faculty Association are on strike.
Ken sent letter of support for FA to VP.
Motion: that the RRU Faculty Association support the Nippissing University Faculty Association with $500 to their strike fund. Moved: Ken; Second: Chris.
All in favour.
3.3 Economic Development Dividend: (Ken)
BC Economy grew by 3.2% so powers that be will give faculty a dividend: a 0.45% increase. (we can hear the cheers already!).. HR Director Lyn Joly will have a conversation with Ken about this.
4. Previous Business:
4.1 RRU 75th Anniversary Gala (Charles)
Charles: The 75th Gala – where RRUFA purchased a table – raised about $250K for the university. $75K were raised from the evening; the Board matched that ($75K); Board Chair and Chancellor Strandlund pledged a further $100K for Aboriginal relations matters…
4.2 Syrian Refugee Committee (Ken)
Amy has joined this Committee. Committee is now: Lois, Hassan, Rick, Ken, Jean & Ken. Amy and Lois are attending meetings with other Victoria groups. There are several groups in Victoria – far along. There were initial plans to sponsor Hassan’s brother and fiancé, and another Syrian Hassan knows; this would be done working through InterCultural Association. The group already has about $60K already pledged… The more money contributed, the more people can be sponsored.
Charles: An information session would be good, and has already been done at other universities…
Amy: There has not been any progress on the idea of 5 faculty members supporting an individual or family
NOTE: Faculty involved in this initiative should give a report on what is happening at the December meeting. Perhaps RRUFA should call a special meeting just about this issue? To be determined.
5. Regular Reports:
5.1 Bargaining / JCOAA: (Ken)
Ken: Lyn Joly has not sent FA letters of appointment of full-time faculty since 2006. JCOAA – about to have a meeting – Lyn has not sent out letters since 2006. Issue was that HR interested in appointing faculty to “tenured positions”, which Ken reiterates to Lyn do not exist in CA. Has asked for letters in case HR has been doing this without FA knowledge.
Charles: There is a concern that new faculty are brought in to fill specific positions. “Program Head” is a voluntary position – in the CA faculty are brought in for a program as members of the School.
Ken: Steve has said this is an Administration right to make any appointment. This is troubling – what is point of CA if this is the case. We are continuing to work with them on hammering this out… It is a mixed bag at other universities – some offer immediate tenure and other universities don’t. It is not all one way. Lyn trying to make argument that people with tenure elsewhere should have tenure here. That is not in our CA.
Chris: Continuing Contract is not the same as tenure…
Charles: if administration wants to apply concept of “tenure” to our faculty – that might be good for us.
5.2 Board of Governors: (Charles)
Charles: There is a 90 minute Townhall event with the BoG coming in mid-January… focus on governance and role of BoG. The questions to be discussed are still in development, but the role of the Board is an issue, given they have no operational role. Looks like high level policy conversation only… Board does not want to hear complaints about operational things…
Purpose is partly for faculty and BoG members to to get to know each other and the different projects in which people are engaged. Value of research important.
No specific date yet…
5.3 Academic Council: (Niels)
Niels: Steve’s introduction of a “College of Interdisciplinary Studies” to be coordinated/organized by Hilary Leighton was the main item that raised comments. Niels was asked by Hilary to help with a faculty world café on Sept. 25 to help shape this. Minutes of this café will be sent out by Hilary!
5.4 CUFA-BC: (Rick)
Ken: BC Council met at the western regional meeting in Saskatoon. This was successful – Other Fas are jealous of RRUFA and sad about their own state of affairs… UVic still has lots of strife; UNBC still in arbitration… UBC also still in arbitration.
5.5 Website: (Will)
Will: Minutes are being converted into HTML in order to maintain confidentiality.
5.6 Social: (Ken)
Ken: We will have a “Christmas” lunch on Dec. 8…He will bring wine with lunch… We need help with Social Committee – and we really need one or two volunteers who would take this on..
5.7 Grievance Report: (David)
No news – things seem to be quiet
5.8 Health & Safety: (Rick)
Rick not here
6. Other Business:
6. 1 1PM – Rebecca and Amy on submitting a project to the Buttedahl & Skene Learning & Teaching Innovation Fund to free up a master teacher to help us with our teaching.
Amy: Idea: what Amy would love is top quality mentorship in teaching…We have people on faculty who have teaching expertise on faculty… The idea for this project to be funded by the Innovation Fund is currently only embryonic – needs more work!
So, for example, this might fund an artist or poet in residence; every quarter there could be a teacher/mentor in residence who could be funded to work with other faculty. Perhaps there could be someone for a three-month period (a quarter)… An expert to go to – a community of practice could form around teaching; this would form a human library over time. One systemic way to use the funds would be to pool expertise.
The proposal is that the Buttedahl/Skein fund be used to create a community of practice to become a resource to the university – This could well be a research interest, too…
Rebecca: Lois, Amy and Rebecca are all in doctorate programs in Education; These are scholarly with a practical component; The idea is that we have lots of faculty here at RRU with different expertise… this would be a way of taking advantage of the opportunity these people present…
Rebecca: The work on case writing research has come together; We have already held a PD workshop and an interdisciplinary round table… in doing that we are creating a community of practice around case writing and research… this has been a tremendous opportunity…
Charles: if you are thinking about buying out teaching time – that is our (Faculty) money being used to buy our time…The University could simply offer a class… The vision of a teaching and learning workshop is good; we need to think about how our money goes around – not that the money winds up going to the University…
Rebecca: What about going to the PD fund? That would then go to the person who is a teacher/mentor?
Amy: We would need 3.75 WLUs, or what ever, for this to work even once.
Charles – Motion: That FA agree in principle to create a Committee to create a one page concept paper to move this forward – to come back to next meeting. Moved: Charles; Second: Niels
Ken: We need to help faculty to finish their PhD; PD funds can be used for dissertation research.. Faculty can apply for PD funds.
Amy: the PD fund is difficult to use for anything other than conferences… Review shows there are then no conferences…
Rebecca: has used one PD grant for EdD. but next time she wants to use this for a conference.
Amy: There are no differences in expectations between ranks regarding productivity so if not on conference presentation then this shows up as a shortcoming… Of course one can use on workplan…
Chris: This is an FSAS/FoM difference since FSAS faculty do have their dissertation work on their workplan.
7. Adjournment at 1:35 pm:
Moved to adjourn: Charles. 2nd: Matt.
Recorder: Niels Agger-Gupta