Active FAUW members can vote in the 2021 Board of Directors elections until April 14. Here's what you need to know.
Meet the candidates
We asked all candidates three questions about the work they hope to do on the Board and have shared their answers below. Candidates' answers have not been altered in any way, except to correct obvious typographical errors. Some candidates have also provided a link to a professional profile or website (if provided, this is linked from their name in the first line of their candidate profile).
Equity is a key area of focus for FAUW right now, so we specifically asked candidates about how they would contribute to that work. To get a sense of what other qualifications you might want to look for, read about what directors do on our "Being a Board member" page.
The candidates: Lecturer seat
There is one seat on the Board reserved specifically for a lecturer (though lecturers can also run for all other seats). You will be able to vote for one of these three candidates. The candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
Jump to a specific candidate: Brent Matheson | Sarah Ruffell | Su-Yin Tan
Brent Matheson
Brent is a continuing lecturer in the Math/Business and Accounting Programs.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
FAUW is vital to maintaining a well-functioning relationship between Faculty and Administration. I have seen this up close over the last four years on the Board as the Lecturer Representative and I hope that I am allowed to continue for one more term in this role. I wish to continue in this role as I feel I have more to offer to the Lecturers on campus.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
Over the last four years, I have served in several roles within FAUW including a member of the board, as the lecturer representative, and on the executive. As well, I have been a member of the Faculty Relations Committee (FRC). I have been in these roles throughout the pandemic and I feel I have experienced and learned a lot that will equip me to help as we get back to campus here at the University.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
I have no claim to be part of an under-represented group. That does not mean I am unaware that we need to move towards a more inclusive and diverse campus. A diverse campus is a stronger campus. I have generally seen my personal role as someone who encourages members of equity-seeking groups that I know to run for roles such as the one for which I am seeking re-election. The irony does not escape me. I will try harder next time if you allow me to represent you.
Sarah Ruffell
Sarah is a lecturer in the Department of Biology.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I want to contribute to Waterloo in a big way! I have the time and passion necessary to truly dedicate myself to this role. I do not have an agenda, but rather, I wish to have the opportunity to understand the university dynamics, identify areas for growth, and serve those areas in need.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
My experience teaching at and collaborating with a diverse range of institutions, including college and university, both locally and internationally, allows me to provide diverse and international perspectives. These strong ties can be exemplified by my yearly visit to China to teach UW courses at the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), in addition to being an active member on the UW-India Relations Committee.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
I am committed to continually broadening my understanding and perspectives related to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). This is demonstrated by my active roles on the Biology Ad-Hoc EDI Committee, and the Faculty of Science Indigenous working group. Additionally, I have completed extensive EDI training relating to teaching, science communication and the workplace. I will use this knowledge to help guide and strengthen the commitment FAUW has to EDI.
Su-Yin Tan
Su-Yin is a continuing lecturer in the School of Planning and Department of Geography and Environmental Management.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I am currently the Chair of the Lecturers Committee (LC), which advises the FAUW Board on all aspects of working conditions of Lecturers. Being elected to the FAUW Board will enable our committee to have a vote on important matters, such as Policy 76/77 updates and other changes that affect Lecturers. The LC’s actions and advocacy work are informed by the Lecturers Surveys conducted in 2015 and 2021 and continuous efforts to consult with lecturers across campus. Having worked at UW since 2008, I would like to see policies related to teaching-stream faculty evolve and catch up with advancements at comparative institutions, such as the University of Toronto and McMaster University. This includes updated titles, ranks, and tenure and promotion practices that run in parallel with those for existing professorial ranks. I currently serve as a FAUW representative on the Policy 76/77 drafting committee and if elected as a FAUW Board member, I will be committed to representing the diverse views of Lecturers in a fair and accountable way. I promise to tirelessly and tenaciously advocate for the improvement of working conditions and terms of appointment for Lecturers, while upholding personal and professional integrity, ethical conduct, honesty, and informed judgment.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
My actions are informed by over 12 years of working experience as a lecturer and serving on the Lecturers Committee since it was founded in 2015. I have advocated tirelessly for working conditions for Lecturers both in my faculty and across the university. Serving as a FAUW Board Director will provide synergies with and complement my role as a FAUW representative on the Policy 76/77 drafting committee and Chair of the Lecturers Committee. I have researched lecturer appointments not only at UW, but at other universities. I have experience with negotiating for various terms and conditions, such as a non-teaching term (1 in 6), support for professional development opportunities for Lecturers, and other issues. With P76/77 updates, this is an important time for Lecturers and the “watershed moment” that we have long been waiting for. I have decided to run for election this year, because I believe that having an experienced and well-informed Lecturer on the Board who is aware of the spectrum of Lecturer views and experiences is important.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
Equity, diversity, and inclusion are more than words, but core values that have permeated all of my choices, actions, and beliefs. The perspective I bring to FAUW is one of lived experience based on social context and an international and intercultural background. I self-identify with multiple equity-seeking groups, being both a woman and person of colour. I have also developed empathy for other minority groups, having spent my childhood in Papua New Guinea and grown up in an all black/coloured school, where I witnessed racism experienced by my classmates first-hand. The plight of indigenous people fighting to reclaim their lands drove my own passion to eventually pursue a career in environmentalism and conservation. I have always had a personal interest in social justice and learning about other people and cultures. Pre-COVID, my passion was to learn about geography, history, and conflict dynamics in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa by visiting such sites first-hand, which I intend to continue post-COVID. I hope to bring lived experience, fresh insights, and different perspectives to the FAUW Board, which will further enrich, inform, and advance progressive changes within our faculty community.
The candidates: At-large seats
There are four seats open for directors-at-large. You will be able to vote for four of the following 15 candidates. The candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
Jump to a specific candidate: Trevor Charles | Frankie Condon | Altay Coskun | Clive Forrester | Mary Hardy | Kim Hong Nguyen | Marios Ioannidis | Andrew J B Milne | Patrick Lam | Xianguo Li | Paul McGrath | John North | Linda Robinson | Olaf Weber | Vershawn Ashanti Young
Trevor Charles
Trevor is a professor in the Department of Biology.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
In an odd way, the pandemic has put me in touch with parts of the UW community that I was not previously familiar with. Serving on the board is important to me because I feel that I would bring a viewpoint that might be currently lacking or not well represented. There has been a lot of change on campus since I arrived over 20 years ago, and I am keen to have the opportunity to reach across disciplinary boundaries to learn how equity issues are perceived and handled in different academic contexts, and within the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. I am particularly interested in diversity and representation in the STEM disciplines.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
I started in the Department of Biology as an Associate Professor in 1998, having moved from my first faculty position at McGill. Currently Director of Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research, my academic discipline is microbiology. Relevant experience includes graduate officer and Associate Chair grad, President of Canadian Society of Microbiologists, and co-founder of a local biotech company. I consider myself to be a collaborative person.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
Gaining a deeper understanding of EDI issues is important to me, and help me to determine how I can best make meaningful contributions. To that end, I currently serve on the Faculty of Science Anti-Racism Taskforce, the Biology Ad-Hoc EDI Committee, the Canadian Society of Microbiologists EDI Subcommittee, and the board of the Caribbean Canadian Association of Waterloo Region. I am also a member of the UW Black Faculty Collective, and co-founder of the recently launched Waterloo Region Black Innovation Centre. To improve representation within our faculty ranks, we ultimately need to pay attention to the pipelines, beginning in K12 and moving through our undergraduate and graduate programs.
Frankie Condon
Frankie is an associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I wish to serve on the FAUW Board in order to advance the needs and interests of equity-seeking colleagues. Of particular concern to me are matters relating to salary anomalies, particularly in the contracts of Black, Indigenous, and Faculty of Colour; the use of course evaluations for the purposes of faculty performance review; the status and treatment of lecturers across the University; inequities in the distribution of research funding; and inequities in the recruitment and awarding of Canada Research Chairs and other high-status opportunities and appointments across the University. I hope to support and advocate for the success and sustainability of Indigenous and Black Studies Programs now under development and, particularly, for the needs and interests of faculty hired to teach in those programs.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
In addition to my scholarly work at the intersections of Critical Race Theory, anti-racist rhetorics, and anti-racist pedagogy, I bring experience as an anti-racist community activist and trainer/educator (twenty-five years). In prior academic posts on unionized campuses, I have served as shop steward (GSEU, University at Albany), Executive Committee Representative (GSEU), and contract negotiator (GSEU), and as a member of the Executive Committee (IFO, St. Cloud State University). I am trained in interest-based mediation (Lombard Mennonite Peace Center). Currently in my second term as a member of the FAUW Equity Committee, I have attended Equity workshops sponsored by both OCUFA (Toronto, 2019) and CAUT (Ottawa, 2020).
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
One of the greatest obstacles to equity, diversity, and inclusion at the University of Waterloo (and within FAUW, itself) is a lingering conviction that because certain policies and procedures are longstanding they cannot or should not be changed. However, longstanding institutional practices at universities across North American (including UW) tend toward preservation of the status quo and conservation of the power and privilege of dominant groups. I seek to help FAUW take stock and offer an honest account of institutional practices that must change if the interdependent causes of equity, diversity, and inclusion are to be advanced. I am experienced in organizing within organizations invested in making actionable their commitments to change. Whether inequity is preserved by the MOA or by University, Faculty, or Department policies, or within the commonplaces of FAUW, itself, I believe the achievement of equity is best served by abandoning debates about intentionality and focusing instead upon dismantling institutional barriers to equity. I am dedicated to co-creating an increasingly just academic community that is authentically committed to fully realized equity, diversity, and inclusion and am eager to do that work as a member of the FAUW Board.
Altay Coskun
Altay is a professor in the Department of Classical Studies.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
Since my arrival on the UW campus, I have held FAUW in the highest regard, both for what colleagues have done through FAUW for us as a community and for me individually. My own service components have so far been largely to the department and the discipline (Classical Studies), though it included two tenures as FAUW Representative. Having been granted my promotion in 2020, I think the right time has come to contribute more of my time to our community. Aiming for a position on the FAUW Board of Directors would seem to be the ideal next step for me.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
My research dwells on ideology, citizenship, and political discourse in the Greek and Roman world. To some extent, engaging with these topics shapes my particular views on Democracy, the messiest of all forms of government, but ultimately the only one that is sustainable and implies a high chance of increasing just and fair conditions. I advocate for hearing outsiders’ views, whether in research controversies, political debates, or ethical reflections. Even if those views may rarely gain the majority’s vote, listening carefully to them may still be useful for a sustainable solution. I seek balance among diverse interests and want to explore options with an open mind. “This is not how we do it here” is not a satisfactory answer for me, because, if need be, ways may have to be changed.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
My perspectives on enhancing equity, diversity, and inclusion have been shaped by growing up in a multi-religious family with migration background in Germany, moving (with my wife and children) to the UK and eventually settling in Canada. Throughout my work, I have been trying to foster an inclusive research culture, organizing 2-3 workshops per year nationally and internationally. These involve students and researchers at all career levels, often from countries with low representation in North American networks. Seeking equity for me also means considering the burdens that we are imposing on the next generations. Taking climate action is therefore imperative, privately, in public and on campus. While UW is a leader in technology and policy development, I am advocating more determination in reducing our own carbon footprint: the waste of energy on our campus is tremendous, and changing practices of heating or cooling our buildings or letting our computers run through the nights could free significant resources to re-invest in further energy-saving. One principle that would guide my advice, vote, or action is my preference for pragmatic solutions over ideological ones: more often than not, we do not need policy changes, but timely and measured responses to problems.
Clive Forrester
Clive is a lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I would be honoured to serve on the Board of the Faculty Association in the capacity of Board Member At Large. I believe there are several areas of improvement at UW the Board can undertake and I am ready to serve if elected. Some of the issues I see myself working on are:
- Active recruitment of faculty members from diverse backgrounds to serve on the Board of the Faculty Association
- Continual improvement in the relationship between FAUW and the employer through clear, proactive, positive communication, and supporting the board in its negotiations.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
Before coming to UW, I served on several committees at York University, including the coordinator of the undergraduate major in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. At Waterloo, I am a member of the anti-racism task force for the Dept. of English and a member of the Black Faculty Collective.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
I have been engaged in several activities which should gradually strengthen an environment that supports FAUW' committment to EDI on campus, including:
- Ensuring my own course outlines, content, and assignments espouse the principles of inclusivity.
- Hosting "teaching squares" for members of my department to share and strategize ideas that could help us as instructors to further facilitate the goal in #1.
- Conceptualizing and designing new courses to be taught as part of UW's new Black Studies program, in collaboration with members of the Black Faculty Collective.
Mary Hardy
Mary is a professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
Motivated by my recent experience as part of FAUW’s salary negotiating team, I would like to join the Board to advocate for a more compassionate and caring working environment at UW. I believe that excellence in research and teaching is more likely to be achieved with a happy, healthy professoriate that feels respected and supported. Faculty deserve better better recognition of the extraordinary burdens of the past year, including more support for working from home, and more consideration for those struggling with family responsibilities.
If elected, I hope to work on issues such as:
- Fixing the process for revising outdated Policies.
- Creating a more family friendly working environment. UW boasts of its world class faculty; why not aim for world class working conditions, instead of aiming to be middling.
- Fairer treatment of lecturers, including regularization of workloads; structured career path options; and better support for PD and scholarship.
- Recognition of systemic discrimination against racialized and indigenous faculty. We need to acknowledge institutional shortcomings in EDI, and commit to university-wide changes, for example, in hiring practices, starting salaries, evaluation of teaching and research, and T&P deliberations.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
I was a member of the 2020/21 FAUW negotiating team.
I was a FAUW representative on the Pension and Benefits Committee from 2014-2018.
I am an actuary with research interests in pension design and valuation, and in financial and operational risk management.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
I am deeply committed to EDI. A lifetime anti-racist, I grew up in a diverse area of London, and saw firsthand the daily micro and macroaggressions suffered by my Black and Asian friends. At UW I have advocated for more equitable hiring processes within my department, and I currently serve on the Math Faculty Committee for Racial Equity.
I am a staunch supporter of the LGBTQ2+ community; I believe that everyone should be free to live their authentic life without fear as openly as they choose; I affirm that trans men are men and trans women are women.
On women’s issues, I am motivated by my T&P committee experience, where reviewers and committee members systematically undervalued women professors’ achievements, or made unfounded assumptions about the impact of family responsibilities on future productivity. I am also concerned about bias both in student and peer teaching evaluations.
I support mandatory and effective EDI training, and the appointment of qualified, non-voting committee members to hiring and T&P committees, to ensure compliance with EDI best practice. Mostly, I support listening to members of equity-seeking groups, without expecting individuals within those groups to carry the burden of fixing UW's systemic problems.
Kim Hong Nguyen
Kim is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Arts.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I want to serve on the FAUW Board because I genuinely want Waterloo to be a good place to work for all faculty from different backgrounds. I see two important issues as central to transforming Waterloo’s working environment: (1) Although recently tenured, I have held adjunct and lecturer roles and am worrisome about how the neoliberal climate and values impact our labour practices and shift our roles as faculty. For example, the decline of tenure track lines that is occurring in tandem with how faculty roles have expanded to manage receipts and subsidize academic labour that once was part of university hiring through faculty grants. (2) I am deeply committed to equity issues and am concerned about how equity is administrated through institutional roles without community building and direct collaboration with the marginalized populations UW intends to support. These two issues would be in the forefront for me, when the FAUW Board is tasked to make decisions on policy and other relevant labour matters.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
I have worked alongside FAUW through my role as helping lead W3+ (since 2017), my participation on the Equity Committee (since 2018), and my capacity on the Council of Reps (2018-2020) and I am familiar with the work of other committees and working groups. Within my department, I led a committee to investigate the challenges that sessional instructors faced. More recently I am on the education working group for the President’s Anti-Racis Task Force. This service experience enhances my interest in how essential decision-making bodies do not recognize and are not directly engaged with important faculty-led service work, and I hope to address that. I believe the administration has a duty to connect, engage, and collaborate with the people whom they seek to represent, and I believe my role on the FAUW Board will lead to greater transparency and accountability.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
I will advance a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus while on the FAUW board. Although FAUW has stated its commitment, I do not believe that FAUW has named any actions it intends to undertake, and therefore, I would find agreement in the naming of those actions. More specifically, I believe that the FAUW board needs more equitable representation of marginalized groups and attention to and revision of areas in the constitution and policy that allow power inequities to proliferate. My awareness of these issues is woven into my experience as pre-tenure, and as a womxn of colour, first-generation, refugee, trying to navigate equity concerns as they have arisen during my encounters with problematic practices, procedures, and institutional authority. As a tenured faculty member now, I hope to make the university a better place for new junior faculty of colour. While I can’t move mountains, it would be important for FAUW to uncomfortably reflect on its own actions and structural entailments that may create barriers to a better working environment.
Marios Ioannidis
Marios is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
For collegial governance to succeed, we need to dedicate some of our time to improving the policies and procedures that govern our work at the University. One way to do this is by helping our Faculty Association serve its members. I am grateful for the opportunity to do this as Director-at-Large during the past year, and hope to be able to continue.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
Natural curiosity and compassion with plenty of experience in various roles within the Department of Chemical Engineering (Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies), the Faculty of Engineering (Director of Nanotechnology Engineering Program, member of the Faculty Tenure & Promotion Committee) and the University (member of Senate, Academic Colleague to the Council of Ontario Universities, member of the Senate Long Range Planning Committee, member of the University Appointments Review Committee). As FAUW's Director-at-Large, I most recently co-chaired the Salary Anomaly Working Group.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
The experience I gained with the Salary Anomaly Working Group will help advance FAUW's commitment regarding the identification of race-based anomalies (Item #5 of the 2021-2024 Memorandum of Salary Settlement).
Andrew Milne
Andrew is a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
As an (any-day-now) Continuing Lecturer I want to contribute to the representation of all faculty on campus, and work to ensure that all people on campus are treated fairly. UW has one mission, to get more knowledge into the world. We do this by creating new knowledge (research) and by expanding the population that knows new and existing knowledge (teaching). Both are vital, both are interconnected, and everything everyone (Staff, Faculty, Students, Administration) does on campus should work toward the mission of getting more knowledge into the world. Faculty, and teaching and research staff are at the forefront of this mission, and FAUW is there to represent Faculty in this work. I want to help FAUW build bridges will all groups on campus, and to make sure we align all of what we do with this mission.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
Since my hire in 2015 I have worked on accreditation planning and preparation, including working on program review and curriculum improvement. In this role I've worked with everyone from research focused to teaching focused faculty. I've also led and been a member on committees such as Faculty Council, Undergraduate Studies, and various accreditation related committees. I am adept at working with others, and at building consensus. And I make sure that all voices get heard at the table when matters are being considered.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
I acknowledge that I've got almost all of the privileges one can have. That said, the work of building a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive University and society shouldn't rest solely on those who have been marginalized. I will stand up for marginalized groups. I will bring the views of those groups not represented to FAUW. I will continue to talk less and listen more. I will continue to support work to attract more women, BIPOC populations, LGBTQ+ and other underrepresented groups to the undergraduate programs of my home Department (MME), and look forward to working with FAUW to determine how we can continue that work at all levels of campus, and how we can make the campus a place where all people are welcomed.
Patrick Lam
Patrick is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
Having served on the University of Waterloo faculty since 2008, and having visited many other universities around the world, I've realized that this University generally works quite well. Collegiality and shared governance are a key part to its success, and I'd like to contribute to making it work; it doesn't work by itself.
Specifically, in addition to contributing to Board deliberations, I'd like to help with driving policy changes forward; faculty input to policy development is a key part of shared governance.
I'd be honoured to be again elected to the FAUW Board, which has a central role in shared governance.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
My most significant previous service role was as Director of the Software Engineering program, jointly offered by the Faculties of Mathematics (CS) and Engineering (ECE). In this role I built consensus about the program's direction among two big stakeholders which didn't always have aligned goals. I also discussed teaching with my academic colleagues teaching into the SE program, while being mindful of their academic freedom. My approach to administering this program was also, whenever possible, guided by hard data (one thing Waterloo systemically does well) and by student input.
I've previously served on the FAUW Board before going on sabbatical; at the time, FAUW business wasn't well set up for remote work. If elected, I believe that I can make a full contribution during this term.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
When I was SE director, I aimed to create an inclusive environment for all of our students, particularly those from equity-seeking groups. I provided support for the students to self-organize e.g. the Women in Software Engineering group. I included inclusion and ethics material in the curriculum of courses that I taught. And I tracked data about our progress.
As a Board member, I would strive to ensure that FAUW's decisions continue to support EDI and make sure that our key events have good representation.
Xianguo Li
Xianguo is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I have been associated with the University of Waterloo for over several decades by now, and I have eye-witnessed the evolution of the University over the years – this evolution has amassed to a point that might be considered significant “quantum jump” in the gravitation of the university governance into central power. On the other hand, my professional activities have allowed me to make connections across the campus and beyond with various perspectives and views of roles, governance, challenges and opportunities the University faces, and faculty members’ rights, duties and responsibilities in university governance. I have been participating in internal and external bodies’ governance, including chair of Engineering Faculty Council; President of Fuel Cell Division, International Association for Hydrogen Energy; VP, Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering; NRC Technical Advisory Committee; NSERC Strategic Grants Energy Selection Panel member, etc. I am seeking to join the FAUW Board of Directors to ensure the welfare and healthy environment for all faculty members in their career development, balancing professional vs personal/family life.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
As mentioned previously, I have extensive experience in participating in internal and external bodies’ governance in the past several decades. For example, I have served several times and am currently serving on the Faculty of Engineering’s Faculty Tenure and Promotion Committee (FTPC), served as the Chair of Engineering Faculty Council, Departmental Advisory Committee on Appointments (DACA), Space Committee, etc. I am the founding and current editor in chief for the International Journal of Green Energy, and on the editorial/advisory board of dozens of energy related research journals, books, encyclopedia, etc. I am serving as the current President of Fuel Cell Division, International Association for Hydrogen Energy; Vice President, Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering; NRC Technical Advisory Committee, etc. Therefore, I can contribute to helping FAUW on several fronts, including governance dealing with the administration; its membership’s welfare and benefits such as professional/career development; its sustainability activities and objectives related to climate change mitigations, adaptation and action strategies, as well as issues/matters related to racial tensions, equity, diversity, and inclusivity.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
First and foremost, equity, diversity, and inclusion matters should be worked into the university policies and guidelines so that the issue is addressed systematically at the various levels of the institutional governance and daily/routine operation/life. It is built into our daily routine, operation/life and natural thinking, so that someday this will not be needed with explicit and extra attention and mention. As an institution of higher education, professionalism and professional be respected without consideration of individual’s personal likes and orientations. Therefore, education and information awareness as well as professionalism will be the key along with the institutional policies and guidelines. Further, equity, diversity, and inclusion is not just the issue on campus, but it’s a matter of importance for our Canadian society as a whole, and it is also the matter being dealt with in the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) for which I’m serving as the VP right now. Therefore, on-campus activities would achieve best outcomes when linked and coupled with the professional communities in advancing the goals and objectives together for a better campus, better professional community and better Canadian society as a whole.
Paul McGrath
Paul is a lecturer in the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I have experienced first-hand what it is like to have a faculty association that advocates on your behalf and is ready to help when times get tough versus one that does not and is not. Thankfully, FAUW is my example of the former. Broadly speaking, I want to be a FAUW board member to help ensure that all UW faculty members feel the same level of support that I have regardless of rank or identity.
One specific issue that will be at the forefront for me is the updating of Policies 76 and 77 to regularize the lecturer role. Nearly one out of five faculty members is a lecturer, meaning constructive revisions will immediately improve the working conditions for a significant portion of our membership. In addition, lecturer hires are currently outpacing tenure-track hires, so it will be to the benefit of the entire UW community to redefine this role so that lecturers can take on a more diversified portfolio of responsibilities.
My desire to join the FAUW board extends beyond P76/77 though. I am specifically running for an at-large position because I look forward to working on issues of concern to all faculty members.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
I am entering my fifth year as a member of the FAUW Council of Representatives. In this role I keep my colleagues up-to-date with FAUW-related matters, I have worked with the Academic Freedom & Tenure committee and FAUW board members to resolve various issues, and I have prepared an addendum to our faculty’s performance review guidelines which would eventually be adapted to be used by three units.
I am also halfway through my second two-year term on FAUW’s Lecturers Committee. In addition to bringing concerns raised by lecturers to the FAUW board, my work on this committee has included reviewing draft policies, analyzing merit scores in all faculties, examining the selective increase process, and soliciting feedback from lecturers. As part of the last item, I have been heavily involved in analyzing the feedback from the recent survey that was sent to lecturers across campus. As such, I feel I have a very good sense of the issues affecting all lecturers at UW.
Lastly, since starting at UW, I have been involved in a variety of activities including teaching undergrad, graduate, and online courses, pedagogical research, curriculum development, course coordination, online course development, student advising, student supervision, outreach, and more.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
As a member of a unit comprised almost entirely of lecturers, my attention to date has primarily been focused on improving working conditions for lecturers and I will continue this work as a board member. With women faculty members holding a greater proportion of lecturer positions than tenure-track positions at UW (according to 2018 StatsCan data), bettering the conditions of employment for lecturers will serve dual purpose by also improving the overall working conditions of women.
Of course, this only scratches the surface when it comes to equity, diversity, and inclusion. In the bigger picture, many other issues remain. In some cases, efforts are being made to address them (e.g., the Indigenization strategy, HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10, the President’s Anti-Racism Taskforce, Policy 14 revisions, salary anomaly reviews) but a lot of work remains to be done and FAUW will be instrumental in this process. During my time on the Council of Representatives and Lecturers Committee, I have become well-versed in university governance and the various pathways for addressing inequities. If elected to the board, I hope and expect to be able to repurpose my knowledge and skills to take an active role aiding in equity-focused initiatives.
John North
John is a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I wish to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors in order to draw attention to the following issues:
- Is the UW funding ratio shifting from Faculty to Administration?
- Is the UW Canadian/International student ratio shifting toward International students who pay 4X the fees, thus disadvantaging Canadians?
- UW Faculty hires are increasingly into non-tenure lines, requiring highly qualified candidates to teach 6 courses across 3 terms, without expectation or recognition of research activity. This risks UW’s reputation as a prominent research institution, creates ‘second-class’ academics, and exhausts such among our colleagues.
- Does support for Academic Research disadvantage the Faculty of Arts or any other faculties?
- Should the Rate My Professor site be legally challenged by OCUFA and CAUT for publishing libelous, anonymous comments of disgruntled students?
- Is Freedom of Speech in Canadian Universities in decline?
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
During 53 years in the professorial ranks of the Department of English I have been and still am active in FAUW. I have been President of FAUW, the UW rep to OCUFA and CAUT, and Academic Colleague to many faculty members applying for or defending tenure. I have been on most Dept committees, the Arts P & T, and the UW VP Grad Studies committee (during Amit Chakma’s tenure). For many years I have supervised PhD dissertation defences across all UW faculties. This has given me an appreciation of the energy, integrity and achievement of colleagues university-wide. In 2003 UW awarded me Distinguished Teacher status. Some 15 years ago the Dept Chair said that I had taught over 20,000 UW students.
In 1978 John Rempel and I co-founded the Pascal Lecture Series on Christianity and the University at the University of Waterloo, which JPR Wadsworth, Chairman of the Board, affirmed as a formal UW lecture series. The Lectures have welcomed to UW the most internationally acclaimed academics in the history of the University. Videos of the past 5 annual Pascal Lectures alone each have been viewed between 250,000 times and 500,000 times: enormous PR for UW.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
I myself currently employ an Ethiopian, Iranian, and until recently a Chinese full-time research assistants. I have supervised grad MA theses and PhD dissertations of Canadian, Chinese, Ethiopian, and Iranian female & male students. Over the years I have arranged to bring Chinese and Ethiopian refugees to Canada. Just now my wife and I support one younger and one older Ethiopian woman, both literally enslaved for 7 years by political or religious tyrannies, until their escape and flight to Europe.
The Pascal Lecturers have included American, African, British, Canadian, and Lebanese men and women: poets, mathematicians, ‘pure’ scientists, computer scientists, philosophers, an astrophysicist, a classicist, and including several who have worked alongside Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. The Pascal Committee itself has a ‘diversified’ membership.
However, UW ought to hire those best qualified on academic grounds in both teaching and research, while actively seeking applicants on the basis of equity, diversity, and inclusion. While I strongly support these principles, and while on the Department’s hiring committee have voted in support of our successful hiring of such folk, I do not support hiring on those grounds at the expense of academic credentials.
Linda Robinson
Linda is a continuing lecturer in the School of Accounting Finance.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
I have been with the University for 18 years, but my first involvement with FAUW has been fairly recent when I needed support with a change in my employment status. FAUW was extremely supportive and proactive in solving my situation. Having seen the valuable role FAUW plays in helping faculty I believe that I can help other faculty members when in need. Most faculty members have enough responsibilities between research, teaching and student support and can not be expected to understand how to navigate the University’s complex rules for themselves. For this reason, I believe FAUW plays a critical role in supporting us. I am now at a point in my career at the University that I feel I have time to devote my energy and creativity back to FAUW to assist other faculty members.
I have also learned recently through my role on the Compensation Negotiating Team that working conditions and treatment of faculty members is not equal. Conditions may be dependant on which faculty you are a member of or who your Dean / Director is. This should not be the case. If elected I will work to provide support to all faculty members for fair and equal treatment.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
I was one of the three faculty members on the Compensation Negotiating Team which was active from the Fall of 2020 through the conclusion of salary negotiation in February 2021. Being part of these negotiations provided me with an intimate look into the relationship between the faculty and the administration. This experience gave me an appreciation for the many issues that continue to be outstanding between the parties. As part of that negotiating team I used my financial expertise to analyse the University’s financial position and assess their ability to pay for items under negotiation.
University of Waterloo is a second career for me. I am a CPA, CA and prior to joining UW, I was in public practice for 20 years. My final ten years was as partner in a forensic accounting practice where I specialized in fraud investigations into corporate and government matters. This prior experience has provided me with a greater understanding of a world outside academia. I will bring this knowledge to my role as a FAUW board member.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
While a member of the Compensation Negotiating Team I worked with the others to improve the timing to start collecting faculty equity data, including on racialized and indigenous faculty members. If race-based anomalies are identified, these will be resolved retroactive to May 1, 2021. As a board member I want to continue to do this work on behalf of and in consultation with colleagues in marginalized groups.
I recently took a workshop offered by Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion at UW called Equity 101 through UW online learning. This foundational workshop improved my understanding of equity and how my interactions with others are shaped by systems of oppression, power, and privilege. I understand that I come from a position of power within society. Being culturally competent and a safe educator has been a priority of mine however I am very aware that this is a life long journey of reflection and pursuit of learning opportunities. I hope to continue this journey with and alongside the board.
Olaf Weber
Olaf is a professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED).
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
Generally, I believe in the high value of service commitments. I have been the FAUW department representative for SEED, and consequently got some insight about the work FAUW does. I think serving on FAUW's board will contribute to shape our university in a more sustainable direction. Having been a member of Senate and been involved in some board of governors committees, I came to the conclusion that we need a strong FAUW to articulate the opinions of faculty. I would like to bring in my knowledge about sustainable finance, including sustainable investment of the university's pension funds and endowments. Furthermore, through being a FAUW Director, I would like to support FAUW and the university on their way to a sustainable institution, including environmental, social, and economic aspects.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
I am a professor and University Research Chair in Sustainable Finance, and have been a member of the senate for two terms. Furthermore,. I served as the acting director of SEED and as the Associate Director Graduate Studies or my department. Hence, I know many of the processes of the university administration. Furthermore, I am an expert member of the Responsible Investment Advisory Committee of the Board of Governors. Thus, one of my experiences that I can contribute is financial expertise related to university processes. Another type of experience that might be important is my involvement in interdisciplinary and interfaculty oriented activities. As a member and an associate director of some of the university’s interdisciplinary institute, such as WISE and the Water Institute, I have experienced the different views and needs in our six faculties that I will be able to share as a FAUW Board Member.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
Having worked in international and diverse teams and supervising a diverse team of graduate students, I value the positive impact of equity, diversity and inclusion for all university related activities. I believe that advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus will not only lead to more justice, but will actually advance the research and teaching quality at the University of Waterloo. Hence, I do not only want to contribute to policies addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus, but also contribute to implement the policies in our daily work.
Vershawn Ashanti Young
Vershawn is a professor in the Departments of Communication Arts and English Language and Literature, and in the Black Pan African and Diasporic Studies Program.
Why do you want to serve on the FAUW Board of Directors?
As one of a handful of Black tenure-line faculty on campus, and as one of two Black full professors, I want to serve on FAUW to help bring issues of racial justice to the centre of conversations and to help apply an anti-racist lens to policies and practices. To these ends, I want to assist FAUW in its work to ensure academic freedom, equity, and collegial governance for faculty members at Waterloo, particularly people of colour. I also wish to assist in helping to negotiate and protect working conditions for faculty.
What skills or experience can you contribute to the Board?
I have skills and experience related to serving on FAUW. I have served previously on our Equity Committee and I am a member of the Black Faculty Collective at UWaterloo. I have a thorough understanding of our tenure and promotion processes, and I have been directly involved in defending academic freedom at our University. I also bring significant professional skills from my background in law and mediation.
How will you advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus?
I will advance FAUW's commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus by applying an anti-racist and intersectional ally-framework to any review and discussion of policies and practices. I also make a personal commitment to center equity, diversity, and inclusion within my daily work.
Back to the top
