News

This message was sent to senior University administrators on Tuesday, January 25.

In light of the University’s announcement on January 21 that most classes will resume in person on February 7, to ensure the safety of our members and everyone on campus, and to safeguard the fundamental principle of collegial governance of universities, FAUW asks that the following conditions be met by February 7:

A message from James W. E. Rush, Vice-President, Academic & Provost and Lori Curtis, President, Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo. This was also sent to all employees by the University, and published on the Employee Communication website.

We have shared your concerns about the ongoing effects of the pandemic on your performance and teaching workload with the administration at Faculty Relations Committee andasked for the same APR process as last year.Our arguments were two-fold:The university must acknowledge the ongoing effects of the pandemic (on workload, mental health, the ability to conduct research, the teaching environment, and so on); and returning to a normal evaluation

Following receipt of the report of the policy development committee on September 23, the Faculty Relations Committee (FRC) has spent the majority of its meeting time identifying and discussing the major terms of importance in reshaping the policies. This has been a collegial, collaborative, and productive discussion which has resulted in agreement on several major areas.

At the latest Faculty Relations Committee meeting, we and the administration representatives shared our respective visions for teaching-intensive faculty, to see if they are close enough to continue discussions. Based on these statements, the Board has supported continuing discussions at FRC.

We are expanding the mandate of what is currently the Elections Committee so that it also finds FAUW members to serve on University and joint committees.

Su-Yin Tan and Kate Lawson, the FAUW appointees to the P76/77 drafting committee, have issued a report to the membership on the FAUW blog. Below is an excerpt from that report; you can read the rest at fauw.blog. FAUW strongly believes that our lecturer members deserve a better outcome and the Board is making every effort to find a more effective way forward.

Update: On August 24, the University of Waterloo announced that proof of vaccination will be mandatory this fall, with accommodations available for medical or human rights grounds.

The Lecturers Committee wishes to congratulate its recipients of the 2021 Lecturers Appreciation Award, Aimée Morrison and Jay Dolmage of the FAUW Equity Committee. About the award, the Lecturers Committee says:

FAUW is pleased to announce that Lori Curtis will serve as FAUW president for a two-year term beginning July 1. Lori is the chair of the Academic Freedom & Tenure Committee. We will announce the new AF&T chair soon.

Mario Ioannidis, currently an at-large director and member of the Executive Committee, will take the Engineering seat on the board for one year as of July 1.