News

The FAUW Board is pleased to announce that Kathy Hogarth, who is an associate professor of Social Work at Renison University College, will be FAUW’s Special Advisor on Racism and Anti-Racism. Professor Hogarth is a founding member of the Black Faculty Collective and a member of FAUW’s Equity Committee. Her experience in helping organizations guide internal transformation and her research expertise in the areas of racism and equity will be a huge asset to FAUW as we shape our response to the university’s efforts on this subject and reconsider some of how FAUW operates.

FAUW is pleased to welcome Dan Brown as our new association president today. Bryan Tolson will transition to the role of past president for one year, and also chief negotiator.

On June 6, in relation to a matter with a faculty member that prompted a public outcry and media response, the University of Waterloo told the press that “The University of Waterloo unequivocally believes that there is no place for the use of the N-word in class, on campus or in our community." 

Whether a word is appropriate for use in class is a scholarly decision that instructors must be free to make. In particular, instructors who teach about race and racism must be free, according to their best judgement, to lead unvarnished discussions about racist language.

The Renison Association of Academic Staff (RAAS) is delighted to announce that it received certification as a trade union on March 23, 2020. RAAS was first established as a non-certified association on February 12, 2018 and is affiliated with FAUW through a service agreement.

Earlier this month, FAUW conducted a survey about members' experiences preparing for the 2020 spring and fall terms amid the transition to fully remote delivery, to help us advocate for our members’ interests. You can now access the results of the survey in the Reports & Documents section of our website. 

FAUW is particularly concerned that, at the time of the survey (May 8–13), 71% of respondents teaching in the fall said it was not clear to them how decisions were being made about how their courses should be delivered. 

74% of respondents teaching in the spring term felt more unprepared than usual at the start of term and only 53% felt that they received adequate support for spring term overall.  

Congratulations to the new members of the Board of Directors from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2022.

Like much of the rest of campus, the FAUW offices are closed and staff and Board members are working from home.

All FAUW events are postponed until further notice. The Spring General Meeting is still planned for noon on April 7, but will be delivered online. 

We have created a Coronavirus updates page with the latest information from us, frequently asked questions, and an archive of our emails related to the pandemic.

FAUW's new member-driven Climate Justice Working Group brings together faculty members at the University of Waterloo to generate collective action on campus—and within our broader communities—to help foster a just, climate-safe future.

This is a decentralized, action-oriented group that aims to shrink the carbon footprint of our work on campus and beyond, to build climate justice awareness on campus and in our community, and to spark related research with impact across the disciplines.

The FAUW elections committee solicited nominations for FAUW president from October 17 to November 13, 2019. The committee received only one nomination during this period, so FAUW is pleased to announce that Dan Brown will be the next FAUW president, starting July 1, 2020. Congratulations Dan!

If you have questions about the election process, please contact a member of the Elections Committee.

FAUW is launching a new slate of lunch & learns and faculty meetups this year, in addition to our regular workshops, reading circles, and general meetings.

Coming up first are a meetup for faculty interested in climate justice, our annual new faculty dinner, a lunch & learn on campus tech, and the September edition of our Indigenization reading circle.