Policy development

University policies that concern faculty terms and conditions of employment—Class F policies—are the responsibility of the Faculty Relations Committee (FRC). Members of the FAUW Board of Directors make up half of FRC; the other five members are appointed by the administration. FRC is co-chaired by the provost and the FAUW president.

The process in a little more detail

  1. A new F policy or an update to an existing policy can be initiated by FRC, Senate, or the Board of Governors.
  2. FRC sets the terms of reference for a policy drafting committee—outlining things like what the policy should cover, how often the committee will meet, when a draft should be completed.
  3. FAUW, the administration, and Senate assign members to the drafting committee and the committee begins work on a draft.
  4. Once the committee has a draft they're happy with, they submit it to FRC. Each side of FRC is responsible for consulting with its constituents (e.g., FAUW members and Deans Council) and FRC is to collectively review feedback and direct the drafting committee to make any agreed-upon changes.
  5. Once the policy is approved at FRC (by a majority of the members from each side), it goes to the President, then to Senate, and finally to the Board of Governors for final approval. It can be passed back to FRC for changes at any of these stages.

Minor amendments may be dealt with directly by the FRC. See Policy 1 – Initiation and Review of University Policies for all the fine details. The processes for Class FS policies (those which concern both faculty and staff) and Class A policies (those concerning academic administrative appointments) are similar. 

Class G policies

Class G policies do not require FAUW involvement or approval, though some of them do interact with our conditions of employment, such as the Intellectual Property Rights policy (73).

Policies under development

The Ethical Behaviour policy (33) has been under review since 2014. A draft was sent to members of the UW community for consultation in 2019. In February 2023, the Faculty Relations Committee and the Staff Relations Committee held a joint meeting to discuss the latest draft (from 2021), to consider outstanding issues, and to press for implementation of the revised policy as soon as possible.

This is a new policy, initiated in 2019. FAUW representatives on this drafting committee are Jay Dolmage and Lori Curtis (who were the Equity Committee and Academic Freedom & Tenure Committee chairs, respectively, at the time the drafting committee was struck). The committee has submitted a draft to FRC and SRC.

This is a new policy, initiated through our salary negotiations process in early 2021. Lori Curtis and Aimeé Morrison are the FAUW representatives on the drafting committee, which began meeting in early 2022. The minimum benefits to be covered under this policy already came into effect May 1, 2022.