Benoit Charbonneau awarded the FAUW Equity & Inclusivity Award

Associate Professor Benoit Charbonneau is one of three recipients of the Faculty Association’s Equity Committee Equity and Inclusivity Awards.

Charbonneau is committed to improving the lives of members of equity-seeking groups on campus, in particular through political, legal, and collective bargaining advancements, as well as organizational leadership.

As a chief negotiator, Charbonneau led negotiations for the 2018-20121 memorandum of settlement, and continued as co-chair of the Working Group on Salary Structure. Charbonneau has negotiated on behalf of all FAUW members, but he directly addressed existing inequities for Waterloo lecturers upon confirming a suspected salary inequity for lecturers and building a plan to correct it.

One of recommendations Charbonneau received noted: “The significance of what he has achieved cannot be overstated. While his work on behalf of Waterloo's lecturers, in the narrowest sense, benefits only those at the University of Waterloo, at a time when the matter of precarious employment in academia finally has been recognized as a fundamental issue of equity on campuses across this country, his success sets an important precedent on the national stage.”

Charbonneau also helped thousands of other University of Waterloo employees as the benefits increase that he achieved for regular faculty resulted in an equivalent increase for all University employees.

“I am honoured to be recognized. While I was the visible face of these efforts, these were group efforts and this award reflects well on all those involved,” said Charbonneau. “I have wonderful colleagues who gave their best, and together we achieved more than any of us could have done alone.”

Since 2012, the Faculty Association’s Equity Committee has been recognizing a member or affiliate of the University of Waterloo community who demonstrates a commitment to improving equity, inclusivity and/or diversity at Waterloo. Women in Computer Science (WiCS) was one of the recipients in 2018.