usfa@usaskfaculty.ca

Question the narrative

While the operating grant from the Provincial Government is less than what it has been and the costs associated with being a medical-doctoral university are not decreasing, the University of Saskatchewan is not in financial jeopardy.  The university’s financial statements in the most recent Annual Financial Report shows a positive balance in the General Fund at April […]

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It is Still About Choice

You may have heard that Laurentian University recently filed for creditor protection. This news, coupled with some Senior Administrators discussing deficits in terms of “number of faculty positions they no longer have funding for,” has many faculty worried about job security at the University of Saskatchewan. Let us assure you that faculty jobs are largely […]

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CAUT Forum on French-speaking universities in pandemic times

From apprehended crisis to critical emergency Friday, February 26, 2021 at 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) Canada’s French-speaking universities were already on an alarming trajectory before COVID-19 hit. The pandemic has exacerbated the pressures on Francophone university education in a minority context and things have now gone from urgent to critical. The Forum will […]

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Have you taken vacation this year?

According to the Collective Agreement (Article 19), you are entitled to six weeks of annual paid vacation, unless your appointment is less than full time in which case your vacation entitlement is pro-rated. Unlike most workers, you do not earn your vacation. It is available to you on the effective date of your appointment.  Your […]

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Balancing your assignment of duties

Some faculty members have already begun collegial discussions about assignment of duties in their units for the 2021-2022 academic year.  Many members have contacted the Association about unfairness and inequitability in the workload assignment in recent years, and particularly during the lockdown. The major changes in teaching culture might be a good time to revisit […]

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University Council motion in support of rejecting the active/inactive researcher designation

Members of the Research, Scholarly and Artistic Work Committee of University Council have voted to put forward the following motion to University Council. There is a notice of the motion in this month’s council meeting agenda: “It is recommended that University Council support in principle a) the rejection of the use of “active/inactive” designations for researchers […]

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Invitation to Indigenous USFA members

USFA Chair Allison Muri and Vice-Chair Doug Chivers, invite Indigenous USFA members to join them for open discussions on topics of members’ choosing. To allow members to participate when then can, these meetings will take place monthly at 10:00 a.m. on the first Wednesday of the month via Zoom, beginning with February 3, 2021.  To […]

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The Work of Faculty: Part 2

Welcome back and Happy New Year! The overwhelming response to our first e-Letter on this topic and the strong participation in the University’s administrative practices survey have highlighted an appetite among USFA members to discuss the nature of and impediments to our work. We know in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, workloads have been difficult to manage for many […]

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Seeking Information: Have your expense reimbursements been denied?

Since the spring, the USFA has been seeking answers from the employer about its sudden move to deny APEF purchases of and reimbursements for items that were previously eligible.  Faculty members seek to be reimbursed for the purchase of a printer for use while working remotely. Faculty seek to be reimbursed for purchases of commonly […]

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2020 Summary Report of the University Administrative Practices Survey

The USFA Executive reconstituted the USFA Committee on University Administrative Practices during the 2019-2020 academic year, but the pandemic struck just as the Committee was about to begin its process. Unable to have discussions as hoped with faculty in small groups about the ways administrative practices at the U of S help and hinder faculty […]

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