Minutes of Meeting
April 13, 2004
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Present: Dale Lakevold, Sandra Storm, Ban Jun-Rong, Jane Scott, Karl McAllister, Susan Tsukamoto, Nan Pernal, Dianna Morris Shavers, Kathleen Nichol.
1. Sessional listings in the university phone book
– Most sessional instructors are not listed in the BU Telephone Directory. This means faculty on campus are not aware who sessionals are and cannot contact them. This means sessional faculty are not included in dissemination of information and in decision-making processes. Dale will contact Human Resources to ask that sessional instructors be included in the Directory. Karl noted that at the Brandon Regional Health Authority, messages can be left for employees at a telephone “mailbox”. Then each employee has his/her own code to access his/her own messages. Dale will contact Al Dunthorne regarding this possibility.
2. Concerns of sessional instructors are national and international
– Sandra provided five packages of information:
1) Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association website informationCUPFA offers support to other groups of sessional instructors wishing to form a union or association.Brief history and purpose of CUPFA Their Collective Agreement (first page) Their News Their contact people and numbers http://www.cupfa.org/ 2) American Psychological Association APA Monitor article from December 1998 on “The bane of part-time faculty: satisfying work, lousy benefits”.
3) ERIC Digests: “Advantages and Disadvantage of Employing Part-Time Faculty in Community Colleges”:A short, pithy article stimulating readers to act. http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec98/facult.html 4) Part-time Faculty in Higher Education Annotated Bibliography:The article gives statistics on the percentage of Part-Time faculty in Community Colleges in the U.S. http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed405037.html Sandra noted that we need to know the facts for BU. Dale noted that BUFA has approved such a study. Sandra noted that it is important for sessionals to control this study so they find the information they need. Dale noted that someone should be hired to do the study. He and Sandra would recommend a sessional be paid. Funds might be applied for from BUFA. Questions to be asked: What percent of the faculty at BU are part-time? What percent of the courses at BU are taught by part-time? What percent of the salaries at BU are earned by part-time? Are these proportional? What concerns do sessionals have? Who are the sessionals? Is part-time work desired? Is full-time work the ultimate aim? 5) New York Teacher article on “Tired of Juggling: Union seeks equity for part-time profs”, November 21, 2001:http://www.providence.edu/soc/pankin/part-time1.html Part-time professors account for 43 percent of faculty appointments in U.S. higher education, according to the American Federation of Teachers. Examples of indignities such as having no key to an office with a phone, not being allowed to use the faculty lounge, having to juggle several part-time teaching appointments in different locals to make a living . . . sound familiar? Some faculty unions in New York are fighting for improved working conditions for their sessional instructors.
3. The organization of sessionals at the University of Calgary (Sandra Storm):
Sessional instructors at the University of Calgary are starting to organize.An article in the University of Calgary Gauntlet undergraduate student newspaper is found at http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/2582.
- Their concerns include:
- low pay,
- little or no job security,
- willingness to sit on committees but no pay for it,
- need to be involved with students but no pay and often no office space,
- desire to be involved in curriculum/course decision making but no venue for it,
- P-T faculty winning numerous teaching awards but getting no respect from Administration,
- difficulty in U of C being and becoming a major research university when many staff are part-time and have no university support to do research.
4. CAUT Collective Bargaining Conference, January 30-February 1, 2004:
“Conditions of Employment for contract Academic Staff”:
Dale attended the conference. His report was distributed to those in attendance. CAUT has survey information and issues.
5. Eligibility for Employment Insurance:
Sessional instructors need to contact EI offices to find out the current qualifications for EI BEFORE signing contracts. Sometimes instructors have negotiated to reconfigure the hours per week or the number of weeks of the contract to meet EI regulations. EI requires a certain number of hours of employment in the last 12 months, a certain number of weeks of employment, and a certain minimum number of hours per week. This might be addressed in an Orientation session and/or package for sessional instructors.
6. Survey and Study:
Since a strategy meeting is needed to plan the study, a meeting was set for: Tuesday, April 27, 7:00 p.m. in Room 104 of the Original Building. All sessional instructors will be invited. Dale will ask Maureen to send out the notices. Sandra offered to phone people. (Note: Maureen does not have home addresses for the sessional instructors. KN)
7. Positions on the BUFA executive:
Elections are held each fall for the sessional rep and alternate on the BUFA executive. Dale’s position as sessional rep comes up for renewal/refill in September 2004. Think about it. Other executive positions are open to sessional instructors too, if they teach at least two terms. Jane Scott (a sessional instructor) will be stepping down as BUFA secretary and her position will be up for election at the General Meeting on Thursday, April 22, 2004, at 4:30p.m. in Theatre A of the Brodie Building.Dale noted that sessionals at BU have been part of BUFA only in the last five years, since the strike. Dale said that BUFA is open to helping sessionals. In the last negotiations, BUFA negotiated increases in the sessional stipends, a small Professional Development fund for sessionals, and a line in the CA regarding office space for sessional instructors.
Dale and Sandra noted that all sessional instructors must pay BUFA dues.
If BUFA collects the one dollar (or so?) joining fee, sessional instructors have voting rights at BUFA meetings.
Nan noted that sessional instructors should attend meetings. She felt like she didn’t belong so hasn’t gone, yet.Dale noted that in the Fall of 2003, sessional instructors, unless five years at BU, were voted off the Arts Faculty Council. They no longer had voting privileges.
8. Offices:
Nan Pernal, Susan Tsukamoto, and Jane Scott noted that seven of them share one office on the fourth floor of the Original Building. John Blaikie paid for a phone in the office (initially). Jane noted that a useful table was removed from their office without their input, and Susan’s name was removed from the door with no apparent reason. Karl noted that copying articles in the Library for his course required a time-consuming process of emailing articles to the Arts Secretarial Pool office and having them run off there. He wondered what Library and copying privileges sessional instructors have. [According to Gaye Sheardown in the Library, sessional instructors have 30-day borrowing privileges (in contrast to the 90-day loans of full-time faculty) for normal books. This does not apply to short-term loan material, of course. If you have a faculty card you can run off stuff on the library computers or Xerox machines. With the approval of the Chair of the Department, sessional instructors can use the Department cards for this. KN]Dale would like a clause in the next CA about the right of sessional instructors to office space, access to phone, computer access and library access.
9. Off-campus issues:
Deferred to the next meeting.
10. Meeting with the BUFA negotiating committee:
Before the next round of negotiations, sessional instructors should meet, in person, with the negotiating committee, to present their concerns/proposals.
11. Contact with other sessionals:
A list of sessional instructors, with contact information, is needed. An Orientation package for sessionals is needed. More meetings of sessional instructors are needed.
12. Next Meeting:
Tuesday, April 27, 7:00 p.m. in Room 104 of the Original Building.