May February be so good

The new year’s first month brought some welcome changes in the state of affairs at AASUA, besides the usual fixtures. AASUA’s officers’ monthly lunch meeting with Provost Carl Amrhein, Vice-Provost (Faculty Relations) Jay Spark, and Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (Human Resource Services) Chris Cheeseman occurred on 25 January, and the monthly meetings of Executive and Council took place, but there was also one extra meeting of Executive as well as a three-hour retreat to discuss broader matters that lengthy monthly meetings have been unable to address. The Executive has worked very hard this year, as have the constituency and standing committees of the association.

Beyond these developments, AASUA hosted its first-ever Open House in its offices on the sixteenth floor of College Plaza. The event was well attended, and the staff and President Ian MacLaren enjoyed an opportunity to meet members who found a moment to visit the renovated space. An increasing number of members appear cognizant of the value of the services that AASUA provides and the work that it is able to accomplish for them. To the extent that this is the case, AASUA pays particular tribute to the members who serve on Council, Executive, and the association’s standing and constituency committees.

A highlight of January occurred on the last day of the month, when not only were the matters of the Board’s grievance against AASUA and AASUA’s Notice of Grievance regarding the contract signed with Google Inc. resolved (see items below), but Marc de la Bruyère, member of the Board of Governors and chair of its Human Resources and Compensation Committee, hosted a dinner that brought together several members of the Board with officers and several committee chairs from both AASUA and NASA. This rejuvenation of an annual event last held some years ago was particularly welcome in a year in which headway is occurring in the improvement of relations between the association and the university’s administration and board. AASUA heartily thanks Mr de la Bruyère for his efforts. Continuing the development of working relations with NASA is also occurring and seen by both associations as needful.

In that vein, the recently appointed new chair of the Board of Governors, Douglas Goss, QC, met with the NASA and AASUA presidents late last week in the company of acting-chair of the board, Gordon Clanachan. Mr Goss introduced himself and sought during the frank discussion to familiarize himself with AASUA’s and NASA’s perspectives on the university, which he knows well as an alumnus with degrees in Commerce and Law, partner in various initiatives in the Faculty of Law, parent of a current student, and native Edmontonian. AASUA is pleased as well that Mr Clanachan will continue in his role as vice-chair of the Board.

Administration and AASUA align on Academic Freedom

A cloud has lifted

AASUA is pleased to advise that the Board of Governors has withdrawn the formal grievance that it filed against the association on 24 April 2011. The grievance alleged that the association had violated Alberta’s Post-Secondary Learning Act and breached the terms of the Faculty collective agreement. The action originated from the announcement in January 2011 that the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) had initiated an ad hoc investigation of the UofA’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. The grounds for the grievance are listed in the 19 May 2011 issue of Rhumblines. Happily, the Board of Governors withdrew this grievance last week, on 31 January.

Under the Faculty and other agreements, grievances are defined as allegations or complaints that a violation or improper application of the terms of the Agreement. In this instance, the Board of Governors claimed that the AASUA was “acceding to, condoning, facilitating and/or supporting efforts by its affiliated organization, the CAUT, to conduct an ad hoc investigation,” and thereby violating its obligation as the sole bargaining agent for its members, as decreed by the Post-Secondary Learning Act and the Faculty Agreement. In formally rejecting the grievance’s allegations, the association stated that what it discusses with CAUT has no bearing on AASUA’s exclusive authority to negotiate terms and conditions of employment of academic staff.

What changed? Because of good working relationships and discussions with administration, an ongoing process of resolving issues is addressing the problems in the faculty.

While the CAUT’s ad hoc investigatory committee’s process has yet to conclude, it is accurate to state that the history of successfully resolving issues that the association enjoys with the administration has prevailed, and the fair representation of members is the result. Working under the duress that a grievance imposes is difficult, but AASUA both appreciates the adminstrators’ cooperation and resolve to identify and remedy problems, and deeply thanks the association’s MSO team for its continuing efforts to find solutions that will help the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry to thrive.

Google Apps for Education at UofA

Last Tuesday (31 January), AASUA withdrew the Notice of Grievance that it filed on 7 June 2011 with the university’s administration. This Notice of Grievance concerned the contract that the administration had signed with Google Inc., which made it the provider of email services to staff and students. AASUA is pleased to report that the Notice never proceeded to the next formal stage—filing of a grievance—and that the notice was withdrawn this past week, on 31 January.

From earlier issues of Rhumblines or a reading of the collective agreements, members will recall that, pursuant to Article 27 in the six agreements (Article 24 in the SOTS Agreement), a Notice of Grievance requires the administration and association to meet to discuss whatever concerns arise from actions or failures to act by one or another party. If the discussion yields no common ground or remedy, then the formal grievance is filed. This step could lead to arbitration. In this case, neither was the grievance filed nor was arbitration required.

From the outset, meetings that took place made headway, including gaining permission from Google Inc. to review the redacted clauses of the contract, and a resolution of wording finally emerged last month. The upshot is that the introduction of an outside provider into the provision of email to academic staff will not alter the obligations that the administration had before a third-party provider was contracted. Those obligations include protecting and regulating the data and correspondence transmitted by users through Google Apps for Education (GAfE), and accessing it only under the limited terms that are required by legislation of a public employer. The terms of the agreement leave AASUA satisfied that it can discharge its duty of fair representation of its members, who are identified in the Google agreement as the “end users,” and who are entirely responsible for the contents of their communications.

CAUT turns on to CAST

The Contract Academic Staff Committee of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is working to raise awareness about issues facing contract academic staff (teaching) (CAST) and to facilitate contact among CAST members across the country. While we all have issues unique to our own contracts and situations, we also need to share matters of common interest. At UofA, CAST number almost 950 this year, 22% of AASUA’s membership, the only one of seven constituencies to have grown by any appreciable amount in the past year. The casualization of university teaching appointments has become as great a concern to university administrations and students’ unions as to academic associations. At UofA, there are fewer than three tenured or tenure-track professors for every CAST, but it is unknown what percentage of undergraduate classes are taught by the latter.