Read Vice-President Kristine Smitka's interview published by the Gateway on October 18, 2022

"Q&A: AASUA vice-president on job security, collective agreements, and fair employment week at the U of A"

 

 

Dear Members

The AASUA is participating in CAUT's Fair Employment Week (October 17-21), an annual campaign to raise awareness about precarious employment of academic staff on university campuses. 

We will be in SUB on October 19 and 21 (from 10 am to 2 pm) and in Humanities on October 19 (from 10 am to 1 pm) where we will have a table with more information to share about our precarious academic staff. 

Terra Garneau - Equity Officer, Beth Powell - ATS Councillor (Mathematics), Rick Brick - ATS Director

Barb Baker - APO and TLAPO Director, Tim Mills - Past President

Marilee Stephens - ATS Member (Engineering), Alsu Kuznetsova - TRAS Director

Rick Brick - ATS Director, Ahsan Chowdhury - ATS Member (Arts), Dorothy Woodman - ATS Member (Arts)

 

Send a message to U of A President Bill Flanagan

The University's vision statement, For the Public Good, has as its first platform that we will "build a diverse, inclusive community of exceptional students, faculty, and staff from Alberta, Canada and the world." Better job security and equitable compensation would empower our precarious academic staff to contribute even more.

Choose any of these postcards to download the PDF document and email to President Bill Flanagan - see the different messages on the back of the postcard:

  

  

  

 

Read "Out of the Shadows - Experiences of Contract Academic Staff"

by Karen Foster and Louise Birdsell Bauer

"An increasing number of academic staff at universities and colleges are working in non-standard employment ...."  Read the full article here. 

Did You Know

  • that there are 920 Academic Teaching Staff (ATS) which makes up about 24% of the entire membership in AASUA
  • that ATS teach nearly 50% of all undergraduate courses taught at the University of Alberta
  • that many ATS have the same qualifications as Faculty and deliver quality education to students, who are not even aware that ATS are their instructor rather than a tenured Faculty
  • that many ATS who have been teaching for years, have short term contracts that do not include benefits that other academic staff may enjoy, and do not have certainty of re-employment
  • that many ATS members are given contracts with short notice and not compensated for their preparation time before the course starts 
  • that all 417 members who are Trust/Research Academic Staff (TRAS) have contingent appointments and at least half have been employed at the University of Alberta for 6 or more years
  • that all 80 Temporary Librarian, Administrative and Professional Staff (TLAPO) have contingent appointments, and it would take 6 years of service before these temporary employees would be converted to permanent status

Download the "About Us (Information Sheet)". 

Documentary Film

As part of this event, the AASUA has made the 55-minute documentary film IN SEARCH OF PROFESSOR PRECARIOUS available to all members and the public until midnight on Oct. 23. 

In this award winning and moving film, long-time precarious contract instructor Gerry Potter travels across Canada to expose the realities of working as a sessional academic. The University of Alberta and MacEwan University are both well-represented in the film.

AASUA members can access the film here. The password is AASUA.