YUFA will conduct an electronic poll on the potential renewal of the term of Dean Shawn Brixey in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD).

The poll will begin on Tuesday, May 9 at 6:00 p.m. and end on Friday, May 19 at 6:00 p.m.

All YUFA members in AMPD who are eligible to vote will receive an email invitation to vote. You may vote by clicking on the link in the email invitation.

If you do not receive an invitation to vote, please contact YUFA right away: email [email protected].

According to Article 12.27 (iii) (b) of the YUFA Collective Agreement, the administration shall consult with faculty members regarding decanal renewal. Unfortunately, we have witnessed a pattern of inadequate and non-transparent consultation in other decanal renewal processes in recent years. As a result, members in AMPD have requested that the YUFA Executive Committee conduct a fully anonymous poll in which the results will be made known to AMPD faculty members.

As a good-faith measure, we decided to approach the administration about whether it planned to consult AMPD members about the Dean's potential renewal. In particular, we asked the administration if any consultation it had planned would include an anonymous poll in which the results would be known. The previous practice involved the solicitation of letters signed by faculty members to be sent to the Provost and/or the President. As YUFA members have informed us, the lack of anonymity has been a deterrent to their full participation, and the lack of disclosure of the results has been a cause of mistrust in the process.

This year, the administration has agreed to change its policy and conduct an anonymous poll. We believe this could take place in the next few days. While this is a welcome development, the administration has informed YUFA that the results will only be released to the President, the Provost, and the Chair of the AMPD Faculty Council. The YUFA Executive Committee has concluded that this does not meet the conditions of transparency necessary for a fully legitimate and trustworthy consultation process.

As a result, we have decided to conduct our own poll in which the results will be made known to AMPD faculty members. The results will not be posted on the YUFA website, and will only be sent by email to individual members in AMPD.

We expect that a somewhat similar poll will be conducted by the administration and we urge you to participate in both.