Please see below for six (6) updates and reminders for YUFA members,

1. YUFA is preparing a post-bargaining survey to inform future bargaining as well as YUFA’s immediate priorities. The link to the short (three minute) survey will be shared shortly.

2. YUFA is seeking two members to sit on joint YUFA-Employer committees to adjudicate the following:   

• Release-Time Teaching Fellowship (Article 19.32)
• Teaching-Learning Development Grants (Article 19.31)
• Education Leave Committee (Articles 19.19)

Each committee is expected to meet once, for up to two hours in January to review and adjudicate applications.

If you are interested in being appointed for this collegial service opportunity, please submit a brief written statement outlining your interest and relevant experience to [email protected] no later than October 11, 2024.

3. The University Finance Working Group of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) is holding its Annual University Finance Workshop titled “Making the Grade: Evaluating University Financial Health.” This is a great professional development opportunity for YUFA members, on an issue which is affecting us all.

This event will be held on Friday, November 8 at the OCUFA office located at 21 Randolph Avenue, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON M6P 4G4. The office is situated beside the UP Express/GO Bloor Station and is a short walk from the TTC subway’s Dundas West Station on Line 2.

You can register for the event HERE. Please note that workshop space is limited and that registrations will close once capacity is reached.

The workshop includes an information session on how to engage in university financial analysis, an exploration of how data and pedagogy can be used to understand university financial health, and a panel discussion on how universities are responding to financial challenges that also suggests what universities could be doing instead. A poster with a draft agenda can be found here.

There is no registration cost for the workshop and lunch will be provided. Attendees are responsible for any travel and accommodation expenses.

4. Report-back from September 25 rally to “Reclaim the University”

YUFA members joined members of other campus unions – YUSA, CUPE 3903, CUPE 1356 and the Osgoode Hall Faculty Association – on Wednesday September 25th in an energetic noon hour rally to reclaim the York campus. Attendees and speakers from YUSA, YUFA, CUPE 3903, CUPE 1356 called for decent working conditions for students and workers, including proper maintenance of buildings and services.

Collectively we raised our voices to demand an end to mismanagement and excessive salaries to senior administration, to push back against over-policing at the administration's behest by private security firms and Toronto police, and for a reinvigoration of York University as a safe, vibrant learning and working space for all. Please see three photos of the event.

5. Report-back from YUFA members’ Zoom meeting of October 2, 2024

The discussion in the meeting was on ways that YUFA members can push back against the top-down imposition of program closures, course cancellations, changes in enrollment thresholds for course cancellations, reductions in workload credit for teaching, and increases in class sizes. In addition, the discussion touched on the layoffs of TAs or the redeployment of TAs to administrative positions, staff layoffs or retirement without replacement, inadequate administrative support for program reviews and other essential tasks, and mandated unit mergers. 

In these situations, members can support YUFA’s ability to organize and defend all colleagues by:

Documenting what’s going on. Discuss restructuring-related changes in unit meetings and Faculty Councils. Keep detailed minutes about the specific changes taking place, who they affect, whether there was meaningful consultation, and implications for students, staff, and faculty. Make certain that the meeting minutes are unaltered and accurate. Compile lists of the courses cancelled in your unit due to ‘low enrollment’ and which are program requirements; also note any pressures or discussions about changing program requirements. Share this information and all minutes with YUFA at [email protected].

Passing Hortative Motions. Councils’ motions in opposing the erosion of academic standards and program changes are important, since these matters are within YUFA members’ purview and are our responsibility. Include specific, strong rationales for the motions, such as, for example, citing the impact on new colleagues’ teaching, members’ research, students (e.g. students losing OSAP because they can’t complete programs due to course cancellations, so they must withdraw; or gaps in student advising and recruitment, etc.), and staff overwork. Send copies of the motions to YUFA at [email protected] and ask your representatives on Senate Executive to bring the motions to the floor of Senate. The YUFA Senate Caucus can help with this. YUFA is also sharing this information with other York unions and student organizations.

Questioning the financial implications, costs and benefits of restructuring. Try to ascertain the stated rationale for the changes that are being imposed, the data utilized to justify these, and the assumptions being made. Use your own lived experience and expertise to push back and minimize the impacts on collegially developed curricula, programs, and unit-level academic priorities. Send this information to [email protected].

Tracking the impacts on decolonizing, equity, diversity and inclusion. Where courses and initiatives related to race, Indigeneity, and equity are particularly impacted by cuts, make sure to note this and document examples, such as reduced teaching options for new faculty members hired to strengthen these initiatives. Report these examples to [email protected], the YUFA equity officers and to the Race Equity Caucuses or indigenous Caucuses.

Planning and invoking collegial decision-making practices. Look ahead to the implications of imposed changes for your unit’s recruitment abilities, program offerings, ability to meet student needs and expectations, supply of graduate student TAs, upcoming program reviews, and all other aspects of curriculum and academic planning. Report challenges and foreseeable problems to [email protected]

6. The next YUFA Members’ Zoom drop-in session is Wednesday, October 30, from 12:00 noon to 1:00pm. The topic for the session is “Teaching Stream and Special Renewable Contact (SRC) colleagues’ issues.” All members are invited to attend. Please see the YUFA-M email with the same subject as this news post for the Zoom link.

YUFA wishes all members a restful Thanksgiving weekend.