News 04/28/09

1. How Does the University Budget Affect Your Department/School?
2. Georgian Grievance
3. Barry Cotton Wins CAUT's "Dedicated Service Award"
4. Board Denies LUFA Representation
5. Welcome Dr. Colilli

How Does the University Budget Affect Your Department/School?: LUFA continues to monitor the impact of the budget passed by the Board last Friday. If you know of any sessional or limited term contract position in your department/school that will NOT be back next year due to budget cuts would you please let LUFA know And, if one of your colleagues has left or departed without being replaced-would you convey this information to us as well at lufa@laurentian.ca .

When it applies its budget, the University Administration must respect its contractual undertakings with faculty. LUFA will only be able to examine that question of compliance if it is made aware of any and all non-renewals. As well though, the battle over faculty renewal must be waged collectively and we need to know about the impact of the cuts on this question if we are to be able to inform members about how the new budget affects them.

Georgian Grievance: As many of you know, LUFA has launched a policy grievance focusing on the right of the university to "contract out" faculty positions in the Laurentian@Georgian campus. As a result of that grievance, both Georgian College and OPSEU requested intervenor status. (OSPSEU represents Georgian faculty teaching in the Laurentian program).

In law, intervention is a procedure to allow nonparties to join ongoing litigation, either as a matter of right or at the discretion of the court, without the permission of the original litigants. The basic rationale for intervention is that a judgment in a particular case may affect the rights of nonparties, who ideally should have the right to be heard.

While the grievance is far from being settled, to date arbitrator Kevin Burkett has denied OPSEU's intervenor claim, while Georgian College was granted status to be heard on the very narrow question of the legality of its contractual undertakings with Laurentian under the Laurentian University of Sudbury Act.

Barry Cotton Wins CAUT's "Dedicated Service Award": Barry Cotton has won the Dedicated Service Award from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT).

He is the first Laurentian faculty member to be so honoured.

The Award recognizes individuals for exceptional service to their academic staff associations. Recipients are nominated by their association and a plaque is publicly presented to winners. Their names are also listed on the CAUT website (http://www.caut.ca/pages.asp?page=324)

Currently Barry is a member of the School of Commerce-and the award was presented by LUFA Secretary-Treasurer Jean-Charles Cachon at Prof Cotton's retirement party (see attached photos).

Since his arrival at LU in 1983 Barry has served as a steward, a LUFA Board Director (almost non-stop for 20 years), Chief Steward, OCUFA Director, and on the OCUFA Committee on Lobbying and Communications, He has also been a delegate to the Sudbury and District Labour Council and, after having created the position, served as LUFA's communications director for 7 solid years.

LUFA President Jim Ketchen remarked that "Over the years, Barry's service to us all has been exemplary and extraordinary. this award is well earned." Dr. Ketchen hoped that it would "find a special place of honour in his home and serve as a reminder of all he did for so many."

Board Denies LUFA Representation.: Despite a pledge in the new collective agreement made by the Board's Negotiating Team that it would support membership of LUFA on the Building and Planning Committee, the Board respectfully disagreed at its meeting last Friday and voted the idea down.

LUSU, our sister union, continues to be represented on that Committee but only a minority of Board members agreed that it made sense to add LUFA representation to supplement the four faculty that are supposed to have been appointed by Senate (only one has).

When faculty members have problems with space, asbestos, leaky roofs, and open air classrooms (in February), they tend not to go to the university website to find out which Senate representative to contact -they make a beeline to the union. By refusing to allow LUFA on the Committee, the Board continues to force LUFA to rely exclusively on the grievance route as a means of getting attention.

LUFA representatives at the Board left the meeting feeling like flower-pots: useful for decoration but not to be taken seriously.

Welcome Dr. Colilli: Members will be welcoming Dr. Paul Colilli back into the bargaining unit in July; having done yeoman service as Dean of Humanities, and variously as Dean of Graduate Studies, and most recently Acting Vice-President Graduate Studies and Research, Dr. Colilli has decided to return to his first love-teaching and research-and we wish him well.