Prof. J.n. BrooksDept, of PhIlosophy
VOLUME 5, NO.1, OCTOBER 1974
t~ar,etonllniversityAcademicStaff AssociationNI~\\'SPresident's
ReportJ.M. Vickers
It is my intention to use the CUASA news-letter to present a
report of the activities ofthe Council and of my own activities on
be-half of the membership on a regular basis.Although CUASA has
always enjoyed a highpercentage of membership, in previous
yearsrelatively few faculty members were involvedin its operation
or aware of its activities. Ihope that the new constitutional
structureand the revised newsletter format will helpto change this
situation.
New Constitutional StructureUnder the new CUASA constitution
passed
last Spring, a representative Council was es-tablished which
becomes the association'smain legislative authority on most
issues.Although there were not enough candidatesin any faculty to
require an election in thisfirst year of operation, all of the
positionson Council have now been filled. The asso-ciation has been
most fortunate in obtainingthe services of twenty-four highly able
Coun-cil members. The full Council also includesthe seven members
of the Steering Commit-te +ence there are now thirty-one
individ-ua'g concerned with the association's busi-ness. The work
of both the Council and theSteering Committee is a'S'Ogreatly
assisted bythe support of Martha Langford who is em-pi d on a
part-time basis as an administra-tb,__.ssistant.
The Council has met three time since itsestablishment and
attendance has been high.Clearly the new constitution is going to
workand the association's business will be bettercommunicated to
the membership. A list ofCouncil members appears elsewhere in
thenewsletter and all members are encouragedto make their views
know to their facultyrepresentatives. Council meetings are openand
will, in future, be announced throughTWTT. Observers are
welcome.
RedundancyA key item of business in recent weeks
has been the Redundancy Report. The Sen-ate Executive Committee
has requestedcomments both from CUASA and fromCAUT. The Council
unanimously resolvedthat our comments on the matter of redun-dancy
will be made to the Board of Governorsrather than to Senate as
requested sincethis was the procedu re in the case of theTenure
document and we had been assuredin the past that the same
consultation processwould also be followed in this case. TheCouncil
also felt, however, that it would beuseful to have CAUT make its
commentsto the Senate on the understanding that CAUTwould support
our demand for proper con-sultation on this issue. A substantive
dis-cussion of the Redundancy Document wason the agenda of the last
Council meetingand was aided by the presence of Prof. VicSim who is
one of CAUT's professional of-ficers. This discussion will continue
at theNovember Council meeting.
On the Salary FrontThe association has made several advances
to the administration on your behalf with re-
gard to a cost-of-living increase which wouldapply to this
contract year. Three membersof the Steering Committee (Sida, Wand
&Vickers) met with the President, the Vice-Presidents and Prof.
D. Brown in the middleof September. At that meeting it became
ap-parent that while the administration is "sym-pathetic" to our
request on your behalf, thefunds are not available for such a
mid-yearincrease unless the Provincial Governmenttransfers
additional funds to the universitiesfor this purpose. The President
assured us thathe, along with the Presidents of other Ont-ario
universities, had urged the government to'do so.
In the next few months the CUASA SalaryCommittee will be
finalizing its brief to theuniversity with regard to salary
incrementsand fringe benefits for the next contract year.Clearly,
their brief will be affected by the
Steering CommitteePresidentJ.M. Vickers (Political Science)
2712President-electB. Wand (Philosophy) 3868Past presidentW.E.
Walther (SPC) 14Secretary -J.F. Campbell (Psychology, SPC)
2666TreesurerC.H. Langford (Chemistry) 6738Salary Charimano«. Sida
(Mathemenes) 6752Staff Wallare ChairmanP.M. Laughton (Chemistry)
6675
CUASA Counci/74-75Arts'J. Brook (Philosophy) 3868A. Elbaz
(French) 3853J. Healy (English) 3877G. Melnikov (Russian) 4488L.
Read (Religion) 3861T.J. Scanlon (Journalism) 5530J. Taylor
(History) 2777
Arts IIM. Frumhartz (Sociology-Anth.) 2689K. Fuerst (School of
Social Work) 3677T.R. Harmstone (I.S.E.E.S.) 2711K.A.J. Hay
(Economics) 4379G. Neuspiel (Law) 3618P. Rosen (Political Science)
3809C. Winn (Political Science) 3817
St. Patrick's CollegeC. Farmer (Sociology) 4370A. Urrello
(Spanish) 2690
ArchitectureJ. Mather 6380
EngineeringG. Cormack (Electronics & Materials) 2721B.
Fletcher (Civil Engineering) 2618J. Lukasiewicz
(Aerothermodynamics) 3883
ScienceC.L. Chakrabarti (Chemistry) 5685L. Copley (Physics)
6630L. May (Mathematics) 6788G. Skippen (Geology) 2630
success or failure of the President's approachto the
province.
External AffairsCUASA, along with other local faculty as-
sociations, is a component part of a provin-cial federation of
faculty associations (OCUFA)and of a National Association (CAUT).
In re-cent months, both of these associations havebeen preoccupied
with the exploration of al-ternate methods of trying to ensure
facultya fairer deal in the areas of salary, fringebenefits and
terms-and- conditions of employ-ment.
OCUFA has entered into discussions withCOU (the Council of
Ontario Universitieswhich includes Presidents and their
AcademicCollegues) in an attempt to devise a co-oper-ative system
through wh ich the bodies rep-resenting faculty and administrations
couldpresent joint briefs to the province in rela-tion to the
yearly percentage increase in theacademic salary budget. A
time-limit has nowbeen imposed on this attempt and it will beclear
by the middle of 1975 whether or notagreement can be reached on
this proposal.
CAUT has been active in assisting facultyassociations which wish
to seek certificationas collective bargaining agents throughoutthe
country. In Quebec, of course, man' ~ulty associations are now
faculty union •.....!I-though not generally afiliated with CAUT.
Inthe-rest--ot-ttre-country, universities as div-erse as the small
St. Mary's in Halifax andthe larger Universities of Manitoba and P
'hColumbia have chosen this route, witl. _ Ieassistance of
CAUT.
Future ProblemsBecause of the increasing complexity of
the Ontario University system, the Carletonadministration has
been forced to move to aplanning-oriented management system. Manyof
us have observed the growth of a "man-agement philosophy" in the
administrationwith alarm. Clearly, as an association, weare
reaching the point at which we must de-cide the manner in which we
will perform thefunction of representing the interests of
themembership within this new context. The dif-ficulties we are
currently facing in a varietyof areas - in particular the areas of
salaryand the negotiating of fringe benefits - forceus to
re-consider the structures within whichwe now operate but which may
well be in-adequate as the management side of the uni-versity
becomes more professional and moreoriented towards detailed
planning. Thequestion of how we may' best re-establishour right to
negotiate benefits for our mem-bers, therefore, will occupy the
Council inthe coming months.
CUASA Office
The CUASA Office is located in Room 424,Physics. The phone
number is 6387. Hoursare:
Wednesdays 9:30-11 :30; 1:30-3:30Fridays 9:30-11 :30
and many other times. The mailbox (CUASA.424 Physics) is checked
every day, so thatmembers unable to reach the office by phoneare
encouraged to write.
The cartoon squeezed out of this issue is on view in the c
Staff WelfareChairman's ReportP.M. Laughton
Staff Welfare Advisory Committee (SWAC)is a committee of
faculty. staff, and admin-istrators which advises the Staff
WelfareCommittee of the Board. It has subcommit-tees both standing
(e.g .. Pensions) and adhoc. At the meeting of October 2, your
re-porter attended as an observer, arriving withneither agenda nor
background material, ahalf hour late from a Steering
Committeemeeting. There had been a meeting on Sept-ember 25th.
dealing with pension plans- Prof.Larry Read will know what went on
there.
The main items at the October meetingwere life insurance,
long-term disability in-surance. and dental plans. SWAC is
recom-mending a quite different group life plan in-volving cash
payment of a year's salary plusa survivor income benefit of 25% of
finalsalary to a surviving spouse, with additionalfeatures such as
a 3% cost-of-living adjust-ment on the latter, and optional
additionaldeath benefits. Instead of constant paymentand decreasing
benefits. the plan will ofcourse increase in cost with age.
The changes proposed in the long-rangedisability insurance are
technical improve-ments. chiefly a reduction in waiting periodfrom
180 to 119 days to integrate with theCanada Pension Plan, and a 3%
cost-of-livingadjustment.
The committee recommended againstthe dental plan. The plan was
merely form~'~.enance dental work- diagnosis, clean-in illings,
removals. Bridges and ortho-don Istry were not covered. The dental
planwas to form part of the major medical pack-age, that is, the
deductible would apply toeit"-· medical or dental. The
committee'srel ling was that the items covered werero~ne and
reasonably predictable, the costsubstantial, and the advantages of
tax gainon the half paid by the university likely to beoffset by
administrative costs. Contingent onthe fate of the dental plan are
two differentchanges in the major medical plan, one ofwhich is tied
in with the dental plan.Last year SWAC apparently misinterpretedits
own guidelines on pension benefits forthose on sabbatical leave. As
it stands, thosewho elect six-month sabbaticals pay full pen-sion
deductions and receive full pension credit.Those on full year
sabbaticals who elect topay pension deductions only on their
halfsalaries were being credited only half a yeartoward pension
benefits, although the uni-versity's contribution continued as
usual. Thecombined payments should have amountedto 0.79 year
benefits. The Pension Subcom-mittee now has this under review.
No Redundancy AtCarletonW.E. Walther
The catchy title refers unfortunately to thefact that Carleton's
"Redundancy Document",the subject of interminable Senate debate
inthe spring of 1973, has been returned from ajoint Senate/Board
"editorial" committeedenuded of the term redundancy. The Senateand
Board of Governors will now be asked toconsider a reworded document
on "Proce-dures for the Release of Teaching Staff inTimes of
Financial Stringency".
The word redundancy may not be all thatwas lost in the
translation from Senate rhe-toric to legal precision.
Council SummaryThe new CUASA Council has met three times. On
Tuesday, July 16, it met briefly at the
FacultY Club in order to elect officers to carry on business
over the summer. 17 of the 29then members were present. Professors
Campbell, Langford, and Laughton wereelected by acclamation.
Informal discussions on salary policy were held.
On Thursday, September 5, the second council meeting took place.
Professor Sida waselected Salary Chairman. At this meeting, 20 of a
final 31 members were present. Majorissues discussed were: the
question of membership extension to librarians and othergroups such
as part-time faculty; the Senate redundancy document; salary data
andcost-of-living bonus; and the role of council members
(information exchange. con-sultation with colleagues to increase
representativeness.)
RESOLUTIONS: (unless noted otherwise, motions were passed
unaminously)• Brook, Walther: "That the Steering Committee draft
terms of reference for present andpossible future committees."•
Urrello, Brook: "That the Steering Committee from an ad hoc
committee to explorelibrarians' membership and to consider other
categories of membership."• Taylor, Chakrabarti: 'Whereas CUASA
does not regard the Senate's mandate for de-termination of academic
policy as pre-empting the role of the Association as sale
repre-sentative of terms and conditions of employment, and whereas
the role of the Senate isadvistory to the president regarding
redundancy and tenure, be it resolved that theCUASA Council
strongly demands formal consultation between CUASA and the Board
ofGovernors or its representatives on 1) the principle of the
document, and 2) on its spec-ific details."• Frumhartz, Wand: "That
if the president does not accept the content of the
resolution,CUASA should forward copies of it to the membership of
the Senate and the Board ofGovernors, with the notification that it
was passed unanimously."• Farmer, Copley: "That the president of
CUASA approach the Vice-President Admin-istration on the cost of
living bonus."
The third council meeting was held on Tuesday, October 8, in
Physics 320. 19 mem-bers, 4 observers, and Vic Sim of CAUT were
present. Items of discussion included thecost of living bonus,
CUASA membership on university committees, especially the
StaffWelfare Advisory Committee; the administration document
"Financing Carleton Univer-sity in 1975-76"; and procedures,
substantive issues, and detailed comments on the re-dundancy
document. In addition to passing the motions below, Council
instructed theSteering Committee to prepare a set of resolutions on
unfinished business for the earlyNovember rneetinc
RESOLUTIONS: (U'mess noted otherwise, motions were passed
unanimously) .--/• Scanlon, Laughton: 'That CUASA publicly support
the president's demand to the prov-ince for an emergency grant to
compensate for the increase in the cost of living, with aspecified
figure to be inserted by the Salary Committee".• Brook, Wand:" t
the Steering Committee respond in a strong and appropriate wayto
the document '-
