Alberta University of the Arts Faculty Association

Dear Colleagues,

 

Welcome back! I hope you had a fantastic summer vacation, allowing you much needed rejuvenation and hopefully some adventure too! Classes are now well under way; I find it's always a time of reciprocally contagious energy between faculty and students. A special welcome to our new members: Xahra Hafeez (Communication Design), Corwyn Lund (Ceramics), Anahita Mosayebi (Object Design and Fabrication), Tak Pham (Illingworth Kerr Gallery), and a host of new Sessional Faculty. We are delighted to have you as members of the AUArts Faculty Association! Big congratulations also to continuing members hired to new positions: Alana Bartol (Visual Art), Megan Dyck (Painting), and Nicholas Johnson (Communication Design).    

 

As anticipated, the Executive board's first meeting of the academic year has brought some re-shuffling. Richard Brown, elected to the position of Secretary last spring, has now been appointed Vice President + Treasurer. Megan Dyck has taken the position of Secretary. Martina Lantin was appointed Negotiations Advisory Committee Chair and she will be forming the committee over the fall semester in anticipation of negotiations this winter. Continuing Executive members include Ashleigh Bartlett (Sessional Representative - elected last spring), Sarah Nordean (Representative to the Faculty Professional Affairs Committee), and Justin Waddell (Representative to the Board of Governors). Given that Sarah Alford's term on General Faculties Council has come to an end, she has stepped down as Representative to General Faculties Council. We thank her for all she did in this role. Thanks also to Cassandra Dam for her work as Communications Officer in addition to her prior work on the Exectutive. Her position, along with GFC Representative and Grievance Advisor*, are three open opportunities for any interested members to serve on the Faculty Association. Please direct expressions of interest to Karin McGinn, AUAFA Office Manager (auafa.manager@telus.net).  

 

I encourage you to peruse our website (https://www.auafa.ca) over the course of the year as a source for news and important documents such as the 2020-2024 Collective Agreement. Over the coming weeks, keep an eye out for invitations to our Fall General Meeting. In addition, we will also be planning a series of information-gathering meetings and surveys to query the membership on what they perceive to be the important issues relative to the upcoming negotiations. We hope to see many of you there!  

 

Paul

 

* The Grievance Advisor position comes with the support of our (external) Labour Relations Officer and our Grievance Committee.