News and Notices - 2008
» December 1, 2008
Special Bulletin #3: "CREATION OF FACULTY GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES "
The results of the Faculty Election to Senate were announced on November 28, 2008, and a full membership Senate will convene in January, 2009---congratulations to all Faculty senators!
Special Bulletin #3 identifies some key issues that affect all faculty who wish to participate meaningfully in Kwantlen's new model of governance and collegial, academic decision-making.
Past bulletins are available online at:
http://www.kfa.bc.ca/bulletins/
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» November 25, 2008
Georgia Milligan Memorial KFA Award
The family of Georgia Milligan has established an endowment in her memory to acknowledge the adversities that are often faced by single mothers who are pursuing post-secondary education. This award is open to students of all stages of studies, including citations, certificates, diplomas or degrees.
From left: Phillip Legg, Ruth Legg, Soren Legg and Peter Podovinikoff
Georgia Milligan joined the English Department at Kwantlen in 2002. Throughout her life, Georgia overcame adversities and persevered to pursue graduate studies, eventually establishing a career in post-secondary. Throughout Georgia's life, she remained passionate about literature and graphic arts and was a committed union activist who actively participated with and supported the Kwantlen Faculty Association.
The $1,000 annual award will become available in perpetuity starting in Fall 2009.
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» October 29, 2008
KFActs Newsletter - Fall 2008 is now available
The latest edition of KFActs is now available online.
Headlines from this edition include:
- » Changes on the Horizon
- » Grievances and Arbitrations
- » Faculty Performance Review Committee
- » Unions and the United Way
- » Retirement: There's More to it than Money
Please contact erica.todd@kwantlen.ca if you are interested in receiving a hardcopy of the newsletter.
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» October 29, 2008
Making Sense of Kwantlen's New University Status
Our name has changed, but what does it all mean? Getting an answer to that question was one of the reasons why the Kwantlen Faculty Association and the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE) organized an afternoon panel discussion at Surrey Campus on October 23, to talk about some of the challenges that Kwantlen faculty face in the transition to our new university status. More...
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» October 16, 2008
Submission to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services
Maureen Shaw, Vice-President—Grievances, and Suzanne Pearce, Secretary-Treasurer, presented the following recommendations for the 2009 provincial budget to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 in Surrey:
1) Immediately restore the 2.6% funding that was cut from
provincial operating grants in mid-March.
2) Earmark $200 million from the existing budget surplus to
allow post-secondary institutions to increase access and
affordability. That commitment would move real per-student
funding up to the level that was in place when the current
government took office in 2001.
3) Make a long term commitment to reduce tuition fees over the
next five years to ensure that middle and lower income families
are able to fully participate in post-secondary education.
4) Provide sufficient funding for Kwantlen to make a viable
transition to university status.
5) Bring back the student grant program. De-regulated tuition
fees have pushed more students into debt. The average debt for
students completing their post-secondary education is close to
$30,000. Those debt loads are both discouraging new students
from entering post-secondary education and penalizing those who
are trying to complete a degree.
For a copy of the entire submission to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, click here.
Review the 2009 Budget Consultation Paper, which the Minister of Finance presented to the Committee on September 15, 2008.
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» October 09, 2008
College Pension Plan
The College Pension Plan has released two updates regarding recent market turmoil. They can be found on the College Pension website or at the following links:
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» May 26, 2008
FPSE AGM 2008
FPSE President's Comment:
2008 AGM Endorses Plan to Deal with System-Wide Changes in
Post-Secondary Education
Since
the middle of March, BC’s public post-secondary education system
has been buffeted by funding and policy changes that only add to
a growing sense that the provincial government has no clear plan
for post-secondary education. On March 12 came word from the
Minister of Advanced Education that operating grants for
post-secondary institutions would be cut by 2.6%. Several weeks
later the government moved to create five new universities. For
those expecting the university announcements to include
additional funding to either offset the 2.6% cut or ensure that
the newly-minted universities would have sufficient funding to
fulfill their new mandates, the announcements came up short on
both fronts.
More...
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» May 2, 2008
AGM Election Results
Our Annual General Meeting on Friday afternoon, April 25, was well attended. We held elections for a number of important positions and here are the results:
Table Officers
President: Terri Van Steinburg
Vice-President-Negotiations: Bob Davis
Member-at-Large: Panteli Tritchew
Executive
Humanities: Al Valleau
Trades/Tech/Horticulture: Barry Johnson
Ombudsperson: Joel Murray
Occupational Health & Safety Committee (OH&S)
Langley: Tony Puddicombe
Labour Management and Relations Committee (LMRC)
Richmond: Ihor Pona
Please join the KFA in congratulating the successful candidates and in recognizing the hard work of those who are not continuing.
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» April 23, 2008
Kwantlen Announcement Raises More Questions Says Faculty Association
The announcement by the provincial government
that Kwantlen Polytechnic University will become Kwantlen
Polytechnic University (KPU) has raised more questions than
answers with Kwantlen faculty.
"Last month the public post-secondary system was told that
their operating grants from the provincial government were being
cut by 2.6%," said Terri Van Steinburg, President of the
Kwantlen Faculty Association (KFA). "Today we are being told
that Kwantlen is becoming a Polytechnic University.
It's good news to hear that our institution is being recognized
for the contributions we have made to post-secondary education.
However, fulfilling that new mandate will be difficult without
proper provincial funding," Van Steinburg added.
"We believe that comprehensiveness is a critical feature of Kwantlen. It ensures that we continue to offer a full range of programs. Today's announcement suggested that this principle will continue to be an active part of Kwantlen's future. But to what extent," Van Steinburg added.
"The real impact of today's announcement will not be clear until the details of the legislative changes are known" Van Steinburg concluded.
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» March 20, 2008
Ready Arbitration Award
The long awaited Ready decision on the definition of "ongoing work" as it pertains to regularization, has finally arrived. In short, Ready states "I find, given the facts before me in this case, that the Union’s grievance on an employee’s entitlement to regularization under Article 1.05(e) of the Collective Agreement must succeed."
This is very good news for us! Over the next few weeks we will be working with FPSE on the implications of Ready's decision and how it will impact on other cases.
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