My Vision
I believe in UTFA. I believe in a democratic faculty association that effectively advocates for one of the most talented and hardest working groups of faculty & librarians in the world.
While serving on UTFA Council, I ran for UTFA President because I concluded that UTFA could not effectively advocate for its members without changing the way it operates. My candidacy drew attention to the way inflation affected our members, and especially to how costs for childcare and housing increased without either UTFA or the administration being mindful of how much those issues affected faculty and librarians. I promised to take an approach at UTFA that was less consistently antagonistic to the administration, and to engage Simcoe Hall in collaborative searches for creative solutions that would benefit our members and the university as a whole.
Two years later, I’m running again for President because there has been little improvement and colleagues reached out to ask me to provide UTFA members with a choice to take our association in a new direction. Former UTFA executives and faculty from units like chemistry, art history, physics, sociology and management support my campaign to chart a new direction for UTFA.
We need to become an association that widely consults its members and shares the results of the surveys they conduct. We need to become an association that understands and respects the wide range of views inherent in a large, highly ranked research university with professors and librarians from around the world working on everything from neutrinos to Debussy.
Under my leadership, UTFA will recognize that this diversity will often lead to divergent views. On Council, we once took an important vote on an important agreement and there was no time alloted to debate. When several of us voted against the proposal, only then were we asked to explain ourselves. This is backwards: UTFA must provide opportunities for people to voice their opinions before we make important decisions. As president, I will ensure that there will always be time to debate, for dissenters to make reasoned arguments, and then Council and the Executive will make a decision, and move on to the next big challenge.
Under my leadership, UTFA will negotiate hard when we need to, but will avoid unnecessary confrontation and conflict by engaging in collaborative searches for creative solutions that will benefit both its membership and the university as a whole. Instead of pursuing ideological battles and mocking the university administration online, UTFA will focus its advocacy work on the most pressing threats preventing us from pursuing our careers safely, productively, and happily. Rather than letting disagreements fester, we will insist on going to arbitration on salary disputes. This is not a dream; at Waterloo, our peers at (non-unionized) FAUW and their administrators choose mediators and arbitrators at the start of the last year of their agreement, and go to them if they have not negotiated an agreement on salaries by March. The result is that contracts are finalized by the end of the academic year, and neither members nor leaders are resentful that they are being untreated unfairly or disrespected.
Our university weathered the disruptions of a pandemic, but now there are new challenges that affect our quest for excellence in teaching and research. For quite a few years, our university maintained its growth as domestic tuition rates were held constant by attracting an increasing number of foreign students. Due to several factors, we can no longer expect that cash cow to grow. At the same time, government research funds are under threat and the result is that our peer universities are warning of severe financial troubles.
To respond to these challenges, our faculty association will have to be strong, flexible and pragmatic to ensure that our salaries and benefits allow us to live happily in the GTA, protects our rights and freedoms to pursue academic excellence, and helps the university better realize its vision to be an inclusive environment where all feel valued. Just because the challenges ahead could lead to painful decisions, effective faculty advocacy does not need to be divisive. Studies find that the most effective university leaders tend to be considerate and collegial, they promote trust and cooperation, exhibit integrity and ethical behavior, and provide opportunities to participate in key decisions. University of Toronto Faculty and Librarians deserve a faculty association that reflects those values and principles.
Facing adverse political and economic conditions, UTFA and Simcoe Hall must work together to seek creative methods of making life more affordable in other ways while helping members most adversely affected by the rising costs of raising families in the GTA. UTFA cannot build new faculty housing, but UTFA can advocate that work to provide more than a handful of a few small apartments to faculty and librarians. As your president, I will prioritize making housing more affordable, and advocate for new faculty housing near the suburban campuses. I will press the university administration to increase the child care subsidy that has been frozen since 2007, and reform its administration to ensure that it meets the needs of faculty and librarians with young children without onerous application burdens. We will continue to insist that our retirees receive the same benefits as active members, and insist on a fair PTR process that recognizes accomplishments in research, teaching and service.
I’m a political scientist who understands how process shapes outcomes, a survey researcher who knows the value of canvassing one’s membership and transparently sharing those results. I am confident that UTFA will be stronger when we consult widely, listen to a range of voices, advocate for those whom we may personally disagree with, and encourage those with complaints and concerns to highlight any issues we might be neglecting. Too often under the current leadership, vigorous council debate is discouraged, some committees rarely meet, and when they do, they are tightly controlled by the executives rather than used to develop new policy initiatives or to provide independent sources of information. To ensure that UTFA’s priorities reflect our membership and we remain nimble to respond to the next challenges, I will invigorate our committee structure, empowering our dedicated volunteers to formulate the best responses to those challenges, and invite criticism and dissent on council. I will create a structure where librarians and faculty from many disciplines can come to UTFA, contribute their talents for a term or two while still pursuing their teaching and research goals. Leading a more democratic UTFA will ensure that UTFA follows the most prudent path of action.