It has come to MUNFA’s attention that a working group of the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee has been tasked with drafting new undergraduate course definitions with the intent to implement these new definitions in Fall 2022.
Throughout the pandemic, MUNFA and individual Academic Staff Members (ASMs) have raised concerns about the significant increase in workload due to changing teaching methods and due to requests to increase course enrollment caps. These concerns have never been meaningfully addressed by the administration, yet it appears steps are being taken to make permanent these changes.
Article 1 and Article 33 of the MUN/MUNFA Collective Agreement provide course definitions, including for distance education. As such, on February 8, 2022, MUNFA filed an Association Grievance contending that by proposing new course definitions for undergraduate courses through this Senate Committee the administration is violating the Collective Agreement. We also note that, despite the Parties currently negotiating a new Collective Agreement, the administration did not propose changes to course definitions in Article 1 or Article 33.
MUNFA acknowledges the role of Senate in shaping Memorial University’s academic mission, including as it relates to course definitions. However, it is disappointing that the administration continues to ignore the very significant workload impacts these changes have for individual ASMs and the fact that changes to course definitions require mutually agreed upon revisions to the Collective Agreement.
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The MUNFA Office has heard concerns from a number of ASMs regarding the return to in-person teaching on January 31, 2022, particularly as it relates to the provision of informal student accommodations. We would again ask that ASMs contact the MUNFA Office, munfa@mun.ca, to let us know if there are additional concerns or workload impacts that are going unaddressed by the administration.
