Dear Colleagues,
As you know, the recent Collective Agreement has made pathways for setting up two committees, one on governance (see Appendix K) and one on a permanent teaching stream (see Appendix J). The MUNFA Executive has submitted the following individuals as appointees to those committees (names are in alphabetical order) to the Administration.
Governance Committee (two seats allocated to MUNFA)
(1) Lourdes Peña-Castillo (Computer Science/ Biology)
(2) Robin Whitaker (Anthropology)
Permanent Teaching Stream Committee (four seats allocated to MUNFA)
(1) Krista Collett (Nursing)
(2) Matthew Janes (Grenfell)
(3) Erika Merschrod (Chemistry)
(4) Janna Rosales (Engineering)
On behalf of MUNFA, I thank everyone who showed interest in joining these committees. We are very grateful to all of you. Additionally, the above-mentioned committees will be supported by advisory committee(s) that will allow wider representation and participation from MUNFA members to inform this important work. Development is underway by The Executive, so please stay tuned for future news. We want to do it right and we want more people to be involved.
In this regard, I would like to outline the process the Executive followed to appoint these ASMs to their respective committees. On March 17, 2023, the Collective Agreement was signed. The matters of governance and permanent committee appointments were discussed at the Executive meeting on April 4, 2023. MUNFA sent out the call for expressions of interest on April 6, 2023 with a deadline to submit names of April 28, 2023. This timeline was chosen to allow ASMs a few weeks to apply, recognizing the demands of reworking courses in the post-strike period while preparing for final exams. Four (4) ASMs showed interest in the governance committee, and thirteen (13) ASMs showed interest in the permanent teaching stream committee. At our regular Executive meeting on May 9, 2023, we considered options for a fair process to select ASMs for those committees. The Executive unanimously decided to put the names to an internal (by Executive members) confidential vote. It is to be noted that the Chair, in this case, the MUNFA President, would only vote in the event of a tie, which did not occur. Two Executive members recused themselves from the voting process. The voting period started on Friday, May 12, 2023, ended on Monday, May 15, 2023, and resulted in the two lists of names given above.
MUNFA members’ willingness to serve has made possible strong representation from knowledgeable ASMs with diverse backgrounds. I am confident that they will do a great job in those committees on behalf of all 850+ of us.
In Solidarity,
Ash Hossain, MUNFA President
