REPORT OF FNBFA MEETING

The last board meeting of the Federation of New Brunswick Faculty Associations (FNBFA) on October 6, 2006, dealt with routine business items. The Board was also apprised of the lobbying efforts of the Executive Director and President at the provincial level.

One political issue, the accounting reporting requirements for defined-benefit pension plans, does not greatly concern MAFA. It is important to UNB, because their pension plan provides defined-benefits to retirees, rather than the defined-contribution plan that we have here. But another issue important to MAFA, mandatory retirement, was discussed at great length.

Two imminent retirements, one at the Shippagan campus of the Université de Moncton and another at Saint Thomas University, were raised. The possibility of FNBFA supporting a formal challenge to mandatory retirement was also considered. It was pointed out that the FNBFA defence fund could be used for this purpose. A limitation of this approach is that the fund is available upon application by a constituent association, only after the expenses are incurred.

As a result of the discussion, the Board authorized the Executive of FNBFA to establish a committee to examine this issue and report on possible course of action.

Paul Berry

President

MAFA UNIT 2 (PART TIME) NEWS

Your executive is pleased to report to you that members of Unit 2 (part-time) have risen to the challenge in applying for money for professional activity this year.

Figures from the Vice-President (Academic and Research) show that he had $6325 to grant to unit 2 members in the 2006-07 year, $1325 of which was unspent last year and was carried over. We are told that he has already granted all but $162 of this sum.

Article 29 of the Unit 2 agreement currently provides $5000 each year for the "professional responsibilities" of Unit 2 members, including but not limited to "the purchase of books, subscriptions, supplies, and travel expenses." Members applying for money should send their application to the Vice-President (Academic and Research) and copy it to the MAFA office.

We're sure that our Collective Bargaining committee and Negotiating Team will consider asking for more money for this fund in future years.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING GENERAL MEETING

The fall general meeting of the Mount Allison Faculty Association will be held on Monday December 4^th at 10:30 a.m. in Avard Dixon G12.

The agenda will include reports from the Executive and Committee Chairs. Members will also updated on our current preparations for collective bargaining.

Snacks will be provided.

Please make every effort to attend!

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

MAFA's Collective Bargaining committee is now meeting, under the leadership of Bill Lundell (History). Other committee members include: Paul Berry (Commerce), Wendy Burnett (MLL), Jeff Lilburn (Library), Terry Craig (English), Erin Steuter (Sociology), and Jennifer Tomes (Psychology).

They will be making some decisions on how we should proceed in the coming weeks. Bill Lundell (Collective Bargaining Officer) will report on their progress at the MAFA general meeting on December 4^th.

2006 CAUT CONFERENCE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Jeff Lilburn recently attended the CAUT "Controlling Intellectual Property" conference in Ottawa.

The three day conference included presentations, panel discussions and workshops on copyright, international trade and treaty obligations, and intellectual property ownership at universities.

Key issues and recurring themes included the recent Supreme Court ruling on copyright supporting users' rights, the threats to users' rights posed by digital rights management, and concerns over increasing commercialization and privatization of research and education.

Alternatives to current IP models (such as open access publishing, digital repositories, creative commons licencing) that increase and facilitate access to, and enable greater sharing of, information and research were also addressed.

Jeff is currently working on a guide to open access and creative commons resources which will soon be available on the Library website.

For more information about the conference, please contact Jeff at 2237 or jlilburn@mta.ca

PACWI NEWS

The President's Advisory Committee on Women's Issues (PACWI) was established in 1987 at Mount Allison University to work towards the goals of gender equity and improving the professional climate and working environment for women on campus. It includes representation from every sector of campus and its principal mandate is to advise the university President on policies, planning and concerns involving women (staff, faculty and students.).

PACWI's legacy at Mount A. includes founding the York Street Childcare Centre and establishing the Sexual Harassment/Assault Policy (1987/88). Currently, the committee is engaged with two main initiatives around the issues of accessible campus childcare and a review of the Sexual Harassment /Assault policy at Mount A.

A PACWI subcommittee on campus daycare has recently designed a cross-campus needs assessment survey, with the valuable assistance of Louise Wasylkiw (Psychology) and Judith Doyle (Sociology). Essentially, it targets representative groups across campus-MAFA, MASA, CUPE, non-unionized staff and SAC-in order to provide a holistic assessment of campus daycare needs.

This survey will be made available online through the Mount A. website by mid-November and the data will be collected by December, 2006.

As PACWI has been mandated to review the Sexual Harassment/Assault Policy every two years since the policy was established, a PACWI subcommittee has now been formed to oversee a formal policy review process.

PACWI aims to bring Mount A. policy in line with current legislation and contemporary standards of policy in this field.

Rebecca Burke (Fine Arts) is the MAFA representative and contact on PACWI.

UPCOMING DEADLINES

December 31

Deadline for the Chair of the Tenure and Promotion sub-committee to communicate the sub-committee's decision to the faculty member/librarian concerned (Article 17.21/20.21).

November 30

Deadline for employer to tell the member and Union which sabbatical and librarian's leaves have been granted, including dates (Article 23.20).

February 21

Deadline for those employees granted a Sabbatical leave to confirm in writing intent to take the leave or postpone it for one academic year (Article 23.21).

MAFA 2006-2007 EXECUTIVE

Paul Berry - President (Commerce)

Stephen Law - Vice President (Economics)

Ivan Cohen - Past President (Classics)

Robert Rosebrugh - Grievance (Math and CS)

Bill Lundell - Collective Bargaining (History)

Jennifer Tomes - Membership (Psychology)

Wendy Burnett - Unit 2 (Modern Languages and Literature)

Jeff Lilburn - Treasurer (Library)