Terms of Reference [in draft] Committee Members Anna Atkinson, English Sarah Crover, English Natalie Hajduk, Library Merlin Hansen, Interim Chair; IT Humayun Kabir, Computer Science; FPSE Artificial Intelligence in Academic Labour Committee Dana McFarland, Library; FPSE Library and Digital Learning Committee Luke McLeod, Library Committee Resources Zotero group: VIUFA AI Ad hoc Committee Resources
Please join us on Tuesday, May 6th for a day of learning and engagement around academic freedom at VIU. This free event is open to all members of the VIU community, but we are asking that you please register in advance. There will be four sessions to choose from including a plenary address and three more focused workshops delivered in a World Café style. Each session will be facilitated by Dr. Shannon Dea, [...]
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Please see detailed information, including photos and event posters, for recent and upcoming WAGE Committee activities here: WAGE Committee Updates 2025 March 19 Submitted by Melissa Stephens, WAGE Committee Chair Recent Events: International Women’s Day: "𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐎𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐦” VIUFA’s Women’s and Gender Equity Committee hosted an International Women’s Day event on March 7. The room was “standing room only”, as it filled with faculty, students, staff, community leaders and organizers, [...]
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Vancouver Island University Faculty Association has voted non-confidence in VIU President Deborah Saucier. “VIU faculty voted overwhelmingly to say they do not have confidence in President Saucier. Of the votes cast, 86% voted non-confidence,” said VIUFA president Gara Pruesse. More information: VIUFA Media Release 2025 03 06
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Date & Time: Friday, March 7, 2025, in the Royal Arbutus room, from 10 am - 1 pm Organized by: VIUFA's Women's and Gender Equity Committee In celebration of International Women's Day, please join us for "Seeding Revolution," a faculty panel discussion about feminist organizing in fascist times. The VIU Faculty Association's Women's and Gender Equity Committee will ask panelists to address the systematic assaults on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives [...]
VIUFA's Women’s and Gender Equity Committee has collaborated with faculty, students, and local organizations to provide an informative and thoughtful event series to support the campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, from November 25 to December 10. Participate in events below and promote events by sharing information posted at our VIUFA Women's and Gender Equity Committee Facebook page. All supportive communities are invited to attend events. NEW DATE -- InterView [...]
United Nations Human Rights Day Tuesday, December 10 from 4-6pm, bldg 210 rm 270 All are welcome to listen and learn, to consider and connect on the topic of Article 19 in the UN Declaration of Human Rights: Freedom of Thought and Expression. Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas [...]
by Eliza Gardiner, HRISC Chair Applications due: November 22, 2024 and May 15 2025 Do you have an idea for a project or activity that would strengthen the capacity of our members, increase awareness, or bring about progressive solutions to critical issues facing the post-secondary sector and faculty? The Union Activism Fund supports VIUFA members wishing to lead, facilitate or coordinate such activities. All categories of VIUFA members are equally welcome to apply, [...]
VIUFA HRISC with FPSE and the FPSE Human Rights & International Solidarity Committee are proud to present a virtual event: Making a Place for Dialogue in Times of Conflict Tuesday, March 26th, 1pm PST REGISTER: https://bit.ly/3wtXzyR Featuring: Joanna Ashworth / Wosk Centre for Dialogue Jennie Barron / Mir Centre for Peace Kent Highnam / Centre for Conflict Resolution Crystena Parker-Shandal / University of Waterloo Mandy Penney / U of A Centre for Teaching [...]
All are welcome to attend this year’s International Women’s Day at VIU. On Friday, March 8 from 11:30am-2:30pm our campus and Nanaimo community members are invited to join us in the Royal Arbutus Room, upstairs in bldg. 300, the upper cafeteria. Drop by for all or part of our scheduled activities, which feature: info tables and light refreshments from 11:30-12pm, 12-12:30pm guest speakers, 12:30-2pm facilitated workshop on Healthy Relationships, and then more mingling [...]
The VIUFA Professional and Scholarly Development Committee invites VIUFA members to apply for funds that would sponsor activities which shall be of professional interest to the general faculty. The deadline for applications is March 28 at 4 pm. The detailed Call for Project Proposals and the Application Form are linked below. PSD-project-funding-call-2024 PSD-project-proposal-form-2024
Feb 15, 1-3:30 Vicki Nygaard, HRISC Chair, would like members to be aware of this online workshop being offered by the Capilano Faculty Association. Workshop Description What is systemic discrimination? What are its impacts? How can we address it? Through storytelling and real-life examples, this session aims to deepen participants’ understanding of this complex topic and inspire reflection and action. Participants will leave the session with tools to identify systemic discrimination in their [...]
For anyone interested in context for the war in Gaza that is not being shown in mainstream media, information about films available from the Media Education Foundation was provided to VIUFA HRISC by a member. According to the Media Education Foundation e-newsletter, many of these films are being provided to view for free until January 22, 2024. They can be accessed through this YouTube playlist and include titles such as: The Occupation of [...]
VIUFA supports the FPSE Statement on the War in GazaVIUFA and the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE) are deeply saddened by the events of the past few weeks, and we demand a ceasefire. The escalating conflict across the Middle East region in Israel, Palestine, and Gaza is having deep impacts within our community and the world. We unequivocally condemn the attacks against innocent civilians. Our students, faculty, and staff, many with ties to [...]
Bargaining is well underway. VIUFA's bargaining team has been meeting with the Employer's team two afternoons per week since December, with few exceptions. Each side introduced its proposal package at the beginning of bargaining, and detailed discussions of individual proposals are now in progress. We have tabled specific language for many of our major proposals, including for workload equity, initial salary placement procedure, evaluation of instructional faculty, overtime provisions for non-instructional faculty, scheduling/timetabling, [...]
The Women and Gender Equity (WAGE) Committee has been working to develop a number of events for International Women's Day (Wednesday, March 8). Events kick off at 11:30am in the lobby of the Malaspina Theatre. See poster for details.
Deadline Approaching: VIUFA Union Activism Fund ($10,000 available) Attention: VIUFA is now accepting proposals for its Union Activism Fund To support VIUFA members in leading, facilitating, and building access to projects focused on strengthening our capacity, VIUFA has created a $10,000 fund and is currently soliciting proposals from interested members. This money is available to any member interested in developing increased awareness and bringing about progressive solutions to critical issues facing the post-secondary [...]
Deadline Approaching: The VIUFA Assisted Leave Committee is pleased to announce a call for Time Awards for Fall 2023 / Spring 2024. These section releases/reassignments are available to VIUFA faculty with scholarly, creative, and research projects that are focused in scope. Interested VIUFA faculty members can apply for up to 2 sections of release/reassignment to pursue these projects. The releases cannot be banked or taken as overload. Please note that this is an [...]
The VIUFA executive has struck a job action committee in order to prepare for, if and when the time comes, the possibility that our membership will have to consider job action. Our hope is that we will not have to resort to any job action. Nevertheless, Canadian labour law protects our rights to withdraw our labour, or take other forms of job action, precisely because there are times when that is the only [...]
Lunch-Hour Vigil Event, Dec 6 National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women: The VIUFA Status of Women Committee is honoured to host a lunch-hour event in recognition of The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, as part of our ongoing work to support 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. The vigil will take place in VIU’s Malaspina Theatre lobby (bldg. 310) on Tuesday, December 6 [...]
A resource is now available to the VIU community, thanks to the work of Dr. Imogene Lim, Chair of the Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee (HRISC). The HRISC database brings attention to local and global events, issues, and resources for educators and students—from racism, climate change, Indigenous rights, inequality and more. The listing has been curated by Dr. Imogene Lim, with numerous suggestions offered by colleagues. Thanks to Kathryn (Katy) Rosnau, GLST [...]
Sadly, a zoom-bombing at an FPSE co-sponsored speaker event (September, 2022) has highlighted the fact that we need to be vigilant, and stand with our siblings in the labour movement, and with our friends, neighbours and coworkers, in the fight against race-based hate and injustice, and in support of civil discourse. The FPSE Climate Action Standing Committee worked to bring to our collective membership two speakers from Nanaimo, one from the Snuneymuxw First [...]
The VIUFA Status of Women Committee is pleased to host speakers on Tues. March 8th, from 12 pm-1pm, in honour of International Women’s Day. Please join us in the Malaspina Theatre lobby and share further details below. All are welcome. Susan Garcia is taking classes in Creative Writing, History, and Indigenous Studies at VIU after earning a Social Services Worker Certificate from College of the Cariboo and a BA in English from SFU. [...]
The VIUFA Status of Women Committee is pleased to host speakers on Tues. March 8th, from 12 pm-1pm, in honour of International Women’s Day. Please join us in the VIU Malaspina Theatre lobby (bldg 310) and share further details below. All are welcome.
International Women’s Day, Tuesday, March 8, celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and girls. It is also a time to raise awareness and take action for women’s equality and to work towards a world that is free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. The Vancouver Island University Faculty Associations Status of Women Committee is hosting a celebratory event for International Women’s Day, March 8, from noon to 1 pm in [...]
Thurs. Dec. 9, 7pm: “Where is Lisa Marie Young?”: An Interview with Laura Palmer In honour of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, the VIU Faculty Association’s Decolonization, Reconciliation, and Indigenization Committee is honoured to host a Zoom event with Laura Palmer, the producer and host of the True Crime podcast Island Crime. The event will include an interview with Laura Palmer, followed by a moderated Q & A period with Zoom [...]
All are welcome to register for this event, organized in collaboration with VIUFA's Status of Women Committee in support of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based violence. Fri. Dec. 10, 1 pm: “Sex Trafficking: A Discussion with Kerri Isham” Zoom event registration link: https://www.viusu.ca/events/sex-trafficking-webinar/ Let's shine some light on a dark topic. This workshop will explore the definition of sex trafficking, who is trafficking who, luring tactics used, recruitment, barriers to [...]
TO ALL VIUFA MEMBERS: Please see the below notice sent on behalf of Sherry Mattice, Decolonization, Reconciliation, & Indigenization Standing Committee (DRISC) Chair. ************ Greetings from your VIUFA Decolonization, Reconciliation, & Indigenization Standing Committee (DRISC) Chair, Over the past few months, there has been a lot of media coverage on the Carrie Bourassa incident at the University of Saskatchewan, resulting in her status being redefined as a “pretendian”. The term pretendian refers to [...]
The VIUFA Assisted Leave Committee is pleased to announce a call for Time Awards for Fall 2022 / Spring 2023. time-award-fall-2022-spring-2023 These section releases/reassignments are available to VIUFA faculty with scholarly, creative, and research projects that are focused in scope. Interested VIUFA faculty members can apply for up to 2 sections of release/reassignment to pursue these projects. The releases cannot be banked or taken as overload. There are four (4) releases to be [...]
https://www.cheknews.ca/petition-demands-b-c-notify-public-of-covid-19-exposures-outbreaks-at-post-secondary-institutions-919589/
Join VIUFA's Status of Women Committee and other local organizers during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, an international campaign led by the United Nations. This campaign runs from November 25, 2021 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to December 10, 2021 (Human Rights Day). Come advocate for inclusive, diverse, and culturally sensitive work that prioritizes anti-racism, decolonization, and gender diversity at the Nov 25 Oranging the Bastion [...]
16 days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence is aligned with the United Nation’s campaign UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence Against Women. It is a campaign lasting from Nov. 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to Dec. 10 (Human Rights Day). The VIUFA Status of Women Committee is teaming up with Nanaimo Family Life Association’s Indigenous-informed Sexual Assault Response Program, and with the Canadian Federation of University Women (Nanaimo) [...]
November 11, 2021 Dear Educators, Service Providers, Cultural Workers, and Citizens: The VIU Faculty Association’s Status of Women Committee calls upon community leaders, service providers, educators, activists, and citizens to participate in our second annual video campaign supporting 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, an international campaign led by the United Nations. This campaign runs from November 25, 2021 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to December 10, 2021 [...]
