NSCCAU Newsletter - Spring 2020
May 8, 2020
Dear Members,
It has been a very long 2 months for all of us. You have all been working diligently to complete tasks for NSCC and support your families at a very stressful time. Please know that we are here to support you; we are in this together.
A few good news items:
We are pleased to introduce our new Coordinator, Darla MacPhee. She has a wealth of experience and training which will be of great service to our Union and we are glad to have her. Please feel free to introduce yourself to her over email at nsccaucoordinator@gmail.com.
We have been invited to work with an alliance of all College and University unions in Nova Scotia. The goal of the alliance is to lobby the government for support of the post-secondary education system during this time as colleges and universities will help drive the economic recovery of the province. On behalf of this alliance, a letter was crafted and sent to the federal and provincial governments with three main asks during this Covid-19 crisis: lowering of tuition and increasing access to student funding, commitment to no layoffs in the higher-education sector, and avoiding cuts to services and programs. The letter will be posted on our website for you to read. There will also be public statements crafted in support of this initiative.
Elections are coming up for three Executive positions: President, VP Professional Support, and VP Member Engagement. The elections will be held at the AGM, but since we are unable to do this in person, we are working on an electronic means of voting that will allow members to vote anonymously, as our bylaws dictate. In order to prepare for this, we have moved the AGM from June 5 to June 12. Stay tuned for more information. Elections for campus representatives and alternative representatives are also to be held in May, as per our bylaws, and further communications regarding this will be sent out to campus representatives shortly.
The Executive continues to meet with HR on a regular basis, and more often throughout the first month of the social distancing. We have been able to bring many issues concerning members directly to VP Academic Anna Burke, and the Director of HR, Janet Byrne. Although not all issues can be solved, all have been discussed, and many have been resolved positively.
The Executive is actively discussing changes to the website, specifically hiring a person to build Members portal. A communication will be sent out in the next week if there are members who might be interested in the contract.
As faculty are knee deep in planning for the fall, please remember that course delivery method is still uncertain. The college is taking their lead from the Health Page 2 of 2 Authority. Try to prepare for the possibility that we will still be teaching online, at a distance, or some form of blended delivery at the start of the fall semester. The more flexible you can be, the easier it will be for you to transition to whatever form of delivery is recommended.
If you are struggling with planning for September, whether it is a new course or a course you have never taught online, please contact the folks in the Teaching Commons. They are there to help. You also may wish to reach out to the Instructional Designers for your school. They would know whether your courses already exist in an online format and may be able to put you in touch with faculty who are willing to share their resources. There is no reason to “recreate the wheel”. Already, we have witnessed many faculty members freely sharing their Brightspace shells with others who have not taught online or in a blended format before. There is help if you ask.
Remember that you can reach out to the following Executive members and Staff for assistance:
For Faculty issues, VP Dave Pearson at nsccauvpfaculty@gmail.com
For Professional Support issues, VP Michelle Spencer at nsccauvpps@gmail.com
For serious concerns, Labour Relations Officer Simon Lake at nsccau.lro@gmail.com
Please know that we are thinking about you during this time. Make sure you take care of yourself and your family. We will get through this together.
Sincerely,
The NSCCAU Executive