On March 3, Cathryn Heslep, Vice President Student Services, announced, through a University-wide email, that the pool at MacEwan will be permanently closed on July 1, 2010, to accommodate an enhanced fitness centre. What the memo did not explain is that:

1. the closure will greatly affect the Physical Education program at MacEwan (25% of Physical Education courses at MacEwan have at least one class in the pool with some courses being taught entirely in the pool)

2. the U of A is able to operate its two pools for considerably less than the $500,000 that MacEwan currently spends to operate its facility

3. 88% of students surveyed in 2006 were opposed to closing the pool (no survey was conducted this time around)

4. 53% of students surveyed in 2006 indicated that maintaining the aquatic facility was important to them and their wellness (again no survey was conducted this time around)

5. 88% of faculty members surveyed in 2006 indicated that the wanted the pool to be retained and upgraded (again no survey was conducted this time around)

6. the pool is one of the best ways that MacEwan connects with the community through swim lessons, swim clubs, school visits, triathlon clubs, birthday parties, masters swim groups and adult fitness classes

7. inner city schools use the MacEwan pool on a weekly basis

8. the MCSW has recently begun to offer rehabilitation programs for special populations part of which include using the pool

9. the administration has NOT demonstrated how closing the pool will save Grant MacEwan $500,000 per year in operating costs (they have not accounted for the fact that a new fitness facility will need to be heated, cooled, cleaned, staffed and equipped).

The most important point that was omitted from Cathryn’s memo was that the Faculty Association, the Students Association, the Physical Education program and the community were not consulted in the decision to close the pool.

The Physical Education program is fighting hard to stop what administration has presented as a “fait accompli.” Please join us in our opposition to administration’s plan to bulldoze this through.

Write to our President, Paul Byrne, VP Academic, Janet PatersonWeir, VP Student Services, Cathryn Heslep, our Board of Governors Representative, Chaldeans Mensah, Board of Governors President, Eric Young, The Edmonton Journal, City Councillors, Ben Henderson and Jane Batty, and our Edmonton Centre MLA, Laurie Blakeman.

The Faculty Association is in the process of revising the ‘Service
Workload Guidelines’ document, which provided faculty with a list of
common service activities and proposes a method for
calculating the percent service of a member’s workload. This is
provided to faculty to promote consistency across MacEwan.

Service Workload Guidelines

The 2009 service guidelines, which provides a table of service hours, were developed from your
input. We would appreciate you reviewing the table and advising
us if the listed times are still consistent with what you actually do.

If there are additional activities you believe should be on the list,
please advise us of this as well.

Please provide your suggestions by visiting the discussion forum called workload or
email to JensenRH@MacEwan.ca.

Scholarly Activity Workload

Faculty have also inquired about a ‘Scholarly Activity Workload Guidelines’
document for quantifying scholarly activity.

We realize that the diverse nature of scholarly activity at MacEwan will make a
university-wide system difficult to prepare. However, a starting point
is to collect information on how departments quantifies scholarly
activity.

We would greatly appreciate details on how your department
quantifies scholarly activity and we will begin developing guidelines.

You can provide your suggestions in the discussion forum called workload or
email to JensenRH@MacEwan.ca.

With the launch of the Grant MacEwan University Faculty Association’s new site, members can now exchange and discuss ideas online.

It’s important that faculty association members feel they have a safe online community where they can express their views on mattters affecting them at Grant MacEwan University. The faculty associations’ online Discussion Forum is that place.

Following the announcement of Grant MacEwan’s university status in the Fall 2009, the issue of academic titling has gained more attention. The faculty association is welcoming members to participate in a discussion forum on academic titling on the association’s new website.

Discussion Forum For Members Only
The Discussion Forum section of the site is only open to members. That means only members can see each others’ comments. Facuty association members must first register as users on GMUFA website to use the forum.  Once registered and logged in to the GMUFA website, members can share and discuss ideas by creating topics for discussion and posting comments. Members have been sent an email explaining how they register and log in to the site.

Controlling Your Identity in Forums
Once your request for registration is approved, members will have an opportunity to create an online profile that will be used in the Discussion Forum.  Members can choose to make their identity known or they can remain anonymous when posting to the Discussion Forum. This is explained in the email you receive after your registration has been approved.

Posting Content to Forum
The Discussion Forum contains a guideline on posting comments that is to be respected by all members. The GMUFA encourages open debate that is free of discrimination and harassment and is relying on members to report instances of abuse should any occur.

When you post comments, you will find that you can easily post video links and images in your comments, and insert links to websites as well as writing text. You can also edit your post even after you’ve posted it. The post editor page looks similar to the editor page in Blackboard, for those who are familiar with using Blackboard.

Start Posting
So let the discussion begin. Get registered on the Grant MacEwan University Faculty Association site as soon as possible. You’ll find a Discussion Forum called Academic Titling.

We’ll be posting other forum topics in the near future. If you have any suggestions, be sure to email them to me, your online editor, at zypchynk@macewan.ca.

We hope you find this site useful. It contains source documents such as the collective agreement and the Association’s constitution. It also contains selected documents on important issues such as academic rank and titling.

Discussion Forum on Academic Titling

On the issue of academic rank and titling, we have established a forum on this site where members who have registered on the site can express their views and exchange ideas.

We hope that this will advance the discussion and allow the Association to aid in the development of MacEwan and the interests of its members.

Association’s Work in 2010

The work of the Association is currently concerned with wages in the 3^rd year of the collective agreement, academic rank and titling as mentioned and the representation of members’ employment interests, amongst numerous issues. I urge you to review the sections of the website entitled ‘Who we are’ and ‘How we help’ to understand what the FA does for you.

Get Involved: Executive & Committee work

Finally, please consider helping the Association by standing for one of the Executive positions or assisting in one of our committees such as Negotiating, Grievance, Faculty Welfare, Finance, Ethics or Governance.

Travis Huckell

Interim President

MacEwan Faculty Association