Motivation

A number of people have recently explicitly or implicitly questioned my motivations with respect to my involvement with AASUA, and have even suggested that I might be deliberately or inadvertently destroying the Association. So clearly some clarification is required.

Like many of you, I love being a professor at the University of Alberta. We are extraordinarily lucky in what we have here, in terms of academic freedoms and opportunities, wonderful colleagues, great students, and a pretty spectacular campus (albeit with some bits that need attention). It enables us, as the flesh, blood, and spirit of the University to make the University what it is — a damned good Canadian university, punching far above its weight in terms of provincial population base. I want to preserve these qualities, and I have applied myself to these ends through our faculty association since 1998, and more recently also through GFC. In the faculty association, I worked hard on various committees, was appointed to a committee chair in 2004, was elected as President in 2008, and served as Past President and interim executive director in 2009–2010.

My fall from grace and favour with the Association since then can probably be cast in many different ways, and no doubt I am not blameless, but my intent always was and continues to be to strengthen the Association's ability to vigorously represent its members' interests (financial and personal wellbeing, political, and legal). As an academic who appreciates logic, rules, and fairness, I understand that one of the best ways to strengthen an organization internally is through good governance, so that everyone knows what is supposed to be happening and how it is to be achieved. I therefore spent a lot of time between 2006 and 2009 (along with others such as Kathryn Arbuckle and Alan Meech) revising the Association's Bylaws and Policies & Procedures manual (subsequently approved by vote of the membership in the first case, and by Council in the second). Some of the other achievements of which I am proud (all approved by vote of Council, mostly unanimous) are:

Introduction of Robert's Rules of Order for Council meetings.
Introduction of the role of Parliamentarian.
Establishment of the Governance Committee.
Establishment of the Past Presidents Committee.
Establishment of the Academic Faculty Committee.
Reintroduction of the Newsletter.

As Past President in late 2009, I was also the author (after much consultation and advice) of the original furlough proposal, which attempted to strike a favourable bargain for members in exchange for taking furlough days. That was when the wheels fell off for me, and although the proposal was approved by two votes of the AASUA membership, the final deal that was negotiated (I was not involved by then) was significantly weaker than the original position. I found that incomprehensible, since the original proposal made it clear that (a) we didn't have to negotiate at all (we had a fully ratified contract), and (b) the proposal would be withdrawn if we were not satisfied with what we were to get in return for furloughs. Subsequently, we have seen little return even on the concessions we did manage to negotiate (who, for example, has ever seen a report or heard a briefing from the Joint Committee on University Planning and Budgets?).

Throughout my time with AASUA I have seen many such agreements struck and then ignored or forgotten about, many initiatives wither on the vine, and many policies contravened or fall into abeyance. I find that profoundly disappointing, but rather than shrugging and walking away, which it appears that some would much prefer, I have made a point of flagging these matters wherever and whenever possible, in the hope that something might be done about them. This has made me quite unpopular in some circles, but I don't intend to stop any time soon, because AASUA is the only association we have, and I have a deep interest in seeing it be successful.