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MAUT – APBM Newsletter www.mcgill.ca/maut/ McGILL ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS Vol 28 No 2 January janvier 2002 ASSOCIATION DES PROFESSEUR(E)S ET BIBLIOTHECAIRES DE McGILL In This Issue Editor’s Remarks Editor’s remarks..................................... 1 MAUT Fall General Meeting November 28, 2001 — Fall General Meeting– President’s Report ................................... 3 Review Report of Vice-President (Internal) ........ 5 RALPH HARRIS, MAUT VP COMMUNICATIONS Report of Vice-President (External) ........ 7 MAUT Council adopted a new format for the Fall General Meeting held in the McGill Report of the Vice-President Faculty Club whereby a buffet lunch was served at 11:30 and the meeting started pretty much (Communications) ................................ 9 on time at 12:00 noon to a packed house of about 120 people sitting in rows. Despite the Membership Committee Report ............. 10 challenge of balancing a plate of food, while trying to hold a cup of coffee and eat and still shake hands with friends, this format seemed superior to the previous one of having people sit CAUT Mortgage Rates ........................... 10 at tables during the meeting. Appointments to the Ranks of Professor and Council also fine-tuned the agenda trying to increase the prominence of matters that Associate Professor Emeritus, Librarian would be of interest to existing, younger staff in keeping with our recruitment efforts. Roger and Associate Librarian Emeritus ....... 11 Prichard, President of MAUT, chaired the meeting, and brought the whole thing to a satisfac- Proposed Changes to Administrative tory close a few minutes after 2:00 pm. Handbook (Grey Book) ........................ 13 Some of the key issues raised in reports are briefly described below. More details are Opinion Poll Results ............................. 14 available from those reporting. • Promotion Increase (Roger Prichard). There is an on-going McGill and MAUT evalu- CAUT and You ...................................... 15 ation of the costs and mechanisms associated with reinstating the salary increase at promo- CAUT President’s Speech ........................ 15 tion. MAUT will be looking for members’ input once a decision has been made to reinstate it, CAUT Profile ......................................... 17 but the new mechanism will likely be different from what existed previously. From the floor, there was comment that there might be “lucky” years for promotion and also a question FQPPU and You ................................... 19 about retroactivity. MAUT Budget ....................................... 25 • Pay Equity (Edith Zoritcha). McGill’s Pay Equity plan was submitted to the Quebec MAUT Memorandum re Government in the week prior to the meeting. Pay Equity Law requires that there is ongoing Federal Budget .................................... 22 review of the job classes, particularly those that are predominantly men or women. McGill’s McGill Employee Assistance Program – Pay Equity Committee has pursued their activities in the most open manner possible and is Bigger and Better! ............................... 22 fully explained at the web site: http://www.mcgill.ca/pec . • Petition to Change the Canadian National Anthem (Edith Zoritcha). The Canadian 50th Anniversary Reflections................ 23 Association of University Teachers is asking people to sign a petition to have the wording of the MIT Rejects Entrepreneurial Model ......... 25 National Anthem changed to reflect the role of women in society, in particular to change “true Pension Adjustments ............................ 26 patriot love in all thy sons command”. More information can be obtained from the CAUT web site: http://www.caut.ca/english/bulletin/current/council/o_canada.asp Academic Freedom Fund .................... 26 • Gender Equity (Edith Zoritcha). McGill’s gender equity exercise has found that on Fitness Comes to McGill ........................ 26 average gender salary difference of $5500–$7000 exists at McGill with the most outstanding Article III ............................................... 27 case being $25,000. Sixty-two womens’ salaries were analyzed to arrive at this conclusion. MAUT – APBM Newsletter McGill has set aside $1,000,000 over the next a number of new hires and though all ex- changed since the existing one was illegal. three years to address these differences. press willingness to join, they are over- This was discussed in the June 2001 News- $350,000 is being given to Deans each year whelmed and do not get around to doing letter. proportional to the number of full-time fe- so. It might help if someone closer to them • VP Communications Report (Ralph male staff. Each woman’s salary will be rather than MAUT officers were to keep re- Harris). The MAUT Forum ListServ analyzed individually. Some individuals minding them. The membership commit- [email protected] has now have already been informed by the admin- tee is also setting up workshops for Chairs functioned well after an initial 4 rocky istration without individuals needing to and staff, particularly new staff, to provide hours. There have been no more com- make a request. a supportive forum in which to discuss em- plaints and a few people who immediately • Proposal to Change the Rank of ployment related issues. fled the list fearing the worst have rejoined. Emeritus Professor (Ralph Harris). Full • Faculty Club Committee (Roger The MAUT Council ListServ details of the rationale and the proposal can Prichard). The number of people who con- [email protected] is now fully func- be found elsewhere in the Newsletter. Com- tribute to the Faculty Club by virtue of the tional and available to all members to send ments from the floor raised the issues of $1.00-per-month-membership-in-lieu-of- mail to all council members. The MAUT grand-fathering the privileges of existing salary-increase arrangement many years web site is being beautifully maintained by McGill Emeritus Professors and of making ago has been updated and corrected with Marilyn Fransiszyn. An on-line application sure that there would remain a mechanism the result that the Faculty Club now receives form is available, please point this out to to honour outstanding staff for their con- the correct and increased sum from McGill. new faculty who have not yet joined, and tributions. These are now part of the pro- • Changes to the MAUT Constitution the site has been used to carry out an infor- posal that MAUT will present to the Princi- (Malcolm Baines). MAUT Council is con- mal poll of members with great success. ■ pal for consideration. sidering a change to the MAUT Constitu- • Retirement Allowance (Roger tion that would make “Course Lecturers” Prichard). Staff who retire early are able to with sufficient responsibilities eligible for benefit from a retirement allowance which full MAUT membership. Many questions is determined by a formula and is subject and comments from the floor sought to to negotiation. This allowance is not an en- clarify the number of the people who would titlement and Principal Shapiro’s April be eligible and other questions and com- memo indicated that the Deans were part ments sought to clarify how much respon- of the decision making process. As a result sibility would be sufficient. This matter has of MAUT efforts, the Deans are now required been discussed at length at all subsequent to explain in writing why a negative rec- Executive and Council meetings and it is ommendation is being made regarding the planned to bring the matter back to the awarding of the allowance. Comment from membership for discussion in time to have the floor suggested that the retirement al- a vote on a constitutional change at the lowance was not a “financial good deal” Spring General Meeting to be held in April. compared to another year’s contribution to • Treasurer’s Report (Celeste the pension plan. Johnston). Copies of the audited treasur- • Membership Committee (Kohur er’s report can be requested from the MAUT GowriSankaran (Gowri)). Since October 1, Office. Acceptance of the report as presented 2001, 48 new members have joined MAUT. was moved, seconded and passed. This includes 30 “older” staff and 18 new • VP Internal Report (Michael Smith). faculty! (I apologise for the terminology The bad news is that the cost of health care – Ed.) This number has now grown to 68 is expected by the health care companies to new members with 24 new faculty. Since rise by 13% per year (Are we getting more McGill has hired some 250 people over the sick at that rate, are the doctors getting last 3 years, our recruiting success with new less efficient at that rate and we actually faculty could be better. Help from existing getting 13% more healthy each year but members would be appreciated in encour- have to pay for it ?!!?– Ed.) Also, McGill’s aging these people to join. I have spoken to Long-Term Disability plan has had to be 2 Vol 28 No 2 January janvier 2002 FALL GENERAL MEETING d) Academic salaries leagues with comparable rank, years of serv- Salary levels of academic staff at McGill ice and years since Ph.D. PRESIDENT’S REPORT are a major concern of MAUT. We have a very active team, which I chair, which meets Reestablishment of a salary increase for promotion to Full ROGER PRICHARD with the Administration to discuss academic Professor salary policy at McGill. This MAUT/Admin- MAUT is very concerned about differen- a) Executive and Council istration committee, known as ASPSC meets tials growing between the salaries of exist- frequently and in recent years we have been This has been a busy year so far and I ing academic staff on the one hand and new successful on a number of fronts. would like to thank the Executive and Coun- recruits and academic staff holding various cil members and all MAUT members who Parity with the G10 funded Chairs on the other. We also believe have contributed to the work of our Asso- that promotion to Full Professor at McGill We believed that our salaries were slip- ciation, on behalf of the academic staff, for is itself a high distinction.