Dear Colleagues,

The Canadian Association of University Teachers has published the following advisory regarding travel to the United States. The Faculty Association is in discussion with the University regarding whether a similar advisory will be issued on our campuses and will provide updates when available.

Sincerely,
Dory Nason
President

2025 Supplement to the CAUT Advisory on Travel to the United States

Given the rapidly evolving political landscape in the United States and reports of individuals encountering difficulties crossing the border, CAUT is issuing a supplement to its 2019 and 2005 Travel Advisory. This Supplemental Advisory addresses recent developments at the U.S. border, as well as legislative and judicial developments in Canada.

CAUT strongly recommends that academic staff travel to the U.S. only if essential and necessary. In addition, CAUT recommends that academics who fall into the following categories exercise particular caution:

• Citizens or residents of a country identified in media reports as likely to be subject to a travel ban
• Citizens or residents of a country where there are diplomatic tensions with the U.S.
• Travelers with passport stamps evidencing recent travel to countries that may be subject to a travel ban or where there are diplomatic tensions with the U.S.
• Those who have expressed negative opinions about the current U.S. administration or its policies
• Those whose research could be seen as being at odds with the position of the current U.S. administration
• Travelers who identify as transgender or whose travel documents indicate a sex other than their sex assigned at birth

It is recommended that academics carefully consider what information they have, or need to have, on their electronic devices when crossing borders and take actions to protect sensitive information where necessary.

Should you have any questions or require further information, please contact me at [email protected].

The 2022-2025 Collective Agreement booklet is now available. If you have not received a copy and would like one, please provide us with your campus mailing address and we will send one out to you. If you are on the Vancouver Campus, you are welcome to stop by and pick one up. Our office is located at 112-1924 West Mall, Auditorium Annex B.

After three months of negotiations, the University and the FA have come to an important agreement concerning the academic freedom of faculty members to issue public statements regarding matters which concern the membership, including political and social issues. Moving forward all academic units may continue to post statements to their websites so long as they are derived through collegial dialogue, do not purport to suggest unanimity of opinion where it does not exist, and do not purport to speak for the University at large.

This agreement comes in response to actions by the University, beginning in the fall of 2023, that would have curtailed the academic freedom and past rights and practices of our membership to engage in and disseminate the outcome of collegial decision-making.

Academic Freedom, departmental autonomy, and collegial governance are paramount to the proper functioning of the academy and the advancement of the free flow of ideas at the University, and within the university community. With this agreement, the FA has again preserved the rights of all FA members to engage in full and unrestricted consideration of any opinion and to use their collective voice to participate in the social discourse of our time.

We thank the members of faculty from diverse units who brought the precipitating events to our attention and raised their own concerns over the University’s potential intrusion into the fundamental rights and practices of academics.

Please see the guidelines that have now been placed on the Provosts’ websites, which provides the disclaimer that must be included in any statements by units: 
https://academic.ubc.ca/academic-freedom/guidance-ongoing-collegial-discussions.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Dory Nason
President

The UBCFA Equity Committee’s Disability Working Group works to identify structural sources of ableism, bias, inequity, and exclusion within UBC’s policies, procedures and practices and advance the interest of disabled faculty within the institution. In the wake of two prominent Tasks Forces aimed at addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion at UBC, the Faculty Association Executive has joined the increasing calls from UBC’s disability community for a similar focus on the working conditions, barriers, and other exclusions experienced by disabled faculty, students, and staff on our campuses.

On Tuesday, February 6^th, 2024, the Faculty Association Executive and Equity Committees sent a letter of support for the creation of a Disability Task Force to President & Vice Chancellor Benoit-Antoine Bacon. The letter received unanimous support from our Executive Committee and the Disability Working Group and we urge the University to establish this important initial step in creating a fair and equitable workplace for all our members.

A full copy of the letter that was sent to President & Vice Chancellor Bacon is available here. 

The Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE) and Fidelity Investments® are hosting three webinars* to help faculty members plan for life after retirement. During the sessions, participants will explore the social, psychological, and emotional dimensions of pre- and post-retirement. All faculty members who are approaching retirement or have recently retired are welcome and encouraged to attend. The series is tailored to academics and is free of charge. 

If you cannot attend the webinars live, they will be recorded for later viewing. The dates and titles for each webinar in the series are:
Tuesday, January 30^th @ 10:00AM – Reframing Your Identity,
Tuesday February 13^th @ 10:00AM – Reimagining Your Personalized Plan and,
Tuesday, February 27^th @ 10:00AM – Rebuilding Your Network.

If you wish to attend this series, you can register here. For more information, please visit the AROHE website here.

*This series of webinars are in addition to the Transitions to Retirement seminar offered biannually by UBC Faculty Relations and the UBC Emeritus College.

Good morning,

As part of the process to amend the Land Use Plan (LUP) for the Vancouver campus, a legislatively required public hearing was held November 7, 2023. The purpose of the public hearing was to give everyone with an interest in the LUP an opportunity to share comments. It was the final phase in an 18+ month Campus Vision 2050 public engagement process that included opportunities for UBC community members and campus residents to give input, share ideas and raise concerns through workshops, a design charrette, open houses, meetings, and surveys, resulting in over 13,000 engagement touchpoints.

Community involvement, including what was heard at the public hearing, has played an important role in shaping and refining Campus Vision 2050 (Vision), the Housing Action Plan (HAP) and the LUP, including updates that were made to the LUP following the public hearing, such as:

• Updated tree canopy protection commitments and direction for enhancing species diversity and soil conditions to address concerns about campus ecology and biodiversity.
• Confirmation UBC has land capacity for future student housing growth beyond the planned 3,300 new beds and a commitment to develop strategies for future student housing growth, including in the Acadia area, in response to concerns about housing affordability and calls for UBC to build more student housing.
• A new range for neighbourhood open space in response to concerns about livability and wellbeing as the campus grows.
• A commitment to more frequent LUP reviews to respond to changing housing financial opportunities and to be consistent with recent provincial legislation.

A summary of the comments made at the public hearing as well as a video recording of the hearing will be presented to the UBC Board Governors at the December 5th meeting, along with a detailed summary of the past 18+ months of public engagement, and the final drafts of the Vision, the HAP, and the updated LUP. [These drafts can be found on the Campus Vision 2050 news feed]. The Board will consider the comments, any refinements to the Land Use Plan, and submitting the Land Use Plan to the Province of BC for adoption. You can review the report prepared for the Board of Governors on the Board website.

To read a summary of the comments made at the public hearing, you can view the Public Record, which also contains a link to the video recording of the hearing. To learn more about the Campus Vision 2050 public engagement process that led up to the public hearing, you can read the Engagement Summary: Needs and Aspirations and The Engagement Summary: 30-Year Vision.

You are also able to watch the December 5 Board meeting via livestream, which will be posted on the Board of Governors website on the day of the meeting.

All my best,

Madeleine

Madeleine S Zammer BA, MEM (she, her, hers)
Manager, Engagement
Engagement & Communications | Campus + Community Planning
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory
2210 West Mall | Vancouver, BC | V6T 1Z4 Canada
[email protected]
https://planning.ubc.ca

The UBC Faculty Association Executive Committee is deeply saddened by the unimaginable suffering and innocent human loss in Israel and Gaza. The Executive would like to acknowledge that many of our members have family, kin and colleagues directly impacted by the ongoing conflict and violence. Many are worried for their loved ones or in deep distress for all those who are suffering, making it difficult to fulfill faculty duties. These members may need information and assistance on navigating work at this difficult time.

Please reach out to the Faculty Association if you need information on supports available to you through the Employee and Family Assistance Program or about personal leaves and other supports available to all faculty in distress.

We hope for peace and healing for all our relations in the days to come.

Dory Nason,
On behalf of the Executive Committee

For those members needing assistance, please email the Faculty Association at [email protected].

We stand in solidarity with the University of Waterloo. We are sharing solidarity statements from both UBC Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ) and  the Confederation of University Faculty Associations (CUFA BC).
Please see the full statement from UBC’s Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice here. 
Please see the full statement from the Confederation of University Faculty Associations here.

Our 2022 Annual Report is available for view with our Annual General Meeting coming up Wednesday, June 28th.

Please find the full agenda with more background and information linked here: Annual General Meeting Agenda.

As with most events at the University for the past many months, our meeting will be held (June 28th at 1-3PM) via Zoom. Members wishing to join the meeting can RSVP to the Faculty Association for the meeting link. Thanks to those who have already contacted us. We expect to conclude the meeting by 3:00 p.m.

We do hope you will join us.