Frequently Asked Questions

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I'm a faculty member in Arts/Atkinson; will I be redeployed to the new Faculty?: What about my program affiliation? What processes will be followed? We are working with YUFA and AER to address these issues; experience from the creation of the Faculty of Health will guide the process. Redeployment is governed by the collective agreement. We do not anticipate requiring people to move to a particular program in the new Faculty; if individual faculty members do not wish to move with their current program, we will work with them to try to make alternate arrangements through appointment to some other appropriate program. Cross-appointments between two programs will continue to be possible.
I will be considered for tenure after the new Faculty is established; how will I be affected?: It is a long-established practice that faculty are considered for tenure under the criteria that were in place when they were appointed. Colleagues in “merged” programs will be working together to develop common statements of standards for future appointees.
How will governance structures and processes be affected by the establishment of the new Faculty?: The new Faculty will have a Faculty Council. Faculty Councils determine their own membership, rules and procedures, committee structures, etc. (subject to Senate approval). The University is looking at ways of putting in place interim governance processes until the new Council is formally in place in order to facilitate joint consideration and approval of proposals (for example, legislation on general education). Once unit and program structures in the new Faculty have been determined, colleagues in merged programs will begin more detailed discussions about curriculum and requirements, internal governance structures, etc. The University is putting in place a “streamlined” approval process for programs and curriculum in consultation with the Senate Committee on Curriculum and Academic Standards and the Academic Policy and Planning Committee.
Atkinson currently has had a mandate for summer and evening teaching; what are the commitments and plans for continued offering of courses and programs in summer and evening in the new Faculty?: There is a commitment that there will be no reduction in the availability of summer and evening courses and programs, and opportunities will likely in fact increase. Each program will be expected to examine its capacity to offer evening and summer courses/programs and the demand for them, and to reach a determination about offerings on the basis of these considerations. Offering of online courses will also be a part of these discussions. We do not anticipate that individual faculty members who do not wish to do so will be required to teach summer or evening courses. It should be noted that the Atkinson Centre for Mature and Part-time Students will have as one of its responsibilities to work with units on behalf of part-time and mature students to ensure continuing access to summer and evening programming for them and all students.
Is it intended that departmental and university offices will be open in the evening to serve students? If so, will staff be required to work in the evenings?: Whether departmental offices are open in the evening will depend on whether that particular unit offers evening programming. Colleagues in the Atkinson Centre will work with university offices to ensure that appropriate levels of services are provided to evening students.
Will the merger of duplicate programs result in moving colleagues from those programs into a common space?: Over time, the goal is to bring all members of merged units together in one location or contiguous locations and we will work towards this in space planning, but the acute space shortage on campus makes this impossible immediately. Therefore, in the short term, most individuals and units will remain where they are.