Part-time Faculty are currently ineligible to vote and serve on the Saint Mary’s University Senate.
CUPE 3912 members teach one third of SMU courses but have no say in ‘educational policy‘ including courses of study, admission standards, diploma qualifications, and the creation, maintenance, and discontinuance of faculties and departments.
This ineligibility is because the Senate bylaws do not recognize part-time faculty as academic staff—despite the Saint Mary’s University Act saying otherwise. A year ago, the Senate by-law committee agreed on proposing a bylaws amendment that would enable PT Faculty to vote and serve on Senate. Unfortunately, there has not been much progress. Check the update on shared governance at SMU.
It is time for us to act. Our participation in shared governance at SMU is particularly important as we face budgetary challenges leading to program changes throughout the university.
Part-time faculty should be eligible to vote and serve on the Saint Mary’s University Senate.
You can help by signing our petition to put more pressure on the SMU Senate to align their bylaws with the University Act and include part-time instructors in the governance of the university. The SMU Senate needs to finish the process of amending the bylaws NOW so we can vote and run in the upcoming Senate elections in March.
For more information see:
Sign our petition here.