Weekly News Roundup

UNIONS | INSTITUTIONS | GOVERNMENT

Join CUFA BC each week for a roundup of news in BC’s post-secondary sector

SFU and TSSU resume negotiations for Research Assistants

On November 18th, SFU and the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) resumed negotiations for Research Assistants (RAs) whose duties are considered employment under the provincial labour code. The parties are still awaiting a decision from the BC Labour Relations Board (LRB) around whether graduate student research activity is considered academic activity or work classified under the Labour Relations Code. The LRB has deferred a decision until January 31, 2025. The TSSU reports, “The Employer has concluded our three days of bargaining on “substantive issues” by sticking to their proposal that RAs shouldn’t have any benefits, and they have to “individually negotiate” a wage above the legal $17.40/h minimum wage. We made progress to narrow some of the outstanding issues on ensuring all RAs get employment agreements, protections against unfair evaluation processes, and have some rights around scheduling of duties.” Next bargaining dates are December 3^rd.

BC | TSSU | SFU

Canada’s post-secondary industry predicts a storm ahead, as budget cuts shrink courses, staff

Amid cuts to staff, programs and student services, Canada’s post-secondary system is moving into a stormy period. Students, faculty, post-secondary institutions and experts predict challenging times ahead as colleges and universities report budget shortfalls, exacerbated by federal restrictions on new international students, ongoing domestic tuition caps or freezes, and stagnant provincial funding. CBC summarizes how we got here, what university and college administrations are saying, and what students and faculty and staff are experiencing. Thompson Rivers University is fortifying its reserves and beginning a process of making budget cuts for next year — and while layoffs are not part of the plan, they are on the table. For the period of January to April, the college will already see a 70 per cent drop in enrolment compared to last year, confirmed Jenn Goodwin, OC vice-president of enrolment and college relations.

BC | CBC(1) | CBC(2) | TRU

New, self-paced training on anti-oppression and Indigeneity available to UBC faculty, staff

When Dana-Lyn Mackenzie presents on equity and inclusion in her role as Senior Manager of EDI and Indigeneity, she notices a couple of recurring issues. “We spend a lot of time going over basic concepts like power and privilege, and less time on the topic at hand,” said Mackenzie. “We realized we need a way to get everyone on the same page.” Many current EDI offerings require cohorts to commit to specific times, which presents an additional barrier for faculty and staff who may not be able to adapt their busy schedules accordingly. In light of these challenges, Mackenzie designed a new training program, Cascades of Change to Inclusive Leadership and Respectful Engagement, for all UBC faculty and staff to take at their own pace.

BC | UBC

Royal Roads receives Excellence in Governance Award for EDI

Royal Roads University’s commitment to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion has been recognized with an Excellence in Governance Award by Governance Professionals of Canada in the EDI category. The awards recognize members of the Canadian governance community across sectors who demonstrate innovation and a commitment to changemaking. “The work of EDI is a continuous journey,” says Royal Roads Vice-President Academic Veronica Thompson, who accepted the award in Toronto on behalf of the university. “At Royal Roads, we are committed to this ongoing work and embodying our values in EDI – caring for our community members, creatively solving problems and courageously tackling challenging issues in governance and in our entire university community.”

BC | ENC

UBCO gut health research moves from lab to real world

Groundbreaking technology created by a UBC Okanagan biology professor is leading the development of new medicine that can help improve gut health. Dr. Deanna Gibson, with UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, leads a research lab that investigates the intricate relationship between the gut microbiome and human health. Dr. Gibson is a leading authority in gut microbiome research and is also a driving force behind Melius MicroBiomics, a biotech company focused on harnessing the power of the gut microbiome for improved health. Now, her entrepreneurial spirit and deep expertise are propelling the company to the forefront of the field by developing innovative therapies for various health conditions, explains Rob Emlyn, CEO and Co-Founder of Melius MicroBiomics.

BC | UBCO

UNBC a key partner in research to restore watersheds and salmon habitats post-wildfires

UNBC is a key partner in a project investigating mitigation measures to protect landscapes and salmon habitats following severe wildfires. Tsecmenúl̓ecwem-kt, or We Repair the Land, is a three-year, $4 million dollar project that is taking action to restore the Deadman River west of Kamloops, which was severely impacted by the Sparks Lake wildfire in 2021. The Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corp. is leading the project in collaboration with UNBC, the University of British Columbia, Thompson Rivers University, the Ministry of Forests, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Salmon Foundation, SLR Consulting, Secwépemc Fisheries Commission and Urban Systems. The goal of the project is to develop and refine an adaptive management approach, including a long-term monitoring program for the watershed, with an aim to accelerate its recovery, with the hope the project will produce learning outcomes that can be applied across the province.

BC | MyPGNow

UBC-O Fuelling the future of transit needs exact change

UBC Okanagan’s Lifecycle Management Lab is helping transform public transit. We’ll need more than exact change to ride electric or hydrogen-powered buses in the future. Engineering professor Dr. Kasun Hewage and his students in UBC Okanagan’s Lifecycle Management Lab prefer precisely orchestrated changes that don’t swap one problem for another. “Lifecycle Management is about understanding the complete impact of a product or system—such as a transit system—from cradle to grave, or sometimes cradle to cradle,” he explains. His team uses lifecycle thinking to help communities find practical solutions to global-scale challenges; you’ll find them at the intersection of climate change, wise resource management and resilient infrastructure. Dr. Hewage says the success of such research projects is due to the collaborative environment at UBC Okanagan. When researchers join local partners, both communities benefit.

BC | UBCO

Carbon capture technology is vital in tackling climate change, says SFU prof

Carbon capture technology, like what is being developed at Squamish’s Carbon Engineering, is critical in the fight against the forces of climate change, according to a Simon Fraser University professor. “It’s essential because we are in such uncharted territory when it comes to climate change, with all of the effects that we’re seeing with these severe weather events, it is incontrovertible that this is happening because of these high [carbon dioxide] levels in our atmosphere,” said Sami Khan, assistant professor at the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering, at SFU, who has toured his students around the Carbon Engineering (CE) Innovation Centre. Khan teaches both undergraduate and graduate carbon capture engineering courses.

BC | Squamish Chief

New bioreactor brings seed stability for NIC seaweed researchers

A new piece of technology for North Island College seaweed researchers will help their work to support a burgeoning industry. NIC’s Centre for Applied Research, Technology and Innovation (CARTI) has received its new seaweed bioreactor, which provides a stable environment for producing kelp cultures and gives users a lot more time to collect and nurture samples. The bioreactors are easy to maintain, to provide consistency and control over factors like pH levels, light or carbon dioxide, and they provide an environment with an extremely minimal risk for contamination. The modular design allows users to scale their operations. The investment was funded by the BC Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) as well as the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), with BCKDF and CFI each contributing $200,000.

BC | ENC

BCcampus: An Introduction to the AI Toolkit

BCcampus will host a one-hour FLO Friday workshop on December 6 on their GenAI in Teaching and Learning Toolkit, designed to support educators in understanding and integrating Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools within their teaching practice. The session will begin with an introduction to GenAI literacy skills required for teaching and learning, addressing both pedagogical opportunities and ethical considerations in educational contexts. Through guided practice, participants will then engage with a selected toolkit activity, gaining hands-on experience with GenAI integration strategies while exploring practical implementation steps.

BC | BCcampus

Supreme Court to honour its 150th anniversary with visit to Victoria in February

Chief Justice Richard Wagner and Justices Andromache Karakatsanis and Nicholas Kasirer will visit Victoria, British Columbia on February 3 and 4, 2025, as part of the Supreme Court of Canada’s 150th anniversary commemorations. The visiting judges will take part in two full days of events aimed at helping people learn more about the Supreme Court and building confidence in our justice system. Students, the public, the media and the legal community are all invited to take part.

BC | National | Newswire

Full-time teaching staff at Canadian universities, 2023/2024 

Statistics Canada is releasing data on full-time teaching staff at universities for 2023/2024. That year, there were 48,960 full-time teachers at Canadian universities. Close to half (48.5%; 23,745) were professors at one of the 15 leading research universities that are members of U15 Canada. In 2023/2024, the median salary of full-time teachers at Canadian universities—all academic ranks combined—was $151,700, up 3.9% from $146,000 in 2022/2023 and 11.9% higher than $135,600 recorded five years earlier. These increases were driven by wage gains that were negotiated and accepted over this period. In 2022/2023, U15 Canada member universities received 71.0% ($3.4 billion) of the $4.8 billion in funding granted to Canadian universities by the federal government. Universities that receive federal funding have a greater ability to attract professors and researchers from Canada and abroad, since they can offer a more competitive salary. In 2023/2024, women professors had a slightly lower income than their male counterparts. This was observed among professors at both U15 Canada member universities and other universities.

National | StatCan | StatCan(Dashboard)

Improving universities’ public standing
Paul Wells writes an opinion piece in University Affairs that touches on the growing estrangement between universities and society, and shares his thoughts on how to address these issues. He writes: Improving Canadian universities’ standing in public opinion isn’t the work of a single conversation. It’ll be a common thread of many of my columns over the next little while. On the whole, then, I think universities are safer if they’re in politicians’ field of view, and if the sight of them is at least occasionally pleasant. How can universities help make their case? First, by reminding people that a lot of what universities do is to instill complex technical knowledge that you can’t get anywhere else and that doesn’t carry a lot of ideological baggage. Universities have become easy targets for neglect, and sometimes for worse, because they’ve begun to seem remote from the concerns of the communities that surround them. So make them less remote. Get them back into discussions about how to make a better society.

National | UA

Institutional Mergers: A Marginal Solution

Higher Education Strategy Associates’ Alex Usher discusses institutional mergers in his recent blog post. Quote: One of the things I often hear in Canada is that we have “too many universities” or “too many colleges” and that we would all be better off if we just got rid of a few of them […] There are some small institutions that are probably going to disappear in the next year or two. But they are the kind of institutions that not everyone understood were independent in the first place. As for independent institutions, there are very few cases where mergers plausibly lead to lower costs without politically damaging campus closures. We have real problems to solve. Where cost reductions are concerned, mergers are for the most part a side-show, an irrelevance. Let’s not waste time on them.

National | HESA