The Vanier College Teachers’ Association
Law 14
On the Law 14 front, the information received from the ministry/fédération des cégeps is still limited, but an announcement should be made on Wednesday, October 5th. The working committee on the Exit Exam, which is the only one which seems to have made progress so far, will be presenting possible implementation options, where ayant-droit students will have to write an English exam, while non-ayant droits will be forced to write a French one.
This coincides with the beginning of a formal consultation process involving regular meetings between MES (the ministry), the Fédération des cégeps, the ACPQ (Fédé equivalent for private colleges) and both teachers’s unions (FNEEQ and FEC). We don’t know yet the details of that consultation, nor its timeline, but it is a start.
At the federation level, an ad hoc committee has been officially formed last week. Its mandate is to work on the technical aspect of the implications of the law on our jobs and working conditions, in collaboration with FNEEQ’s political reps and the negociation committee. Fed by what comes out of the consultation meetings, it will propose and evaluate implementation scenarios, develop orientations, make proposals, and report on its advances. The committee includes four teacher reps from Anglo cegeps, regional or from the island (Vanier, Heritage, John Abbott and Champlain St-Lambert), as well as other FNEEQ reps (someone from the committee on tâche and an advisor).
Professional Development Expense Report
This is a friendly reminder that the deadline to submit an Expense Report for PD Activities which took place last academic year is October 30th.
The report itself, receipts, and supporting documents must be submitted electronically. You can access the form here:
https://www.thevcta.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/VCTA-PD-Expense-Report.pdf
If you have any questions and/or need help with your Expense Report, feel free to swing by our office in C-101 or send us an email at vcta@vaniercollege.qc.ca and we would be happy to give you a hand with it.
Workshops on RREGOP & Insurance
In the New Year, Fneeq will be organizing two local workshops (in English) for faculty members who wish to learn more about insurance and RREGOP.
A Doodle Poll will be sent out in the near future to help us determine which dates and times would be best to host these workshops. So please keep an eye out for the poll in your inbox and we hope to see you there!
College Committees
The VCTA would like to thank all members who answered the call to serve on College Committees back in September. However, several committees still need faculty representation on them. These are indicated below in yellow:
Academic Space Committee
Brock Hanly (FGE)
Chester Moran (FST)
TBA (FABSS)
Complementary Course Committee
Miles DeNora
Lisa Fiorentino
Neerusha Gokool-Baurhoo
TBA (FGE)
Digital Competencies Development Committee
Charbel El Khawand (FST)
Nicholas Park (FST)
Christian Stahn (at large)
Sandi Mak (at large)
Ingrid Mittmannsgruber (FGE)
TBA 2 (FGE)
TBA 1 (FABSS)
TBA 2 (FABSS)
International Academic Committee
Brandee Diner (FST)
Shirley Zhu (FABSS)
TBA (FGE)
Library Academic Committee
TBA (FST)
TBA (FGE)
TBA (FABSS)
Pedagogical Animation Committee
Timothy Alexander Campbell (FST)
Caroline Chwojka (FGE)
TBA (FABSS)
Post Pandemic Advisory Committee
Genevieve Boucher (FGE)
Toby Moneit (FST)
TBA (FABSS)
TBA (pre-university program)
TBA (technical program)
TBA (FGE/FST/FABSS)
Research Policy Committee
Catrina Flint (FABSS)
Samad Rostampour (FST)
TBA (FST)
Working Group – IPESA Policy Committee
Katie Rose (FGE)
Rose Bloom (FST)
TBA 1 (FGE)
TBA 1 (FST)
TBA 1 (FABSS)
TBA 2 (FABSS)
Working Group – Program Management Policy Committee
Mark Cohen (FGE)
Brandee Diner (FST)
Christos Theodorakakos (FST)
TBA (FABSS/FGE)
If you would like to fill one or more of these vacancies, please let us know via email at vcta@vaniercollege.qc.ca , by Friday, October 14th at noon, and we will appoint you to the committee.
How Some Things Work – Postes
On occasion we will be adding a “How Some Things Work” column as an attachment to the News Bulletin.
Today’s segment is about Postes. It is based on Articles 5-4 and 8-5 of the Collective Agreement. We hope that you will find it useful.
Terminology
- Poste Every year, the number of Postes for a department determines how many teachers will have fulltime workloads for the coming year. The number of postes available for a discipline is calculated on the basis of teaching allocation (from the Allocation Projet), plus Departmental Coordination, plus Program Coordination (if it is permanent to that discipline –this is true for all the Career programs). If a department has more Postes than tenured teachers, the college must send a notice of the availability of that Poste to the Bureau de Placement. Some departments will have more full-time teachers than Postes: Ex. if senior teachers get release and the workload is assigned to newer teachers.
- Bureau de Placement The Bureau de placement will assign and post job positions based on the order set out in collective agreements. Any college with an available Poste must send a notice of its availability to the Bureau. https://www.quebec.ca/en/government/work-government/jobs-education/teaching-cegep
- Allocation Projet This is a detailed description of the allocation given to the college and its distribution for teaching, coordination, and projects etc. Allocation is given for students expected to come to college. A preliminary Projet is presented at CRT in the spring, with updates presented throughout the year.
- MED: Mise en Disponibilité. A permanent (tenured) teacher is in MED when there is not enough teaching work for them in their department. This is one of the protections afforded by tenure A MEDed teacher is paid at 80% of their salary but is expected to apply to a Poste which becomes available anywhere in the CEGEP system if they meet the criteria of employment for that job. Few teachers in the English system get MEDed, except if a program closes, and few French teacher apply to teach at English schools.
- Tenure A teacher acquires tenure on signing their third contract with an assigned Poste. (see attached chart for other possibilities)
The distribution of Postes
The process starts with the Allocation Projet presented in April. The teaching + Coord allocations are totalled to determine the number of Postes per discipline. That number is then compared to all the teachers in that department who have tenure. A notice of any extra Postes is then sent to the Bureau de Placement in 3 rounds starting at the end of May and ending Sept 30th.
If no MED teacher applies, the Poste is `returned` to Vanier and distributed. For most departments the next teacher on the seniority list (i.e. non-tenured with highest seniority) is given the Poste (this shows up on the contract they sign). And, they never have to sign a contract again as they are assured full-time work going forward. Yay!
There are some exceptions: ex the Social Science program (DSCS) has an agreement with the college to assign Postes to the most senior teachers in the program. This was established so that allocations for methodology courses could be postable even though these may be assigned to different department from one year to the next.
Upcoming Meetings
Association Council: October 6, 1:30 in F 216
General Assembly for Insurance: October 12, 5:30 in F 216 (dinner at 5:00)
Academic Council: October 21, 1:00 in F 216
Association Council: October 27, 1:30 in F 216