This Committee provides advice on all matters of particular concern to faculty in the Teaching Stream, including workload, time for research and scholarship, and related equity issues.
by Sherri Helwig
This year, the Teaching Stream Committee continued a practice (instituted the year before) of opening up the meetings beyond the Committee membership to any Teaching Stream faculty member who was interested in learning more and discussing relevant issues. These have been rich and engaging discussions, and each time we all understand more about the differences faced by faculty in different units and differing circumstances, as well as the challenges we have in common. Here are just a few of those challenges that the committee has discussed:
Workload
Workload continues to be a principal concern for Teaching Stream faculty. The Workload Policy and Procedures for Faculty and Librarians (WLPP) was first negotiated within the context of growing evidence from across the University (e.g., large-scale University of Toronto and UTFA surveys) that escalating workloads were a major source of stress, and were undermining quality in teaching and research and squeezing out time for research, scholarship, and creative professional activities for the Teaching Stream. Nearly thirteen years later, very little has changed: excessive workloads continue to pose a threat to the quality of education (and the quality of the lives of Teaching Stream faculty) at the University of Toronto.
Teaching:
Teaching Stream faculty generally teach 150-200% (or more) of the number of courses that their Tenure Stream colleagues teach in the same department. They are often expected to teach the general, large-enrollment, first- and second-year courses, sometimes to the exclusion of other courses and the ability to teach courses that are related to their areas of expertise and ongoing scholarship. Many are required to teach in all three semesters (in violation of Article 8 in the Memorandum), or feel they have no choice but to do so to spread out an otherwise-unmanageable workload. This makes the annual one-month vacation afforded to all UTFA members impossible.
Research1/pedagogical and professional development (PPD):
While the Workload Policy UTFA negotiated with the University Administration states explicitly in section 4.0 that “individual units shall determine the balance amongst the three principal components of a faculty member’s activities: teaching, research, and service,” the Administration is unwilling to agree to a “Distribution of Effort” (DOE) for the Teaching Stream that includes all three components – for example, 60% of time spent on teaching, 20% for research, and 20% service. Instead, many UofT departments and units simply lump teaching and research together (an 80/20 DOE, i.e. 80% teaching/research and 20% service) and are somehow not recognizing that faculty need time to engage in research activities separate from their teaching. In fact, the Administration wrote in an interest arbitration brief in 2022 that there is no need to have a Distribution of Effort for the Teaching Stream because, among other reasons, there is already “ample room for the pursuit of pedagogical and professional activities” in Teaching Stream workloads (paragraph 194). They then illustrated this by explaining that, after accounting for the in-class hours related to teaching four courses in a semester, a Teaching Stream faculty member “would have 70% of their work week to perform the other facets of their workload” (paragraph 198). These positions simply do not reflect the experience of our Teaching Stream faculty members.
It is also important to note that, while UTFA previously fought for and won language in the Workload Policy (section 7.2) that entitles Teaching Stream faculty to “reasonable time” for research, this “reasonable time” is almost impossible to enforce without a DOE.
A published DOE is already in place for UTFA’s librarian members, and Tenure Stream faculty have either an explicit DOE or follow an implicit norm of 40/40/20 (40% teaching, 40% research, 20% service). There is no reason Teaching Stream faculty should be denied the same workload protections.
Service:
Service expectations of Teaching Stream faculty tend to be high. Many take on administrative roles, and are often depended upon to lead outsized curriculum review and reform efforts. In a number of units at the University, there are very few Teaching Stream faculty members: too few to serve on all the departmental committees and working groups that require or would benefit from representation from someone in the stream.
MRA (My Research Applications & Agreements)
Until 2022, Teaching Stream faculty and librarians were generally not permitted to serve as Principal Investigators (PIs) for their own research. In 2022, in response to advocacy from UTFA members, the Administration granted PI access for the Teaching Stream and librarians to the “My Research Applications & Agreements” (MRA) system. While this was positive news, it was tempered by the fact that the system required at least one additional level of administrative approval beyond what is required for research applications by Tenure Stream faculty, and that those tasked with approving research applications from Teaching Stream faculty (for example) were required to consider whether the proposed research was “appropriately aligned” and “consistent with the unique role of teaching stream faculty and their workload.” UTFA communicated its concerns to the Administration – that this wording raised questions about academic freedom and our right to choose the subjects of our own scholarship – beginning in August last year, and we have discussed these issues several times throughout the following months. While they have expressed a willingness to continue to discuss these important issues, the Administration has indicated that it is not willing to treat Teaching Stream faculty and librarians on par with our Tenure Stream colleagues when it comes to the academic freedom to carry out our own self-directed research.
Pay Equity and Salary Discrimination
There is more information about pay equity and salary discrimination in the report of the Chair of the Equity Committee. Still, it is important to state here for context that, in previous years, UTFA has won financial gains for women in the Tenure Stream and for female-identified librarians, but has yet to be successful with efforts for the Teaching Stream. This year, UTFA has advanced a pay equity grievance for both the Teaching Stream and for librarians, to ensure that the University Administration follows through on its obligations under the Pay Equity Act.
However, any gains UTFA may make on this front will not address the fact that Teaching Stream faculty generally have lower starting salaries than Tenure Stream colleagues in the same department, and that this salary gap only widens over time. The gap widens because the across-the-board (ATB) increases are often based on a percentage of salary – normally lower for the Teaching Stream – and the pool of funds available for annual merit increases (PTR) for Teaching Stream faculty is separate and smaller.
These are issues that Teaching Stream faculty are concerned about and have brought forward to Committee meetings for discussion. As an initial step, this Committee is developing educational materials that prominently list lower salary and smaller pay increases among several essential differences between the Teaching and Tenure Streams at the University of Toronto.
Acknowledgements
I am beyond grateful for the efforts of a number of people who work collaboratively to support Teaching Stream members at UTFA, including: administrative staff, led by Executive Director Nellie De Lorenzi; legal staff, led by General Counsel Helen Nowak; Teaching Stream Committee members David Dubins, Kim MacKinnon, Cathy Marks Krpan, Judith Poë, Chester Scoville, Harriet Sonne de Torrens, Leslie Stewart Rose, Azita Taleghani, and Terezia Zorić; and our thoughtful and supportive Executive and Council members. Many thanks are also due to the Teaching Stream faculty members who attend our committee meetings as guests and contribute so much to the richness of the discussion, and to those who visited during my weekly Teaching Stream office hours to ask questions or seek advice about relevant policies and various ways UTFA may be able to help.
UTFA’s President Terezia Zorić and Executive Director Nellie De Lorenzi deserve a targeted note of appreciation for their generosity of time and advice, and their tireless efforts on behalf of our Teaching Stream (and all!) members.
Deep and personal gratitude is due to Barbara Murck who, before her untimely death this fall, was an active Teaching Stream Committee member. She did truly consequential work on the Committee’s “Barriers to Research” survey planning, and worked closely with me in my home department on a community of practice initiative for Teaching Stream colleagues. She will be sorely and forever missed.