Member Engagement: Academic Coordinators

On October 23, AUFA’s Membership Engagement Committee hosted an engagement session with 25 academic coordinators (approximately 50% of coordinators). The main issues raised in the ensuing discussions are summarized below.

Designation

Academic coordinators are among the AUFA members under threat of de-designation. Discussion focused on the impact of de-designation on individual coordinators. This topic has been recently summarized in an update to our de-designation FAQ.

Other topics discussed included the continued eligibility of academic coordinators to supervise graduate students and perform administrative duties (e.g., program director, centre chair) if they are de-designated. On first blush, it appears coordinators would remain eligible to perform these tasks if de-designated.

Workload

There was significant discussion about workload. Some of the discussion reflected recent increases in workload related to COVID-19 operational changes (particularly final exam arrangements). There was also discussion of workload increases and inequities more generally.

Article 3.3 of the collective agreement requires workloads to be negotiated and reasonably possible for an individual to accomplish in a working year (exclusive of leaves, time off, and holidays). Concerns about workload can be directed to AUFA’s executive Director, Richard Roach

Research Expectations

While academic coordinators are not required to do research, many do so and all engage with research in order to maintain the currency of their teaching. Discussion of research included the fairness of informal encouragement or informal expectations of research output without institutional support. There was also discussion about how teaching-only positions provide limited opportunity for advancement due to lack of research support.

Salaries

The academic coordinator salary grid has a cap. The present salary range is from $55,772 to $108,726. Individual members’ salaries progress up the grid when they receive merit increases of 2.8% until they hit a salary of $100,202. At this point, the value of increments drops to 1.37% until the salary cap is reached.

As noted last week, members whose salaries are at the maximum of the academic coordinator grid ($108,726) only receive salary increases when AUFA negotiates a cost of living adjustment (COLA), which raise both salaries and salary grids. For four of the last seven years, COLA has been zero.

Practically speaking, since 2013, capped out academic coordinators (and professionals) have seen grid and salary compounded increases of 5.9% while inflation has increased approximately 13%. This represents a net loss of purchasing power of approximately 7%.

If you’d like to contribute thoughts on these topics or discuss ways to improve the working conditions of academic coordinators, please contact Rhiannon Rutherford or Dave Powell.

Rhiannon Rutherford, Chair

Membership Engagement Committee