I wrote in my October column about the importance of integrating newly-hired colleagues into academic life and our academic staff associations. These concerns are even more timely in the context of a rising average age of academic staff and with a whole generation of academics close to retirement. The challenge facing post-secondary institutions today is to attract, and keep, promising new scholars to fill the ranks. Academic staff associations likewise must devise renewal strategies to ensure strong and active participation since they will also soon be losing a large cohort of long-term and often very active members.

Fortunately, the overall picture of association renewal is not overly bleak because a number of locals are already addressing this issue with various and novel initiatives. In fact, CAUT has been cataloguing these initiatives over the past two years, with the intent of issuing a “best practices” document on the topic. Here are some of the creative and interesting renewal efforts different academic staff associations are championing across Canada.

One initiative uses an outreach model where some associations contact job candidates “upstream” in the hiring process. Both York and Brock have negotiated contract language that ensures the association meets with candidates during the interview phase. In addition, Brock has a hiring advice committee, a member of which meets with each candidate to answer questions about the university and the surrounding community. Carleton distributes a pamphlet about the association during interviews.

Second, many associations engage in activities to officially welcome new hires to their campuses. Twelve invite new members to participate in administration-sponsored orientations held early on in the academic year. Some of these events target new hires and others invite members hired within the last three years. Lethbridge organizes an orientation jointly with the administration while the associations at St. Thomas and Saskatchewan host their own orientation sessions.

A third initiative involves sending various forms of documentation to new colleagues. For instance, Bishop’s, Waterloo and Carleton send letters of welcome to new members and invite them to become active in their local association. Others, such as St. Thomas, Moncton, Brescia, Regina and Calgary, include their welcoming letters as part of a package forwarded by the administration. Saskatchewan and Waterloo have designed introductory material outlining the work of the association for new members.
     
Another popular initiative is a newcomers’ lunch or a social event. At McMaster, the president and an executive member meet a group of six newcomers at a time. Lethbridge holds a BBQ for new members and their families a few weeks after orientation. Concordia organizes a welcome lunch for new full-timers, faculty and librarians. York’s entire executive committee greets new, untenured faculty. At Manitoba, McGill and Mount Saint Vincent, new hires have lunch with members of the executive. Windsor holds a burger and beverage event for newcomers and Saint Mary’s holds a luncheon activity for new members and the faculty in their department. At Saskatchewan, an executive representative meets with small groups of new members. Guelph, McGill and Waterloo host a reception to welcome new hires, and at Manitoba, a member accompanies each new colleague to the reception. UBC hosts a social for all new members.

In addition, some associations organize a workshop, seminar or forum on information directly relevant to new faculty. Guelph holds one on mentoring that is open to academic staff hired during the past five years. Manitoba uses one to recruit new members to attend a CAUT workshop. Saint Mary’s has a forum on contract issues for new hires, such as tenure and promotion, teaching, the collective agreement, benefits and leave. At Manitoba, the association’s status of women committee organizes a brown bag lunch seminar on survival tips for new female faculty.

Elsewhere, welcoming initiatives are held for contract academic staff (CAS). UBC and Mount Saint Vincent host a lunch, St. Thomas holds an orientation session for CAS in the fall, and Regina sends an informational pamphlet on the status of sessionals, along with a letter inviting new CAS members to become involved in the association. During its CAS membership drive, Brescia contacted each CAS member individually. Of course, many associations participate annually in Fair Employment Week activities, where new CAS hires are invited to get involved.

All these local renewal initiatives are truly heartening. Saskatchewan even went so far as developing an entire renewal strategy and hiring a new staff person to implement it. Now that’s taking the renewal issue very seriously!

In a coming column, I will show how some associations are getting newcomers to serve on committees and how some locals are making headway in making the association more visible, including devising various communications strategies.