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Workload letter to the Vice-President Academic and Provost

To all APUO members,

In the past few months, many APUO members have shared with us their dissatisfaction in relation to an increasing workload (which we know to be already very high) due to the closure of the FGPS, the implementation of VirtuO and the obligation to use complex and inefficient software packages such as Concur (e-travel) to manage simple tasks such as travel reimbursements. These transformations are indicative of the growing trend with university administrators who demand that professors perform administrative tasks that have traditionally been executed by trained support staff themselves. In addition, they freeze the hiring of support staff, whose members have also noted a significant increase in their workload.

Facing this situation, which affects professors’ capacity to fulfill tasks related to the University’s mission (teaching, research and service to the community), their health and the health of overworked support staff, a group of nine professors from five faculties prepared a letter for the Vice-President Academic and Provost. This letter, which you can read here, aims to bring this situation to his attention and requests that he corrects it by hiring more support staff that could carry out these administrative tasks that are now required of professors. The group is currently collecting additional signatures before sending the letter. If you wish to join this initiative, simply send your full name and your primary affiliation (academic unit, faculty) to the following address before Friday, October 10th: signatureuo@gmail.com.

We support this initiative and encourage you to sign the letter. Workload is an increasingly pressing issue in the academic world. Knowing that similar collective action in the fall of 2016 convinced the Administration to reverse its decision in regards to library funding, we are hoping this letter will help convince the Vice-President Academic and Provost that the current situation is detrimental to the University as a whole.

The APUO Executive Committee