While Brock’s student population continues to grow, the number of permanent faculty members has remained stagnant, leading to increased demands on individual professors to take on much more unscheduled teaching, primarily in the form of student supervisions. This increase in teaching responsibility has made it more difficult for faculty to focus on research.
In order to help increase research capacity, BUFA is pushing to make permanent a guaranteed bank of course releases to recognize significant levels of research and creative activity and higher than usual workloads related to student supervisions and other forms of unscheduled teaching.
In the last round of bargaining, BUFA secured a pilot course release program that was met with resounding success and positive reviews from our members. It is time to make this program permanent.
Research-related investments are key to building a better Brock. Investing in the expansion of research capacity is an investment in Brock’s students, Brock’s academic staff, and Brock’s reputation as a comprehensive research-intensive university.