Dear Unit 2 members,
Recently the benefits committee voted to implement the following change to the Professional Development Fund (PDF) upon receiving several suggestions from the membership. This expansion is due to gains that were secured through our most recent round of collective bargaining and would not have been possible without the support of the membership.
Starting September 1st 2022, the committee will begin accepting PDF applications for software and limited tech items. These items will be considered on a case by case basis by the committee in order to ensure fair and equal access to the fund. While we will consider each case individually on the merits of its own claim, and cannot consider hardware items such as laptops, items such as HDMI cables and stylus pens are an expense that has a reasonable chance to be approved. If you have questions about a specific claim, we would encourage you to reach out to our benefits officer prior to purchasing the item. In order to claim these items members will be required to
a) Certify that they have first reached out to their respective departments requesting access to the required items. Members will be required to fill out the following form FOUND HERE detailing the steps they took to access these resources. Failure to do so may result in a claim being rejected by the committee. (maybe insert here some language citing collective agreement for info purposes)
b) Provide a detailed explanation highlighting there relevance to their professional development. Failure to do so may result in a delay or refusal of an application.
Please note, certain Tech i.e. Laptops, tablets etc. and Software i.e. Grammarly etc. will remain ineligible at this time. The full list of ineligible items can be found here (https://cupe3906.org/files/2018/02/Ineligibility-PDF-Application-Updated-2018-1.pdf). Stylus pens, which have always been included, will remain items included under the fund.
The total individual entitlement under the funds remains the same. That is, Sessional Faculty are eligible for $200 per 3 unit course to a maximum of $1000 per academic year. Subsequent sections of individual courses taught by Sessional Faculty will be eligible for a Professional Development award of $100 for the first additional section taught and $50 for each subsequent section taught (up to the maximum yearly entitlement).
Hourly Rated Music Faculty (HRSMF) eligibility will be calculated according to the unit calculations in Article 20.02 of the Unit 2 Collective Agreement (i.e., 1 student = 1 unit, or 1 Special Studies in Chamber Music = 1 unit). (For every 3 units taught, HRSMF will receive $200; subsequent units/students will be prorated.)
If you have questions about the eligibility of an item and would like clarification prior to purchase please contact Benefits@cupe3906.org