U of W faculty association pens letter to board about ‘state of governance’

Concerns include loss of human resources, administrative instability

Gillian Brown, staff

The University of Winnipeg Faculty Association (UWFA) has sent a letter to the university’s board of regents, voicing concerns following an “inordinate number of resignations and other departures” from senior staff and administration, the letter reads.

Published in the Winnipeg Free Press the day after the board received it earlier this month, the letter pointed to multiple senior departures over the course of the past 18 months. Notable names listed included Chris Minaker, former associate vice-president engagement, Jennefer Nepinak, former associate vice-president Indigenous engagement and Jan Stewart, former associate vice-president academic, who joins the U of M as dean of the faculty of education on Aug. 1.

“UWFA council members cannot recall a time when so many senior administrators left in the middle of appointments, often with little or no notice,” the letter read.

It expressed concern with “the current state of governance and administrative instability.”

The letter asked the board to take a further look at the issue, and among other questions, ask, “Why have so many administrators and staff members left in the past 18 months?”

It pointed to the rarity of UWFA writing a letter to the board, but that now the association holds “deep concern” with the trend, along with the impact it may have on the ability of the university to operate now and in the future.

While the letter directly brings up the association’s concern over resignations that occurred over the course of the