TUFA Newsletter
Reminders:
New Term Events: Durham and Peterborough
Join your TUFA colleagues for lunch and a chance to connect, welcome the new term, and meet new faces on campus.
Durham: Tuesday, September 29, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Atrium of Building A.
Peterborough: Wednesday, October 7, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Student Centre.
Both events are open to TUFA faculty and librarians. Bring a colleague and you will each receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win two tickets to an upcoming production at Peterborough Theatre Guild or Oshawa Little Theatre. Find TUFA’s Communications Officer, Kodie Trahan-Guay, at the event to get your raffle tickets.
Please click here to RSVP.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day to honour residential school survivors, remember the children who never returned home, and recognize the ongoing impacts of the residential school system. The Canadian Labour Congress has developed resources highlighting actions unions and workers can take to advance reconciliation and support the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. Members are encouraged to explore and share these resources and consider how we can continue working toward reconciliation in our workplaces, unions and communities, not only on September 30, but throughout the year.
Materials:
Guide: Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action: Union and Worker Solidarity
Preview of CLC Statement for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Trent will mark National Truth and Reconciliation Day with events and activities at both the Peterborough and Durham campuses focused on learning, reflection, remembrance and taking action toward reconciliation. Members of the Trent community are invited to participate in these opportunities and to use the day as a chance to deepen their understanding of the history and ongoing experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and the continued work of reconciliation.
Peterborough
- 6:30 a.m. Sunrise Ceremony, Champlain College Fire Pit
- 9:30 a.m. Campus Ceremony and moment of silence, Champlain College Fire Pit
- 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon Bridge Chalking, Stephenson/LEC Bridge
- 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Information table and learning activities, Lower Bata Podium
- 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. First Peoples House of Learning will hold space and provide supports for Indigenous students in the Ernest & Florence Benedict Gathering Space. Lunch will be provided.
- 12:00 noon Three Sisters Lunch, Gzowski College Quad. While supplies last.
- 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Quilting Circle in support of Quilts for Survivors, The Trend, Traill College. No sewing experience is necessary, and all materials will be supplied. For more information, contact [email protected].
Durham
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
- 11:00 a.m. – Campus Ceremony, Medicine Garden*
- 11:30 a.m. – Three Sisters Lunch, Building A Atrium. While supplies last.
- 11:30 a.m. – Lecture with Memee Lavell-Harvard, Building A Atrium
- 12:30 p.m. – Community activities including beading, Orange Shirt support messages and rock painting, Medicine Garden*
*Weather permitting. Alternate location: Building A Atrium.
For a full schedule of events please click here.
Grievance Committee
Grievance Officer’s Corner
Hope everyone’s September has been improbably smooth and that your own personal watermains are sturdy, intact, and unobtrusive. Here at the grievance desk we’re investigating a few problems that suggest wider patterns of issues for TUFA members, and we wanted to ask if you also have a tale of woe to tell:
1) It’s really hard to get a new computer around here. To some degree, this is a universal truth right now (so-called AI companies keep buying up all the chips) but there are signs that things are perhaps especially bad with our contractual computer replacement program. The way it’s supposed to work is that every four years we can apply for a new computer via a somewhat janky TOPdesk form. You get $1930.88 to spend on a Dell PC or a Mac with Trent imaging, and if you want to upgrade past that price point, you cover it out of your own research/professional expense funds. However, there are at least two ways this can go wrong:
You might not get ‘enough’ computer: The base models are really, really basic. I ended up buying a laptop that struggled to do basic tasks and I had to send the thing back. Cheap doesn’t mean functional in this domain. The TOPdesk form, also, can’t accommodate every kind of spec you might be seeking.
You might not get a computer… at least for a very long while: We’ve heard of many members sitting through lengthy waits, and perhaps not entirely because of the aforementioned chip delays. This is understandably frustrating. Communication between IT and TUFA members also isn’t great, and sometimes vendors will come bugging TUFA members for payment. That sucks. We don’t know why it’s happening.
All this results in a situation where a lot of TUFA members have been avoiding the computer renewal program altogether, using their own research funds to purchase work computers just so they don’t have to deal with this mess. That’s not ideal because this leaves almost $2000 of contractual benefits on the table, at the expense of funds you could be spending on your research. We’ve also seen some members make purchases with their own credit cards, and retroactively try to get that expense reimbursed. There’s no clear way to do that and we’re sorting through the mess presently. We don’t recommend giving that a try for now.
If you have had computer renewal frustrations (or if you’re past the point of frustration and are simply avoiding the program altogether because of the low esteem you hold for the process) please reach out. We want to collect your story in order to paint a comprehensive picture to the administration and push to reset a broken process.
2) It’s hard to know what kinds of repairs and maintenance work should be covered by TUFA members or departments vs. paid for by the administration. Facilities does a ton of work keeping Trent running, with fewer and fewer staff to do it. They’ve traditionally run on a ‘cost recovery’ basis, which means that if I decide that I need to paint my lab yellow for ‘good vibes’ or more seriously to rewire a room in order to fit a cool piece of equipment that’s just for my research, they’ll do that work for me, but they’ll charge my research account for the cost of that work. Fair enough—that isn’t something my department or the university itself should rightly pay for. Conversely, if there’s something that clearly benefits more than just me or my academic unit—that is so basic that it’s part of the business of being a functional building—the bill stays with Facilities. But that’s the ideal case. There’s two parts of the puzzle we’re pondering here:
It’s frequently unclear what kinds of expenses should fall on TUFA members vs. Trent itself. There are a lot of edge cases (for example, do you need a door? Is that a luxury?) and inconsistencies in how that work might be costed from one day to the next. There are also situations where members are being asked to pay for expenses that are clearly basic facilities questions (replacing moldy carpets, for instance).
The cost recovery charges seem to be going up. And, sure, we live in inflationary times, and the reduced number of Facilities staff means that more and more of this work is being contracted out rather than being done in-house, but a lot of members have been blinking lately at the quotes they’re getting and puzzling over how those numbers have been calculated.
If you have a confusing Facilities retrofit/repair story to share, please do. We want to get a sense of what kinds of problems are out there and whether some things are things are indeed getting worse.
You can reach the grievance desk by emailing me, your chief grievance officer, at [email protected]. It’s always good to CC the main TUFA email ([email protected]) too for ease of record keeping. All our chats are confidential, and all leads are appreciated.
Anne Pasek
TUFA Chief Grievance Officer
Community
Music Through the Decades: Celebrating 70 Years of Community
TUFA is pleased to support the Community Counselling and Resource Centre (CCRC) as it celebrates 70 years of serving the Peterborough community. CCRC’s Music Through the Decades celebration takes place Friday, October 16, at 6 p.m. at the Canadian Canoe Museum. The evening will feature live music by Jeanne Truax, cocktail-style hors d’oeuvres, access to the Canadian Canoe Museum, and an opportunity to connect with community members and supporters. TUFA is contributing $1,000 to support this event and CCRC’s work.
Members who are interested in attending can purchase tickets through CCRC. You can also support CCRC by purchasing a 50/50 raffle ticket for a chance to win while helping support its Professional Counselling and Housing Resource Centre programs. Purchase a 50/50 ticket here.
Trent
Spoon-it-Forward at the Seasoned Spoon
The Seasoned Spoon is once again offering its Spoon-it-Forward program, which helps make meals more accessible to students and others in the Trent community who may be experiencing food insecurity.
Through the program, Spoon members can purchase $10 meals that can then be made available to someone who may need some extra assistance. The Seasoned Spoon also offers Pay What You Can Soup on Fridays, providing another accessible food option for students.
These initiatives are part of ongoing efforts across the university to help address food insecurity. Thursday morning College Breakfasts also provide complimentary take-away items outside the College offices. The Trent Fund and College Cabinets provide financial support for the College Breakfast program across the colleges.
Grants
Upcoming Research Grant Deadlines
Trent’s Office of Research & Innovation has several internal funding opportunities available to researchers. Upcoming deadlines include:
Research Development Grant: December 10, 2026, at 4:30 p.m.
Knowledge Mobilization Research Grant: December 10, 2026, at 4:30 p.m.
Trent Durham Dean’s Research Award: January 30, 2027
Institutional Capacity Building Grant: Open year-round with no deadline.
Researchers should review the eligibility requirements and begin preparing their proposal, budget/budget justification and CV in advance.
For more information and application details, visit the Office of Research & Innovation.