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Dear SSPHR colleagues,</div>
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Happy September 1st!</div>
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I hope that despite what I know has been a (uniquely, in some cases) busy summer, you've had some time to rest, relax, and enjoy some of our (often!) beautiful weather. </div>
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I want to start by giving a huge shout out to our associate directors, our area heads, and our amazing staff who have been so busy over the summer in terms of getting SSPHR off the ground (and building on the foundation left by so many of you, and in particular
your department chairs, in advance of July 1st). We’ve had our challenges, notably around staff vacancies as we work to hire and bring our team up to its full size. But I am happy to note that we are almost there and staffed up, and we’ll send out some information
once that’s complete. In the meantime, we all worked as a team across SSPHR with some help from our friends in the Arts Undergraduate Office too, and I hope we can all take a deep breath that
<u>we made it.</u></div>
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You may have seen the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ottawa-taps-64-leading-scientists-and-scholars-to-bolster-canadian/" data-outlook-id="ee57cb80-3146-4a91-9523-a6978b3f5e01">
national</a> (and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/world/canada/canada-universities-hire-us-researchers.html" data-outlook-id="027ef2b3-6fe0-46b1-82d3-eb116abb8e14">
international</a>) coverage of the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs (formerly the “Impact+ Research Chairs”) and the scholars coming to Canada. A special shoutout that SSPHR is home to one of them! Professor Talia Bettcher started today
<a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/school-social-political-historical-research/news/welcome-talia-bettcher" data-outlook-id="c3cb8ccf-a231-4995-b549-4f95f20a8498">
in our Philosophy area</a>, so please say hi if you see Talia!</div>
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A few other updates from my end.</div>
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<b>Governance</b></div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">For our first School Council meeting in September (September 25th at 2:30pm), I will discuss our proposed approach to Annual Performance Reviews (APR) for faculty members. A few points:</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">The plan for this cycle is to use each Area’s previous departmental addendum, and combine them together to serve as SSPHR’s performance addendum for this cycle. </div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">Your area heads will be in discussion with you all about the approval process and some required revisions to performance addenda for this cycle. The big change is that Faculty Relations Committee has recommended
that such addenda explicitly state what constitutes outstanding (i.e. “2.0”) or less-than-satisfactory (i.e. less than 1.0) performance. </div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">When we select our School APR committee, the UW/FAUW MoA limits us to director plus five members. I will walk you through our approach to ensure representation and proper contextualization for these files, which
will involve both formal representation on the committee as well as framing comments from your area heads. </div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">None of this is settled and I think best discussed at our first meeting as a School. However, I know not all of you can make this meeting, so I will also distribute material in advance for discussion and awareness. </div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">The area heads, associate directors, and myself have been discussing how we will arrange the School Tenure, Permanence, and Promotion Committee (STPPC) for the 27/28 cycle (the 26/27 cycle is running with the
departmental committees that were established before the merger). We have time, and I want to get this right, so I am currently working to understand the realm of possibilities under Policy 77.</div>
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<b>Operations</b></div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">I want to stay positive, so I won’t say much about Workday, other than to say that we ALL know that this cycle of TA offerings was not ideal and caused stress to our graduate students. It is far from a silver
lining to note that this was the case across the whole University and not just an SSPHR or even Arts thing. We have all passed our experiences up the line and if your students or colleagues are running into trouble, let us know.</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">One genuine upside is that every day I learn about a new button in Workday that I did not know existed. But then sometimes you open up Workday, and there’s a brand-new interface, and then you get to learn it
all again. It’s like my comps all over again. Anyways, no more Workday in this email. </div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">Thanks for all of your help with submitting instructor constraints forms as we schedule W27. I remember when 2027 seemed like the future and I am sad that it is only four months away.</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">Space moves for staff continue. We’re almost there! Once we’re settled, we can send an email out with everybody’s coordinates.</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">Mail rooms! The volume of print mail has precipitously declined over the last few years, and Central Stores is consolidating service points. The plan:</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">Political Science and Philosophy: a shared point on the third floor of HH;</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">Anthropology, Sociology/Legal Studies, and Religious Studies: a shared point on the second floor of PAS;</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">History: no change as they are alone on the first floor of HH;</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">Classical Studies: joining SCCH’s point on the second floor of ML.</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">A few thoughts on this:</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">This does require some new keys and maybe some furniture moves (sorry again about your suddenly vanished mailboxes, Anthropology, I think they are on their way back), and as with everything at UW, requires more
coordination than you would imagine. So stay tuned.</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">My brother works for Canada Post so when I explained the falling volume of mail and the problems it was causing Central Stores, he glared at me.</div>
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<div role="presentation" style="direction: ltr;">As we get into September, I will begin setting up 1:1 meetings with faculty members. I’ll be starting with faculty colleagues who are pre-permanence/pre-tenure, but I will give you all a few weeks to settle in.</div>
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I said “a few updates” and then I ended up writing an essay. If only my academic writing flowed so effortlessly. </div>
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I think I will close it there and for those of you teaching next week, <i>good luck</i> with your first classes. The first-day butterflies will go away. For our staff colleagues heading into the September rush, thank you in advance for getting all of us here
in SSPHR through it. </div>
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I try to wander around the halls of SSPHR at least once or twice a week, if only to get some steps, and if you find yourself up on the third floor of HH (I am in HH 316) do come say hi.</div>
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Ian</div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Ian Milligan </b><br>
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">Director, School of Social, Political, and Historical Research</span></div>
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Professor of History</div>
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