A recently obtained ATIPP request reveals Cisco WebEx statistics, including usage by members of the Memorial University community since it was first used. There have been 183.6K total meetings (65.58 average meetings per host), 8.9M total meeting minutes (48.66 average minutes per meeting), 142.2K total video meetings (77.47% enable video), and 12.2K total recording meetings (6.65% meetings enable recording).

142K (77.47%) of meetings were video, 68.64K (37.39) of meetings enable sharing, 12.22K (6.65%) of meetings enable recording, and 1.12K (0.61%) enable breakout session.

7.95M (89.04%) of meeting minutes was video, 4.46M (49.92%) was sharing, 867.94K (9.72) was recording, and 133.34K (1.49%) was breakout session.

There were 2.8K total unique hosts and 953.6K total participants.

Most participants joined by meetings app, followed by web app, mobile meetings app, etc. 

See ATIPP below:

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

A recently obtained ATIPP request reveals that Memorial University has spent $194,850.64 on Cisco WebEx video conferencing service for all campuses. MUN’s Chief Information Officer made an initial purchase of $191,783.67 in May 2020 for 24.98 months ending in July 2022.

An additional purchase of $3,066.97 was made in September 2020 for 90 days to add capacity for 3000 more users but was not renewed.

See ATIPP below:

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

A recently obtained ATIPP reveals that Memorial University spent a total of $12,108.53 on relocation expenses of Provost Florentine Strzelczyk. $10,827.22 was spent on household removal, and $1,281.31 was spent on personal/family relocation.

See ATIPP file below:

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

On February 11, 2022, the Memorial University Faculty Association (MUNFA) issued a statement to their membership titled “The Premature Departure of Provost Strzelczyk.” They state that since MUN’s new Provost issued their notice of resignation, less than six months into her tenure, there have been discussions on social media and in the hallways, including reactions of “eye-rolling, disappointment, anger, and the spins (rapidly revolving doors and all that). MUNFA states that such responses are conditioned by academic staff members’ familiarity with the senior administrators’ tendency to quit before their term is up.

MUNFA acknowledges that some turnover is inevitable as people retire, get sick, etc. However, they asked the question, “what does it cost us when early departure becomes routine and ‘senior leadership’ positions are seen as waystations for a footloose managerial class with no long-term commitment to Memorial or the people who work and study here?”

MUNFA also takes issue with the hiring costs. As first reported by this website, the costs of the search for the new Provost came to a total of $60,990.89, with most of it spent on “professional fees” for the headhunting firm Odgers Berndtson. MUNFA calls on Odgers Berndtson to refund its consulting fees for the search. They also call on Dr. Strzelczyk to repay fifty percent of her relocation costs in accordance with university policy.

Additionally, MUNFA calls on the university to stop contracting out to search consultants. Instead, MUNFA suggests that the university has “the in-house capacity to run a search job.” MUNFA states, “Those firms profit every time they are asked to ‘support’ a new search. They may want to keep the turnover rate below an embarrassing threshold, but beyond that, they gain every time a search is launched.”

See MUNFA’s full statement below:

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

Through an ATIPP, the numbers were released on Memorial University staff and faculty who are on unpaid leave after not complying with the university’s vaccine policy. MUN’s Chief Risk Officer Greg McDougall provided updated numbers to the media on February 9, 2022.

Last week, MUN resumed in-person classes, but not everyone returned. McDougall said, “It’s been challenging because there’s been a lot of different viewpoints.”

Then McDougall stated, “To date, we have 11 staff who are off on unpaid leave for not meeting the vaccine requirement, and we have three faculty members. We figure it’s about 58 students not allowed on campus but still able to learn.”

McDougall said that the university worked with several students to help them enroll in online courses.

With regards to staff and faculty, he stated, “Replacing any member of our campus community is challenging, but we have been working around it in turns of finding options.”

Moreover, McDougall stated, “I think the province has been challenged in terms of how we live with Omicron where we gone from complete avoidance of COVID, and we did really well with that, to learning how to live with it.”

McDougall said, “The students’ feedback ultimately led to some decisions in terms of changing the add/drop date, offering easier access for accommodations for immunocompromised students.”

Finally, McDougall said that the university continues to hold vaccine booster clinics on campus and has not yet decided whether booster shots will become part of compliance.

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

The first picture is from April 22nd, 2016, and the second picture is from December 2nd, 2021.

2016: Grenfell students started to protest when then Finance Minister Cathy Bennett began her speech and presentation. They held up a banner in front of the presentation screen and chanted loudly. Minister Bennett shook their hands and thanked them. Those students were not impeded or penalized by the university.

2021: A student protester taped a sign to the podium that said “Stop Vianne: No to tuition hikes and out of control spending” and stood off to the side during the president’s speech. The university banned them from campus.

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

On February 8, 2022, Memorial University Dean of Science Travis Fridgen took part in a TikTok video in a lab on campus while not wearing a mask, violating MUN’s mask protocol. See the policy below:

“Memorial is updating the mask mandate with the requirement that a well-fitting, three-ply non-medical mask be worn at all times in classrooms, labs and in clinical and practicum settings.”

https://www.mun.ca/covid19/return-to-campus/

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

On January 11, 2021, this webpage published ATIPP information in the article MUN grants 88 exemptions to COVID-19 vaccines mandate for employees and students. Then, on February 6, 2022, this webpage published ATIPP information in the article MUN approves a total of two COVID-19 vaccine exemption requests. The information in both articles is correct. However, there is some confusion. The first article was data up to November 29, 2021, and the second article includes data starting in the Winter semester.

Below is an explanation received by MUN’s ATIPP Office from the university regarding the number of vaccine exemptions granted to date at the university:

“In the Fall semester individuals agreed to testing and signed an attestation that they meet the requirements for an exemption (the documentation for exemptions were never validated, because it was basically be vaccinated or tested). As the NL Public Sector Policy changed, and we updated our policy, testing was no longer an option and we went from exemptions through testing to needing to have documented accommodations in alignment with the procedure, and our employee and student policy on accommodations. So it shifted in January to vaccinated or accommodated (testing was not an option), and every accommodation request was reviewed.

So at that point the 88 exemptions, were told to resubmit for an accommodation, and they could not meet the standard for our policy hence why there were only two.”

Essentially, there were 88 exemptions given under the previous vaccine exemption policy. When the second ATIPP request was filed, the new policy was in effect, and thus there had only been two exemption requests approved to date because all previous exemptions had been cancelled.

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

A recently obtained ATIPP request reveals that Memorial University has placed 3 faculty members and 14 non-academic staff on unpaid leave for non-compliance with the COVID-19 vaccination policy. This includes one Marine Institute non-academic staff member and one Marine Institute instructor (NAPE). The data provided is up to January 19, 2022.

See ATIPP file below:

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

According to a recently obtained ATIPP request, Memorial University has granted a total of two COVID-19 vaccine exemption requests to faculty members. All other requests were denied, including three other faculty requests, 12 student requests, and three staff requests.

The most vaccine exemptions requested were on religious grounds, with a total of 15, 11 by students, two by staff, and two by faculty. There were seven requests on medical grounds, five made by students and two by faculty.

A total of 49 students were de-registered from at least one on-campus course for not meeting the requirements of MUN’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

ATIPP file below:

Matt Barter is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.