2022 Election Advocacy Toolkit

The 2022 Ontario Election presents an opportunity to elect a government that understands the important role Ontario’s universities play in advancing knowledge, educating tomorrow’s leaders, and strengthening our communities.

Ontario’s universities cannot afford another government that ignores faculty and academic librarians while implementing policies that undermine the foundations of the public postsecondary education system. These past four years have seen the current government threaten university funding, interfere in collective bargaining, strip rights from contract campus workers, cut student assistance, attempt to silence student voices, squander public funds on micro-credentials, ignore campus health and safety concerns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, most egregiously, refuse to provide funding to Laurentian University at the moment when its faculty and students most needed support.

These policy changes have threatened the core values and mission of our public institutions and represent a major shift in the capacity of Ontario’s university system to conduct innovative research and educate a new generation of students, especially those from modest and middle-income families.

Over the years, OCUFA has been a strong advocate for accessible, high-quality postsecondary education delivered through secure academic jobs by publicly funded, autonomous universities that are governed collegially through shared governance. During this election, we will be focused on electing a government that will take action in the following priority areas:

• Ensure that contract faculty are treated and paid fairly;
• Make education more accessible for students by replacing loans with grants; and
• Provide a robust and sustainable funding foundation for Ontario’s universities.

Electing this government will require ongoing advocacy in the lead up to the election, with coordinated lobbying and actions at the provincial and riding levels. Faculty and academic librarian associations have a key role to play in educating, organizing, and taking action to protect high-quality, public postsecondary education.

Working alongside students, staff, parents, and other allies, we can revitalize our public postsecondary education system and build a brighter future for the province of Ontario.

Sue Wurtele
President
Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations