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Increase your persuasiveness at the OCUFA Status of Women Committee workshop

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Registration is now open for the OCUFA Status of Women Committee Workshop, designed to academic women build their leadership skills. The event will be held in Toronto on Friday, April 29, 2016.

Building on the success of last year’s workshop, Shari Graydon will again be facilitating a small, interactive workshop, this time focusing on the theme of “Increasing your Persuasiveness”.

The ability to convince other people – to approve your idea, follow your leadership, implement your plan – has an enormous impact on your success. This interactive workshop offers research-proven approaches, instructive case studies and hands-on practice in applying the tools to your own persuasive challenges.

Of interest to academic women in a wide range of fields, this workshop will equip participants with a range of skills – using a 5-minute strategic planning tool in advance of high stakes communications, identifying effective persuasion principles, and increasing impact by combining emotional and rational appeals.

Registration is $75 for tenured/tenure-stream faculty association members, and $25 for contract faculty association members. You can sign up online on the OCUFA Website. If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Erica Rayment at 416-306-6032 or erayment@ocufa.on.ca.

Only a few spaces remain for the annual Worldviews Lecture

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Only a few spaces are left for the annual Worldviews Lecture on Media and Higher Education, featuring Rajani Naidoo, Chair in Higher Education Management and Director of the International Centre for Higher Education Management at the University of Bath. Professor Naidoo will deliver a lecture titled, “Beyond the Competition Fetish: Higher Education for Global Wellbeing.”

Prof. Naidoo contends that universities everywhere have a competition fetish. There is a modern-day magical belief that competition will provide the solutions to all of the unsolved problems of higher education, protect against risk, and drive up quality. The term fetish is used to describe an irrational belief in the quasi-magical powers of competition and the need to transform relations between people into relationships between things. This year’s Worldviews Lecture on Higher Education will explore the varieties of competition in higher education; the material, social and psychological animators of competition; and the consequences of these processes on global wellbeing. The view that there is no alternative to competition will be countered by highlighting global wellbeing trailblazers and by introducing potential new visions for higher education and alternative ways in which it can be organized.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Ground Floor of the OISE Library, University of Toronto. There is no cost to attend, but spaces are extremely limited. The lecture will also be webcast live for those unable to be at the lecture in person.

Information about the lecture, registration, and accessing the webcast can be found at:  Worldviewsconference.com.

The Worldviews annual lecture is a spinoff of the popular Worldviews Conferences on Media and Higher Education, which have been organized by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, OISE/University of Toronto, the Washington-based Inside Higher Ed and the London-based University World News. Academica Group has also joined us as a sponsor.

2016 Federal Budget invests in university research, students

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The 2016 Federal Budget was released on March 22, 2016. It contains significant new funding for Canada’s research councils and university research generally. University revenues are most affected by provincial investments and policies, but this federal budget is largely good news for Ontario institutions. Like its Ontario counterpart released earlier this year, the Trudeau government’s first budget also invests in expanded grants for students.

The 2016 Federal Budget includes an additional $95 million a year to Canada’s research councils: $30 million for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), $30 million for the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and $16 million for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This represents a nearly 52 per cent increase in yearly research council funding, to a total of $141 million.

Other research measures announced in the Budget are:

  • Two new Canada Excellence Research Chairs in clean technology, worth $20 million over eight years
  • $14 million over two years to the Mitacs Globalink program
  • A $237 million endowment for Genome Canada
  • $12 million over two years to the Stem Cell Network
  • $50 million over five years to support the Perimeter Institute at the University of Waterloo

Like the 2016 Ontario Budget, released on Feb. 25, 2016, the 2016 Federal Budget essentially reorganizes existing student financial aid provisions to provide increased up-front grants. Under the budget proposals, Canada Student Grants will increase by 50 per cent. For a low-income student, the grant amount will rise to $3,000 from $2,000. This change will cost approximately $1.53 billion, paid for largely by the elimination of The cost of the existing education and textbook tax credits. Similar changes were made in the Ontario Budget; indeed, the Ontario changes were dependent on the measures announced in the Federal fiscal plan.

The Budget contains some additional measures of note, including a “Post-Secondary Industry and Co-operative Placement Initiative” that will provide $73 million over four years to support co-op education in STEM fields. The Budget also makes a small investment – $15 million – in support for Aboriginal students in PSE.

Over the coming weeks, OCUFA will crunch the numbers to see how the new research investments will change the R&D funding picture at Ontario’s universities. Watch this space for further analysis.

UOIT faculty reach tentative settlement

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On Thursday, March 17, 2016, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Faculty Association (UOITFA) reached a tentative agreement with the employer. The university administration and UOITFA released this joint statement:

“The University and the UOIT Faculty Association are pleased to advise that they have reached a tentative agreement. Details of the agreement will remain confidential until both parties have conducted their ratification processes, after which further details will be available. All classes and activities at the University will proceed as scheduled.”

The university’s Board of Governors ratified the new deal on March 18th. UOITFA members voted on the deal on March 21st and 22nd. Results of the vote were not available as of this writing, and will be included in a future issue of OCUFA Report.

Access to what? OCUFA’s full analysis of the 2016 Ontario Budget

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Today, OCUFA is pleased to release its full analysis of the 2016 Ontario Budget. Access to What? recognizes the important changes that were made to student financial aid, but highlights how the lack of public investment in university operating budgets is undermining the student experience.

As the report notes:

While improving access to postsecondary education is a welcome policy goal, it is important to recognize that the 2016 Budget makes no additional real public investment in university operating budgets. Our universities are already the lowest funded in Canada on a per-student basis, and this situation will continue to worsen. This will have predictable effects on the quality of education at Ontario universities. Class sizes will continue to rise without new funds to support full-time faculty hiring. The number of precariously employed professors will also grow, trapping many in insecure, unsupported positions. While the government has moved to increase access for low-income students, the worsening financial environment begs the question, “access to what?”

OCUFA’s budget analysis explores the implications of under-investment in universities in length:

Considered on a per student basis (and this is per “eligible” student, as defined by government), inflation-adjusted operating allocations from the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (MTCU) has been falling since 2008-09. This year it is on the cusp of being 11 per cent lower than eight years ago. If enrolment projections from universities’ strategic mandate agreements and current patterns hold, per-student funding in 2018-19 could drop to 19 per cent lower than 2008-09. That’s a significant loss in revenue.

OCUFA continues to call for an increase to per-student funding levels at Ontario universities, to ensure that when students – especially those who have been helped by new financial aid arrangements – arrive on campus, they will have access to an exceptional learning experience. You can download the full OCUFA budget analysis here.

Registration now open for OCUFA Status of Women Committee Workshop

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OCUFA’s Status of Women Committee is pleased to announce its latest Workshop, intended to build the leadership skills of academic women. The event will be held in Toronto on Friday, April 29, 2016.

Building on the success of last year’s workshop, Shari Graydon will again be facilitating a small, interactive workshop, this time focusing on the theme of “Increasing your Persuasiveness”.

The ability to convince other people – to approve your idea, follow your leadership, implement your plan – has an enormous impact on your success. This interactive workshop offers research-proven approaches, instructive case studies and hands-on practice in applying the tools to your own persuasive challenges.

Of interest to academic women in a wide range of fields, this workshop will equip participants with a range of skills – using a 5-minute strategic planning tool in advance of high stakes communications, identifying effective persuasion principles, and increasing impact by combining emotional and rational appeals.

Registration is $75 for tenured/tenure-stream faculty association members, and $25 for contract faculty association members. You can sign up online on the OCUFA Website. If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Erica Rayment at 416-306-6032 or erayment@ocufa.on.ca.

New collective agreement ratified at York

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On February 25, 2016, the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) ratified a new collective collective agreement with their employer. The three-year deal contains important enhancements to equity, particularly for transgender and Aboriginal faculty members.

The deal establishes a new Transgender Health Fund, worth $30,000 a year. This provision provides support to transgender faculty members by helping to cover their additional health and wellness costs.

The collective agreement also creates an incentive program for Aboriginal faculty hiring. Under the terms of the program, at least four, and as many as six, new Aboriginal faculty members will be hired over the life of the deal. These appointments will be in addition to new positions authorized under the regular annual hiring exercise. Academic units will be invited to submit proposals describing their recruitment strategy and how the proposed Aboriginal appointments align with the unit’s academic needs and priorities.

In addition, a new affirmative action threshold was established for visible minorities. Departments with fewer than 20 per cent visible minorities will need to meet the threshold when hiring.

The new agreement contains yearly salary increases and an increase to the progress-through-the-ranks amount. Also, faculty with teaching loads of more than two full-year courses a year are now able to apply to have their load reduced to two through a research release program.

For more information, please visit the YUFA website.

Explore the university “competition fetish” at the free annual Worldviews Lecture

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Registration is now open for the annual Worldviews Lecture on Media and Higher Education, featuring Rajani Naidoo, Chair in Higher Education Management and Director of the International Centre for Higher Education Management at the University of Bath. Professor Naidoo will deliver a lecture titled, “Beyond the Competition Fetish: Higher Education for Global Wellbeing.”

Universities everywhere have a competition fetish. There is a modern-day magical belief that competition will provide the solutions to all of the unsolved problems of higher education, protect against risk, and drive up quality. The term fetish is used to describe an irrational belief in the quasi-magical powers of competition and the need to transform relations between people into relationships between things. This year’s Worldviews Lecture on Higher Education will explore the varieties of competition in higher education; the material, social and psychological animators of competition; and the consequences of these processes on global wellbeing. The view that there is no alternative to competition will be countered by highlighting global wellbeing trailblazers and by introducing potential new visions for higher education and alternative ways in which it can be organized.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Ground Floor of the OISE Library, University of Toronto. There is no cost to attend, but spaces are extremely limited. The lecture will also be webcast live for those unable to attend.

Information about the lecture, registration, and accessing the webcast can be found at:  Worldviewsconference.com.

The Worldviews annual lecture is a spinoff of the popular Worldviews Conferences on Media and Higher Education, which have been organized by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, OISE/University of Toronto, the Washington-based Inside Higher Ed and the London-based University World News. Academica Group has also joined us as a sponsor.

“Challenging Precarious Academic Work” conference materials are now online

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Presentation slides and complete audio recordings of every session from OCUFA’s “Challenging precarious academic work” conference are now available online. People who missed out on the conference the first time around can access and download the complete conference proceedings.

The conference was a unique meeting of activists, researchers, and policymakers all interested in ending precarious work in our universities. Speakers came from Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, providing the opportunity to analyze the current situation from an international perspective and to articulate new strategies for building solidarity and ensuring good academic jobs for all.

In addition to four excellent panel sessions, you can also download the conference’s three provocative keynotes: Andre Turcotte’s survey findings on public perceptions of precarious academic work in Ontario; Guy Standing’s interrogation of the social structures and assumptions surrounding precarity; and Karen Foster’s look at the generational impacts of precarious work.

What does the 2016 Ontario Budget do for university funding?

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The new up-front grant program for Ontario students is grabbing headlines, but what else does the 2016 Ontario Budget do for universities? When it comes to operating funding, the picture continues to darken.

Just as it has for the past four years, the level of operating grants to universities will barely change. And in the final year of the current three-year horizon, operating grants will actually drop. After inflation in (as project in Budget 2016) is taken into account, operating grants will have fallen for five consecutive years. They will be nearly eight per cent lower than they were in 2013-14.
Considered on a per student basis (and this is per “eligible” student, as defined by government), inflation-adjusted operating allocations from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) has been falling since 2008-09. This year alone it is on the cusp of being 11 per cent lower than eight years ago. If enrolment projections from universities’ strategic mandate agreements and current patterns hold, per student funding in 2018-19 could be 19 per cent lower. That’s a significant loss in revenue.

The provincial government might be counting on lower enrolment to mitigate against this decline. Fewer students will mean the drop in operating funding will be less acute. In the past, government has also allowed universities to make up some of the lost public funding with increases in tuition. While the financial aid changes announced in the 2016 Budget lessen the psychological and up-front financial impact of high educational costs, these benefits can be swiftly undercut if tuition fees continue to rise.

The province’s tuition fee policy is up for review next year. To ensure the financial aid changes remain effective, tuition fees will need to be controlled. Without recourse to higher fees – which are undesirable anyway – universities will need new public investment to protect educational quality.

MTCU is also consulting around a new strategy for attracting international students to Ontario. It will be very important to ensure that universities do not use international enrolment as a way of subsidizing their programs in the face of declining public funding.

Professors welcome investments in student access, caution that Ontario still needs to invest in universities

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Professors and academic librarians across Ontario are welcoming changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) to make higher education more accessible to low-income students, announced in today’s Budget. At the same time, they are reminding the government that new investment in universities is urgently needed to ensure that that every student has access to a high-quality learning experience.

“The new Ontario Student Grant (OSG) is an important step in helping students from low-income backgrounds access the many individual, social, and economic benefits of a university education,” said Judy Bates, President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA). “Access is critically important, but we also need to ask: Access to what? Universities need adequate public resources to provide quality education for every student who walks through the door.”

Ontario currently provides the lowest level of per-student public funding to universities in Canada. Under projections released in the 2016 Ontario Budget, this situation will only get worse. When inflation is taken into account, funding for universities will actually decrease over the next three years, threatening educational quality.

Conversely, renewed public investment in quality would allow universities to hire more full-time professors and offer small, interactive classes, while creating cutting-edge classrooms, laboratories, and libraries. In addition, precarious employment is on the rise at Ontario’s campuses, and more financial resources would help promote good jobs for all. New investment is also needed to stop the unsustainable rise in Ontario’s tuition fees – already the highest in Canada – and make sure the financial aid reforms launched today are effective.

“It is encouraging to see the Government of Ontario invest in students,” added Bates. “Now we need to invest in universities to make sure those students – and every citizen of Ontario – continues to benefit from world-class higher education institutions. The Budget reiterated the government’s plan to reform the university funding model, and this is an ideal opportunity to address chronic underfunding.”

Nominations now open for OCUFA Teaching and Academic Librarianship Awards

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Every year, OCUFA recognizes outstanding teachers and academic librarians in Ontario universities through its Teaching and Academic Librarianship Awards. We are pleased to announce that nominations for the 2015-16 awards are now open. Up to seven awards are presented annually.

Teaching, in the context of the OCUFA awards, embraces virtually all levels of instruction – graduate and undergraduate teaching, continuing education, and faculty development. Similarly, proficiency in teaching may extend well beyond the classroom, the laboratory or the faculty member’s office. Activities such as course design, curriculum development, organization of teaching programs and other significant forms of leadership are often important contributions to the instructional process.

Academic librarianship includes all aspects of librarianship that contribute to the scholarly achievement of all members of the university community. Activities such as development and delivery of services, provision of educational materials, collection development and management and other contributions to academic librarianship are important to the intellectual functioning of the university.

Nominations are invited from individuals; informal groups of faculty, students, or both; local faculty associations; faculty or college councils; university committees concerned with teaching and learning; local student councils; departments; alumni; and any campus group with an interest in teaching.

Nominations should include a covering nomination form, a nominator’s brief, and sufficient evidence, from as many sources as possible, to demonstrate the outstanding nature of the candidate’s work.

The deadline for nominations is May 27, 2016. We request that all submissions be uploaded onto OCUFA’s secured online submission system as a single PDF file at http://awards.ocufa.on.ca. For more information and questions, please contact OCUFA at 416 979 2117 or ocufa@ocufa.on.ca.

McMaster professor wins OCUFA’s Award of Distinction for improving working conditions for academic women

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Michelle Dion, a professor at McMaster University has won the 2015 Status of Women Award of Distinction, presented by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA).

The award, sponsored by OCUFA’s Status of Women Committee, recognizes women who have improved the lives and working conditions of academic women and, by extension, their colleagues, families, and friends.

“Michelle’s dedication to equity coupled with her exceptional research skills has made a real difference for academic women at McMaster, not to mention across Ontario and Canada,” said Helene Cummins, Chair of the Status of Women Committee. “Her work on the identification and correction of a gender pay gap among faculty at McMaster has made headlines, and improved the working conditions of her colleagues. She is thus a natural choice for this honour.”

Prof. Dion played an instrumental role in the development of a pioneering gender pay equity study at McMaster University which led to significant improvements to the pay of academic women at the institution. Her work established the principle that gender-based pay inequity will not be tolerated, and that periodic reviews of gender pay equity should be an ongoing activity at every university.

“OCUFA is committed to advancing and protecting the personal, professional and academic interests of women in the academy,” said Judy Bates, President of OCUFA. “That is why we are so proud to bestow this honor upon such an exceptional advocate for academic women.”

Prof. Dion will receive her award at a ceremony hosted by OCUFA in Toronto on February 20, 2016.

Laurier professor honoured with Lorimer Award for outstanding work on behalf of Ontario’s faculty

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The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) is pleased to announce the 2015 winner of its prestigious Lorimer Award. This honour recognizes individuals who have worked to protect and promote the interests of Ontario’s academic staff through collective bargaining.

This year’s winner is Bill Salatka, from Wilfrid Laurier University.

“Bill’s ability to make the most confusing university financial statements clear and understandable is legendary,” said Judy Bates, President of OCUFA. “This, coupled with his generous commitment to expanding the financial analytical skills of his colleagues across the province makes him a natural choice for the Lorimer Award.”

The Lorimer Award was established in honour of Doug and Joyce Lorimer, who were instrumental in advancing faculty association collective bargaining in Ontario. Winners of the award all share the Lorimers’ commitment to advancing Ontario’s university system through strong faculty associations and fair collective agreements.

“OCUFA is extremely proud to recognize the exceptional individuals who safeguard the aspirations of Ontario’s academic staff,” said Bates. “High-quality education rest on good working conditions for Ontario’s professors and academic librarians. Through the Lorimer award, we recognize the outstanding work that ensures every faculty member has the rights and resources to be great.”

Professor Salatka will receive his award at a ceremony in Toronto on February 20, 2016.

OCUFA meets with Ontario’s Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee

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On Friday, February 12th representatives from four OCUFA member associations met with the provincial government’s Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee to discuss measures that have been taken in the university sector to address the gender wage gap. This meeting built on the written brief that OCUFA submitted to the committee on January 15th.

The Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee was struck in April 2015 and tasked with undertaking broad public consultations and developing recommendations to create a strategy to close the gender wage gap in Ontario. The Steering Committee put out a call for written submissions, has hosted public town hall meetings across the province, and has been meeting with key stakeholders to hear about the specific challenges and successes that organizations have faced in addressing the gender wage gap in their workplaces.

On January 15, OCUFA submitted a written brief to the Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee. The submission noted that while the gender wage gap among university faculty has been slowly shrinking over the past thirty years, women nonetheless continue to earn around 90 per cent of what their male colleagues earn. Moreover, women are overrepresented in the ranks of poorly paid, precariously employed contract faculty members. The OCUFA submission also highlights the salary anomaly review process, which exists at many but not all universities across the province. This process has been key to addressing the gender wage gap in the university sector.

Experiences from five salary review processes reviewed in the submission suggest that the availability of central administration funding (rather than funding from the departmental or faculty level) is crucial for ensuring that salary reviews are effective in addressing the gender wage gap. Transparency in the salary review process, through a model that allows for joint employer/faculty oversight, is also key, as is the role of faculty associations in advocating for these kinds of reviews. Based on the experience from the university sector, the report outlines promising directions for the government to consider in addressing the gender wage gap. These include government support for the expansion of the salary review process and improving the terms and conditions of employment for contract faculty, among others.

In the meeting on February 12, faculty association representatives focused on their university’s experience with the salary review process and its effect on the gender wage gap. The discussion ranged from technical details of model specification, to challenges in accessing data, to the importance of joint faculty/employer oversight of the process. Of particular interest were the importance of ensuring transparency in starting salaries. This would allow the salary review process to address the gender wage gap in an enduring way, by providing university administrations with a clear model for determining starting salaries based on the regression calculations from previous anomaly reviews.

OCUFA welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the steering committee’s consultations and looks forward to reading their recommendations for how Ontario can eliminate the gender wage gap.