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Faculty ratify tentative agreement at Nipissing

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The Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA) is pleased to announce that the tentative agreement reached between the Full-Time Academic Bargaining Unit (FASBU) and the Employer on November 26, 2015, has been ratified by the bargaining unit with 93 per cent voting in favour of the deal.

“From the outset we knew that this was going to be a really tough negotiation, said NUFA President Susan Srigley. “The most important factor in fighting against clawbacks and making some gains was the unity of our Members. They gave us the strength to get the Employer back to the table to make a fair deal.”

Some of the highlights of the four-year agreement include:

  • The creation of a special commission on Governance to examine Nipissing University’s governance structures in relationship to the best practices at other Canadian universities. This joint commission will include Board, Faculty and Student representation.
  • 12 additional weeks of maternity leave top-up for birth mothers.
  • Improved tenure and promotion language, privacy language, health and safety language.
  • Improved benefits for retirees, including an increase to their health care spending accounts.
  • A phased-in retirement plan.
  • Preservation of language that protects the terms and conditions of limited term contract faculty
  • Increases to salary over four years of 0%, 1.5%, 1.75% and 1.75%
  • Two steps added to the ceiling of the salary grid across all ranks

“All NUFA Members can be proud of this deal. It puts us on the path to fix some of the structural problems at Nipissing, to resist the growth of casualized labour, and to start bridging the gap in our Members’ salaries relative to other faculty across the province. The real work starts now to ensure that faculty voices are heard,” said Hilary Earl, FASBU Chief Negotiator.

 

The university’s Board of Governors ratified the deal on November 27, 2015.

Strengthening the heart of Ontario universities: making sure every academic job is a good job

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Last week, OCUFA staff members Graeme Stewart and Brynne Sinclair-Waters wrote an article for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Ontario (CCPA-ON) on the need for more full-time faculty in Ontario’s universities. The piece is part of the CCPA-ON’s ongoing series on the provincial budget.

Stewart and Sinclair-Waters argue that hiring of full-time faculty has lagged well behind increases in enrolment, with serious implications for the quality of university education in Ontario. The reason for this lag is the gradual decline in public per-student funding for higher education in province. This under-funding is also to blame for the disturbing rise in precarious academic work, where a large proportion of university teaching is now done by faculty on short-term, insecure contracts.

They conclude:

OCUFA estimates that hiring the 8,500 new faculty positions needed at Ontario universities would cost around $865 million, or about $173 million a year, in new public investment until 2020.

Even a modest bump in the provincial operating grant to universities would support greater hiring of full-time faculty. The challenge of precarious academic work is immense and will take years to correct. We need to begin turning the tide before the problem gets worse.

No organism can survive long with a weakened heart and our universities are no exception. Ontario needs to invest in our universities to boost the number of professors and academic librarians, and to ensure that every academic job is a good job.

If we do that, we secure the quality of Ontario universities—and the success of our students—for years to come.

New Librarian and Archivist deal ratified at Western

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Librarian and Archivist members of the University of Western Ontario (UWOFA) have ratified their new collective agreement with the employer. UWOFA released the following statement following statement regarding the ratification vote:

Unionized librarians and archivists at Western University have ratified a tentative collective agreement reached with the university administration.

Members in the academic librarians and archivists bargaining unit of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) voted 86 per cent in favour of the deal. Voting occurred on campus on Thursday, Nov. 12 and Friday, Nov. 13. Western’s Board of Governors voted to ratify on Nov. 26.

“I’m so thankful to our negotiating team for all their hard work and commitment,” said UWOFA president Kristin Hoffmann. “They were able to reach a good deal with the tremendous support of our members.”

A tentative deal was reached on Friday, Nov. 6 after two days of conciliation with Greg Long, a Ministry of Labour appointed conciliator.

UWOFA represents about 1,600 faculty, librarian and archivist members at Western, 50 of whom are librarians and archivists.

The four-year deal includes one per cent scale increases and other salary increases such as lump sums to base salary, increases to merit pay, and money allocated to a career trajectory fund. The deal also makes significant progress in aligning the Librarian and Archivists’ collective agreement with the agreement for professors.

Tentative agreement at Nipissing

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A tentative agreement has been reached between Nipissing University and the Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA). The faculty association published the following statement on their website:

We are pleased to announce that representatives of the Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA) and the University administration have reached a tentative agreement that will allow students to return to classes on Monday, November 30, 2015.

The agreement is subject to ratification by the faculty and the University’s Board of Governors. The ratification votes will be scheduled as soon as possible. Further details will be made public once these votes have taken place.
 
The parties wish to thank the provincially appointed mediator, Greg Long, for assistance with negotiations.

Western University’s Board needs to be more transparent and engaged: Report

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Last week, Western University’s Governance Review Task Force released the its final report. The task force is calling for more transparent and engaged Board governance at the university, in the wake of President Amit Chakma’s double payout scandal.

As the report states, “This has been a very difficult year for Western. The issue of the President’s compensation and the move for votes of non-confidence at the university’s Senate in the spring deeply
affected the community, including the members of the Board of Governors.”

In its report, the Task Force makes a variety of recommendations, including:

  • More regular meetings between the Board of Governors and the Senate, and between the Board and stakeholder groups on campus.
  • A review of what items are dealt with in closed sessions rather than open sessions, with the goal of increasing transparency.
  • Better education of incoming Board members, coupled with refreshed role statements for the Chair of the Board and the Chairs of the Board’s committees;

The report concludes by saying that the recommendations are only a first step, noting that some changes can be implemented immediately and others will take time and effort to secure. It is, however, “critical to persevere and to keep the conversation going.”

The report is the latest chapter in a saga that began last March when Chakma’s double payment was revealed. Since then, the campus has seen two motions of non-confidence, one in Chakma and one in Board Chair Chirag Shah. While both motions ultimately failed, they revealed deep anger over the pay scandal and governance at Western. Shah has since resigned his position as Chair.

Across Canada, university governance is becoming an important issue. As the Western task force reveals, greater transparency and accountability to students, staff, and faculty is needed to prevent future examples of poor oversight and mismanagement.

Time is running out for early bird pricing for the “Confronting precarious academic work” conference

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Only 12 days are left to take advantage a special early bird pricing for the “Confronting academic work” conference, to be February 11-12, 2015 in Toronto. This conference is an opportunity to critically engage with the rise of precarious academic work, while developing solutions to ensure good academic jobs in our universities.

The growing number of university faculty hired on a contract basis – and the insecure working conditions they face – has far reaching implications for everyone who works and learns in our universities.  With an estimated one-third of faculty now employed on a precarious basis, what does the future hold for academic employment?  Can the trend toward precarious academic work be reversed, and if so, how?  What can be learned from the experience of those currently confronting the realities of precarious work in Canada and other countries?  How can we re-imagine a better and more secure future for all faculty?

“Confronting precarious academic work” will seek to address these questions and more.

Join us for two days of insightful presentations and engaging discussion with speakers and participants from universities, research institutes, unions, and government in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Like previous OCUFA conferences, a diversity of views will be sought in each of the keynote and panel sessions.

The early-bird fee for those registering on or before November 30, 2015 is $350.00, which includes continental breakfasts, lunch, refreshments, an evening reception, and all materials. The regular registration fee after November 30, 2015 is $400.00; and $375.00 for OCUFA members.  The contract faculty and student rate is $150.00. For more information, and to register, please click here.

The Intercontinental Toronto York Hotel also has a special conference hotel rate of $229.00 per night.  Bookings must be made before January 8, 2016.

Strike continues at Nipissing University

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Full-time faculty at Nipissing are continuing their strike for fair pay, improved governance processes, and protections for faculty complement at the university.

The Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA) has received overwhelming support from their colleagues across Canada and from their local community. Representatives from many faculty associations and local unions have joined NUFA members on the pocket line. A large number of students have also shown their support, with a group staging a sit-in at the President’s office in support of striking professors.

On Tuesday, November 10th, NUFA President Susan Srigley visited Nipissing’s Brantford campus to march with members at that location. The Brantford campus has been slated for closure, without any consultation with faculty or students.

For the latest news about the strike, please visit www.nufastrike.ca.

Tentative agreement for Western Librarians and Archivists

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The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association is pleased to announce that your negotiating team and the university administration have reached a tentative collective agreement for librarians and archivists.

The tentative deal was reached on Friday, November 6th after two days of conciliation with Greg Long, a Ministry of Labour appointed conciliator.

“I want to thank the negotiating team for all their hard work and commitment. They did a great job on behalf of our members. And I’m very thankful to our members for their support of the team,” said UWOFA president Kristin Hoffmann.

More information will be provided at a yet to be scheduled membership meeting. A date for the ratification vote has yet to be determined.

OCUFA president in solidarity with striking Nipissing faculty

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On November 4th and 5th, 2015, OCUFA President Judy Bates and Executive Director Mark Rosenfeld were in North Bay to show solidarity with striking full-time faculty at Nipissing University. She met with members of the Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA) and spoke briefly to professors walking the picket line. Here is a transcript of her remarks:

Good morning

My name is Judy Bates, and I am the President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations. I am also a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University.  With me today is also Mark Rosenfeld, the Executive Director of OCUFA.

I bring greetings and messages of support from the Board and Executive of OCUFA, our 28 member faculty associations, and 17,000 professors and academic librarians across Ontario.

I am honoured to be standing with you today.

I want to commend you for the stand you are taking here today. It takes conviction to fight for your values on a picket line. Nobody ever wants a strike, but it falls to the courageous, the principled, and the bold when one becomes necessary.

I also want you to know that the issues you are fighting for today – fair compensation; good, full-time academic jobs; and a fair say in university governance – are issues faced by professors and academic librarians across Ontario.

You are at the forefront of a fight to make sure our universities are open, accountable, and embody the principles of collegial governance that are so important to the quality of higher education in Ontario.

As you stand here today, know that you do not stand alone. OCUFA stands behind you. Faculty associations across Ontario and Canada stand with you. Tens of thousands of professors and academic librarians are also here with you in spirit.

You have the leadership and the resolve to achieve your goals and to win a fair and equitable agreement that works for you and secures the future of Nipissing University.

Good luck to all of you. And thank you.

Full-time faculty at Nipissing have been on strike since November 2, 2015. NUFA is fighting for a restoration of collegial governance and to protect and expand the faculty complement at the university. For the latest news, please visit nufastrike.ca. You can also send a letter of support.

Nipissing faculty on strike

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Full-time faculty at Nipissing University have gone on strike after they were unable to reach a fair and equitable settlement with the university administration. OCUFA and all of its member faculty associations stand in solidarity with the members of the Nipissing University Faculty Association (NUFA) who are on the picket lines fighting for quality education through faculty complement, a real say in university governance, and fair compensation. Below is the statement from NUFA regarding the strike.

Nipissing Full-Time Faculty on Strike
As of 12:01 am on Monday 02 November, Members of the Full-Time Academic Staff Bargaining Unit of NUFA are officially and legally on strike. Members in the bargaining unit shall withdraw their labour from Nipissing University until such time as a renewal agreement has been reached and a back-to-work protocol has been agreed upon.

After many hours of negotiations, the Collective Bargaining Committee regrets to say that it has been unable to come to an agreement with the Employer by the strike deadline. We are still very far apart on a number of key issues.

The proper place of Faculty is at the university, teaching students and conducting research, but not at any cost.

The main sticking points in reaching an agreement include issues related to meaningful participation in governance, maintaining faculty complement, and fair financial compensation. “Our members gave us an overwhelmingly clear mandate that they wanted an agreement that gives our Members a fair say and fair pay. The Employer refuses to hear that message,” said NUFA president Susan Srigley.

New private member’s bill argues for a new higher education information portal

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MPP Yvan Baker has introduced a private member’s bill calling for the creation of a centralized portal for information on higher education in Ontario. The Bill suggests that 12 data points be collected and publicized in a single location for the benefit of students and their families.

OCUFA supports the principle behind that bill- that more data should be made publicly available on Ontario’s universities. In addition to the data included in MPP Baker’s bill – admission rates and entering averages; tuition and ancillary fees; class size and number of instructional faculty; full- and part-time enrolment; and student satisfaction – OCUFA would also like to see more information available on faculty complement, especially the number of contract faculty teaching in Ontario’s universities.

The Bill recommends that the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) operate the information portal. This is a problematic suggestion, as HEQCO lacks the mandate, expertise, and support of the sector to operate such a portal. OCUFA believes that a new, arms-length, and neutral agency be created to monitor any information portal or data system in Ontario’s higher education sector.

Baker’s bill passed second reading and was referred to committee on October 22, 2015. OCUFA will be working with all parties to ensure that final Bill serves the needs of students, faculty, and universities.

Queen’s Park update – Admin compensation, new PC MTCU critic, funding formula review

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OCUFA has been working on a variety of initiatives at Queen’s Park. In September, the legislature resumed and MPP Peggy Sattler, the NDP critic for Training, Colleges and Universities, brought the issues of senior university administration salaries to the legislature, following recent high-profile cases of high and inappropriate compensation. Sattler raised the issue in Question Period, and introduced a bill that would restrict compensation to senior administrators for foregoing administrative leave.

New Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown successfully contested the by-election in Simcoe North and took up his seat in the House. Brown is also the PC caucus’ new critic for Training, Colleges and Universities. Former MPP Garfield Dunlop will continue to work with him in an advisory role. OCUFA is currently organizing a meeting with Brown to discuss our priorities and his interests in the sector.

We are also waiting for the report of the University Funding Formula Review. OCUFA submitted its recommendations to the review on September 1, 2015, arguing for a student-centred funding model, for a new data system for Ontario’s higher education sector, and against the use of punitive performance funding measures. Since we submitted our recommednations, the former President of Ryerson University, Sheldon Levy, has been appointed the new Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities. The release of the funding formula review report will likely be released after Levy has a chance to settle into his new role.

Overall, the provincial government remains committed to differentiation and playing a renewed “stewardship” role in the sector – although exactly how it hopes to achieve a more directive role in university planning and governance remains unclear. Further, with no new investments in higher education in the 2015 Ontario Budget, faculty concerns about the government’s potential desire to constrain costs underlie OCUFA’s current advocacy with government.

Strong strike mandates at Western, McMaster

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Librarians and archivists at McMaster University and Western University have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike mandates in their ongoing negotiations with their respective employers. The mandates authorize their leadership to call a strike if an equitable deal cannot be reached at the bargaining table.

At McMaster, a 92 per cent turnout yielded a 100 per cent vote in favour of a strike mandate. The employer is attempting to remove the right of academic librarians to participate in academic decision making, a move unacceptable to the McMaster University Academic Librarian’s Association (MUALA). Compensation also remains an impediment to a fair deal, as librarians and archivists at McMaster are among the lowest paid in Ontario.

MUALA is currently in conciliation, with the first meeting held on October 14, 2015.

At Western University, the librarian and archivist members of UWOFA voted 98 per cent in favour of a strike mandate for their bargaining team. UWOFA-LA will be in conciliation on October 27th and October 30th. Overall, UWOFA “remains hopeful a fair and equitable settlement can be reached through the conciliation process.”

 

Data check: Ontario spends less per student on faculty than the rest of Canada

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In last week’s Data Check, we demonstrated how Ontario lags the rest of Canada in per-student operating and research revenue. This week, we show how Ontario’s per-student university expenditures are also lower, particularly when it comes to faculty salaries.

With occasional exceptions, it is the rule that university expenses are lower than revenues. So it is no surprise that, since Ontario lags the rest of Canada in funding per student, university expenditure per student is also lower in the province. Excluding student scholarships, Ontario universities’ combined operating, research, and special purpose expenses are 13 per cent lower than the average in the rest of Canada.

Like other public services and service industries generally, wages, salaries, and benefits at Canadian universities represent the bulk of total expenditures (including ancillary and capital expenses). The national average for all salaries is about 60 per cent of university budgets. Salaries for “academic ranks” – professors – in Canada are about 20 per cent of total expenses, and have been so for more than a decade.

Per student, Ontario universities’ operating expenditures on faculty salaries have been the lowest of all provinces for more than ten years. In 2013-14, the average Ontario per-student expenditure on faculty was the lowest in Canada, 19 per cent lower than the national average and eight per cent lower than the second-last province. When we think of faculty salaries as paid from operating, research and special purpose funds combined, the gap widens as Ontario universities’ rate of expenditure is 24 per cent lower than the rest of Canada, and 13 per cent lower than ninth ranked Québec.

As a proportion of total operating, research and special purpose expenses (again excluding scholarships), faculty salaries in Ontario are the second-lowest in Canada. Only Alberta spends a lower proportion of total expenses on faculty salaries. If one were to take the teaching models in each province as given and assume other expenditures were the same per student in other provinces as in Ontario, the proportion of Ontario expenditures directed to faculty is 22 per cent, compared to 27 per cent for the rest of Canada.

To hear some tell the story, university expenses in our province are quickly outpacing revenues. Sure enough, the difference in overall expenditures per student between Ontario and other provinces is less now than it was in 2010-11. But by the above measures of expenditures on faculty salaries, the pattern is different. The gap narrowed for a few years a decade ago – along with the provincial funding gap. Since then, the difference has been growing again.

Ontario vs. Rest of Canada: Operating, research and special purpose expenses per student – Total expenses (excluding scholarships), and Academic ranks salaries

OCUFA is planning a University Finance Workshop, to be held on November 13th it Toronto. It will focus on the Financial Facts about Faculty in Ontario in an effort to sort out the real trends from the myths. For more information about attending, please contact your local faculty association.

Sources:
Canadian Association of University Business Officers, Financial Information of Universities and Colleges
Statistics Canada, Postsecondary Student Information System (updated to 2013 using data from: Association of Atlantic Universities; Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada; British Columbia Higher Education Accountability Dataset; Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities)

UBC chair steps down after investigation finds the university failed to protect academic freedom

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On October 15, 2015, the University of British Columbia released the results of the inquiry into allegations that Chair of the Board of Governors John Montalbano interfered with the academic freedom of Prof. Jennifer Berdahl. The report revealed that while no provisions of the UBC collective agreement had been violated, through the “the combined acts and omissions of Mr. Montalbano, the named individuals in the Sauder School, and others, UBC as an institution failed” to “protect and support Dr. Berdahl’s academic freedom.”

Montalbano resigned his position as Chair following the release of the report.

The controversy arose following the sudden resignation of UBC president Arvind Gupta. Berdahl wrote a blog post critical of the Board’s role in Gupta’s departure, and Montalbano in turn emailed Berdahl to question her decision to publish the post. According to Berdahl, Montalbano suggested that she had, “harmed the reputation of the Board, raised questions about her academic credibility, and jeopardized her funding from the Royal Bank of Canada.” Montalbano is a senior executive at RBC.

While faculty across Canada are encouraged by this demonstration of accountability, we remain concerned with lapses in good governance at many Canadian universities. Without openness and transparency with the broader campus community, administrations and Boards are vulnerable to a variety of harmful outcomes, from million-dollar Presidential payouts to sudden resignations to encroachment on the academic freedom of professors.


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