On September 15 and 16, the first ever Fight for $15 & Fairness Provincial Campus Assembly took place at the University of Toronto. Faculty from universities across Ontario attended and took part in discussions and workshops about how to win stronger labour legislation, as well as how to advance the $15 and Fairness agenda on […]
Members of the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) in Sudbury have been working hard to negotiate a fair collective agreement with the university administration. Despite several days in mediation, the parties are approaching an impasse and a strike may be imminent. LUFA is asking the administration to come to the table and agree to a […]
The Government of Ontario recently announced that in the coming months it will put forward legislation to create a new French-language university, by and for Francophones. The announcement follows the August 28, 2017 release of the French-Language University Planning Board’s report on the feasibility of establishing a new French-language university in Central-Southwestern Ontario. Struck last fall and chaired by Dr. Dyane Adam, a former official languages […]
On Monday, the Windsor Star published an editorial by OCUFA President Gyllian Phillips and Frankie Cachon, Chair of OCUFA’s Contract Faculty and Faculty Complement Committee. The editorial provides background on the growing number of contract faculty being employed in Ontario’s postsecondary education system. Phillips and Cachon present faculty perspectives on Bill 148 and point to exceptions in the […]
OCUFA is part of the Fight for $15 & Fairness, a broad group that is advocating for better labour laws and a $15 minimum wage across Ontario. On September 15 and 16, the first ever $15 & Fairness Provincial Campus Assembly will take place at the University of Toronto. Faculty from universities across the province are invited to attend, and you can […]
Last month we asked OCUFA Report readers to tell us what they thought about eCampus Ontario’s new Open Textbook Library , which establishes a provincial repository of Open Educational Resources (OERs) from a range of disciplines, which faculty can freely use and adapt for the classes they teach. Thank you to everyone who participated! The results from the […]
In May, OCUFA brought together representatives of its membership to identify the policy issues affecting Ontario’s universities that they view as most critical, and to draft recommendations for addressing them. The final report summarizing these consultations is now available online. OCUFA regularly conducts research, produces papers and briefs, and hosts conversations on targeted policy issues affecting higher education in Ontario. However, the 2017 Policy Exchange […]
Wilfrid Laurier’s full-time faculty and professional librarians have reached a collective agreement with the University that will help protect faculty complement, improve contract faculty representation in governance, and lead to competitive salary increases. The collective agreement ratified by the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association (WLUFA) will create a new committee tasked with examining the possibility […]
The government is currently considering changes to employment and labour law that could bring more fairness to workplaces across the province. More than ten faculty associations presented at the recent hearings on Bill 148, Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act about how the bill can deliver fairness for contract faculty, including equal pay for equal work, fair scheduling, and more secure and stable jobs. Faculty also […]
Members of the Brock University Faculty Association (BUFA) have ratified a new collective agreement that makes historic gains for LGBTQ members. Early adopters of OCUFA’s Countdown to Strong organizing framework, BUFA’s enthusiastic organizing work has paid off in their newly ratified collective agreement. By mobilizing a substantial portion of their membership, BUFA was able to […]
On July 20, OCUFA submitted formal recommendations on how Bill 148, Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act can be improved. The recommendations focus on delivering fairness for contract faculty who teach a growing number of courses at Ontario universities, but lack job security, receive low pay, and often do not have access to benefits. This follows […]
This past spring, Ontario’s colleges proposed changes to their executive compensation packages that could have seen the already high salaries of their presidents increase by an average of 32 per cent (in many cases a raise of over $100,000). The changes were announced in response to the provincial government’s new Executive Compensation Framework , a regulation aimed at […]
TORONTO – The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) is pleased to announce the appointment of its 32nd president – Gyllian Phillips, Associate Professor of English Studies in the Faculty of Arts & Science at Nipissing University. Phillips officially began her two-year term on July 1, 2017. “Ontario’s professors and academic librarians are at […]
On June 6, eCampus Ontario and the provincial government announced the launch of the Open Textbook Library. Adapted from the BCcampus model used in British Columbia, the Ontario Open Textbook Library will act as a repository of Open Educational Resources (OERs) from a range of disciplines that faculty can adopt as course materials for the classes they teach. Open Textbooks are […]
In May, faculty members from across Ontario gathered at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse in Toronto over two days to lay the groundwork for OCUFA’s policy positions and advocacy efforts in the lead-up to the 2018 Ontario provincial election. The OCUFA Policy Exchange was an interactive conference during which participants identified the most important policy issues and priorities for […]
