Contract faculty from across the province took part in the October 1 Rally for Decent Work. Thousands of workers from a wide range of sectors and workplaces gathered at Queen’s Park to call for improvements to employment and labour law that would address the rise of precarious work. For contract faculty, key issues include equal […]
TORONTO – The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) is pleased to announce the winners of its prestigious Teaching Awards. Since 1973, these awards have recognized the exceptional contributions made by professors and librarians to the quality of higher education in Ontario. “Teaching is at the heart of great universities and a great university […]
There is an important rally for decent work on October 1, 2016 at Queen’s Park in Toronto. Faculty will be taking part to draw attention to the need for more fairness for contract faculty and to support all workers pushing back against the trend towards precarious jobs. The OCUFA Contract Faculty and Faculty Complement Committee is encouraging faculty associations to participate. […]
Tomorrow, the Brescia Faculty Association (BFA) is hosting a discussion on the what can be done on campus to close the gender wage gap on their campus. The event features Linda Davis, member of Ontario’s Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee. The Committee recently submitted their recommendations on addressing the gender gap to the Government of Ontario. According to the latest data, […]
On September 14, 2016, the Government of Canada announced that it was re-activating the University and College Academic Staff Survey (UCASS) . This Statistics Canada program is a vital source of information on professors across the country. UCASS was cancelled in 2012, as a result of federal budget cuts. This cancellation deprived policymakers from useful data on university and college faculty, and removed information […]
On September 7, 2016, Statistics Canada released its tuition fee data for 2016-17. You can read the StatCan highlights here . OCUFA researchers have taken a deeper dive into the datasets, and the results are concerning. Ontario’s domestic undergraduate fees are 74 per cent higher than the average in the rest of Canada. Since 2010, they […]
In a vote held on September 7, 2016, members of the Brescia Faculty Association (BFA) authorized its Executive Committee to initiate a strike action if a fair and reasonable settlement is not reached during the collective bargaining process. Members voted 94 per cent in favour of a strike mandate. “Today’s vote sends a strong message […]
A new report by the Centre for Study of Canadian and International Higher Education (CIHE) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) has revealed important new information on contract faculty in Ontario. Written by Glen Jones and Cynthia Field, A survey of sessional faculty in Ontario publicly funded universities makes an important contribution to understanding who contract faculty are and, more importantly, what they want. The report surveyed contract faculty at 12 […]
On August 25, 2016 the Ontario Government’s Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee released its final report and recommendations to government on how to close the gender wage gap in the province. The recommendations target three root causes of the gender wage gap: women’s disproportionate responsibility for caregiving work and the absence of adequate public supports, systematic undervaluing of and lower rates of pay […]
In the spring of 2015, the Government of Ontario launched the Changing Workplaces Review – a comprehensive review of employment and labour law to address the rise of precarious work. Faculty associations have been actively engaged in this process, which has been led by two Special Advisors appointed by the government. OCUFA made a submission and thirteen faculty […]
Two weeks ago, HEQCO released a report on university sustainability in Ontario. More concerned with definitions than data, the report nevertheless contained several inaccuracies. OCUFA president Judy Bates wrote to Harvey Weingarten, CEO of HEQCO, with the following clarifications: Dear Dr. Weingarten; I am writing in regards to HEQCO’s recent publication, “Understanding the Sustainability of […]
Following the release of a report showing a systemic gender wage gap at the University of Waterloo, the university moved quickly to give academic women a nearly $3,000 salary increase . The report, produced by a joint working group between the university admin and the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW), was released publicly on Thursday, August 4, 2016. Using regression modelling, the working group […]
Striking workers from CUPE 926 at Wilfrid Laurier University are back at work following the ratification of a new collective agreement. CUPE 926, which represents regular employees within Laurier’s Department of Physical Resources, went on strike to prevent the employer from unilaterally imposing terms and conditions of work, a heavy-handed and unacceptable bargaining tactic. In […]
In a series of comments made last week, the Government of Ontario has indicated that it wants to move forward with creating mandatory work-integrated learning for secondary and postsecondary students. This policy would mean that every high school, college, and university student would be required to complete some form of work-integrated learning before receiving their […]
Root Gorelick, the Carleton professor at the heart of an ongoing controversy about transparency and accountability at the university’s Board of Governors, has been effectively removed from the Board. His “invalidation” occurred after he refused to sign the Board’s new Code of Conduct, which Gorelick believes is intended to stifle dissent and obscure the Board’s […]
