Registration is filling up fast for OCUFA’s Building Member Solidarity Workshop, hosted by our Collective Bargaining Committee. The workshop will be held at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel in Toronto on May 23, 2012. The goal of the workshop is to provide attendees with the skills and tools needed to run effective local engagement […]
The nomination deadline for the 2012 OCUFA Teaching and Academic Librarianship Awards is May 21, 2012. Since 1973, these awards have recognized individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the quality of university education in Ontario, either through exceptional teaching or dedicated library service. Any member of an OCUFA-affiliated faculty association is eligible […]
On April 4, 2012, 27 OCUFA ambassadors from faculty associations across Ontario met with MPPs at Queen’s Park. OCUFA representatives met one-on-one with 30 MPPs from university ridings, including six cabinet ministers. There was also a meeting with members of the Premier’s staff. The ambassadors made the case for renewed investment in public university […]
The Government of Ontario has scheduled the 2012 Provincial Budget on March 27, 2012. In advance of its release, OCUFA is pleased to announce its plan for accessible, affordable, and high quality university education. Investing in Ontario’s Future: OCUFA’s 2012 Budget Brief argues that Ontario must reject the ‘austerity agenda’ that has followed in the wake of the Drummond Report and commit to creating a […]
Former OCUFA President Mark Langer debated former Carleton University President Richard Van Loon on the virtues of establishing new ‘teaching-only’ universities in Ontario. Van Loon, co-author of the book Academic Reform , is an advocate for these new institutions, suggesting that they are a way to accommodate growing university enrolment in Ontario at a lower per-student cost. […]
That Ontario universities hire 6,000 new professors to restore the student-faculty ratio to 2001 levels. That the Ontario government increase per-student funding to its universities, which is the lowest in Canada and 25 per cent lower than in 1990. Ontario needs to invest in quality, not just in new spaces! That Don Drummond, due to […]
Soaring enrolments mean that more teaching has to be done at Ontario’s universities, but it cannot be done on the cheap, OCUFA Vice-President Kate Lawson told a conference at McMaster University, December 8. Government underfunding has meant constrained finances for Ontario universities, she said, and that context makes a discussion around the expansion of […]
In response to an inaccurate and inflammatory article published by Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente , OCUFA President wrote a letter to the editor. An extract was published on the Globe & Mail Website. The full text of the letter is reproduced below. Dear Editor; As usual, Margaret Wente seems more interested in her favorite talking points than in actually understanding the issue. Her column “Pension Ponzi a Raw […]
OCUFA President Constance Adamson wrote an Op-Ed that is featured in today’s Toronto Star. The article takes issue with the recent attempt to pin declining university quality on professors. This is a bit of an absurdity, and Adamson skewers it well: The decline in per-student funding has had a variety of negative effects. Universities have […]
OCUFA is looking for a Policy Analyst – Community and Government Relations. Working under the supervision of the Executive Director, the successful candidate will help to promote OCUFA’s advocacy initiatives through: developing and maintaining contacts in the Ontario government and relevant government agencies, with the opposition parties and organizations in the postsecondary education sector critically […]
This past weekend, OCUFA presented the winners of the annual Teaching, Lorimer, and Women of Distinction Award. These awards are an important part of what we do, because it gives us a chance to recognize individuals who have made the lives of academic staff better, and improved the entire university system. This year marks the […]
The Conference Board of Canada recently reported that, since the mid-1990s, income inequality has increased faster in Canada than in the United States and most other comparable countries. The board observes that forces such as “declines in unionization rates, stagnating minimum wage rates, deregulation, and national policies that favour the wealthy” are responsible for increasing inequality . All Canadians should […]
OCUFA’s President, Constance Adamson, has responded to an unfortunate editorial that appeared in today’s Globe & Mail. The editorial suggests that there is a crisis in undergraduate education, and bizarrely, much of the blame lies with faculty. The full text of OCUFA’s response can be found below. Dear Editor; Your editorial “Canadian Universities Must Reform or Perish” […]
A Windsor Star editorial (“What’s driving the bottom line,” Sept. 14) commenting on the negotiations between the Windsor University Faculty Association and the university’s administration blamed Ontario’s high tuition fees on faculty salaries. “The editorial makes several false and misleading statements that need to be clarified for your readers,” OCUFA President Constance Adamson responded in […]
With a mere eight days of campaigning left, Ontario’s close election campaign may come down to tonight’s leader debate. So what should faculty and students be looking for? Higher education will likely come up during the debate, especially after the Liberal-NDP spat over per-student funding. There are two big policy questions at play here: How […]
