Faculty unionization has a positive impact on students and universities, according to a new American study . The Impact of Unionization on University Performance: A Cross-Sectional Time Series Analysis, written by Mark Cassell, shows that unionization leads to a more efficient and effective institution, while promoting student success. The paper’s primary findings include: Unionized institutions show lower costs and […]
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On May 27, 2013, OCUFA President Constance Adamson wrote a letter to Rector Chantal Beauvais of Saint Paul University, regarding troubling labour developments at the university. Here is the full text of the letter. Dear Rector Beauvais; I am writing this letter to urge the administration of Saint Paul University to reverse its threat to […]
The McMaster University Faculty Association (MUFA) has ratified a new, four-year agreement with their administration. The new deal includes a 1% pension offset in year one; a lump sum of $1250 and a 1% pension offset in year two; and 1.5% increases in year three and four, with lump sums of $1850 and $1925 respectively. […]
On Wednesday, February 6, 2013, OCUFA will be co-presenting a town hall discussion on austerity and higher education at Western University. We invite all London-area students, staff, and faculty to join us for an evening of discussion and analysis. Speakers include: Jeff Tennant – Associate Professor, Department of French Studies, UWO Alison Hearn – Associate […]
Teaching and research are at the heart of Ontario’s universities and together produce extraordinary results for students and their communities. We Teach Ontario , a new OCUFA initiative, celebrates how professors use research to enrich their students’ learning and strengthen the province. “Ontario professors and academic librarians know how powerful the connection between teaching and research can be […]
Much has been made recently about the “productivity” of Ontario’s universities. But when it comes to graduation rates – a key indicator of productivity – Ontario leads the United States by a huge margin. In 2010, the Ontario government set a goal of a 70 per cent post-secondary attainment rate (including apprenticeships) amongst Ontarians by 2020. This would mean […]
The latest survey of faculty by the Higher Education Research Institute indicates that stress levels have gone up for full-time faculty members at US universities and four-year colleges. The single most common cause of “some” or “extensive” stress for those at public universities is “institutional budget cuts” – cited by 86 per cent of respondents, as compared […]
Last night, Dalton McGuinty resigned as premier and prorogued the Ontario Legislature. This means that all legislative business has ceased and all legislation currently being considered dies on the order paper. When a new session of the Legislature is eventually convened, it will be a new session of parliament, accompanied by a Throne Speech. All […]
On October 9, 2012, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities made troubling comments on faculty in an article that appeared in the Peterborough Examiner. Here is OCUFA President Constance Adamson’s response. This past Wednesday, October 10, 2012 the Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities Glen Murray, in an interview with the Peterborough Examiner, made this statement on the Government of […]
Those who claim that faculty compensation is eating up university funding just don’t know the facts – or are trying to prevent Ontarians from learning the truth. Right now, as a proportion of total expenses, province-wide full-time and part-time faculty represent barely 19 per cent of Ontario universities’ annual expenditures. When looking only at operating expenses, […]
In the wake of the McGuinty government’s imposition of a salary freeze on Ontario’s elementary and secondary teachers, the government has now indicated that it will extend this freeze to the broader public sector. Such a freeze would apply to university sector, including professors and academic librarians. Yesterday, the Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan announced a freeze of executive salaries in the broader public sector . During […]
A recent report from the US Coalition on the Academic Workforce indicates that close to 70 per cent of faculty in the US are members of the contingent academic workforce. Based on a survey of part-time faculty and instructors, it finds that “those increasingly responsible for educating the undergraduates who reap this earnings premium [of an undergraduate […]
According to Statistics Canada, there were more than 44,000 full-time faculty at Canadian degree-granting institutions in 2009-10 . The increase over the previous year is 5.9 per cent – but only if 1,800-plus faculty members who teach at the six Alberta and British Columbia institutions reporting for the first time are included. Among universities reporting in the previous year, faculty numbers grew by only 1.5 per cent. […]
Talks at Windsor will enter mediation this week, but the Windsor University Faculty Association has filed for a no-board report when conciliation talks broke off after several sessions with a provincial conciliator failed to achieve agreement on key issues. The no-board report will put the faculty association in a legal strike position by October 15. Both monetary and […]