Afternoon Update – March 26
March 26, 2020
Afternoon Update – March 26
Dear CUASA members,
More comments, academic and not, are filtering in regarding our members’ concerns about the present unparalleled situation in our lifetimes. Some of you may have received an email yesterday from the Associate Registrar with subject area Formally Scheduled Examinations for April 2020, which includes an “Exam Management Guide”. We are hearing concerns that course instructors are being required to submit their exams, including take-home exams, so they can be managed by an “Examinations Joint Team”. Concerns have also been raised that exams will possibly be reformatted by someone other than the course instructor. We ask that you send CUASA your comments on this issue so that we may refer your concerns to the employer at our next JCAA meeting and properly address those issues.
Other members have expressed real concerns with regards to the online or “remote” teaching environment that we are presently dealing with. It is noteworthy that apparently instructors haven’t been consulted about how the first week went nor how the second week is going. Doesn’t the employer want to know how we are coping? Where are the essential tools of our new online business? The teaching, examination format, online lectures delivery, they leave it all up to us. Why isn’t there a blog or other forum where we can relay our concerns and comments, good or bad? Is it up your Union to manage this? Remember, you are the University, you are the Union, we are simply your representatives. We need to know what you think and, more importantly, the Employer needs to know this too! Write upper management, your deans, the provost’s office. If they don’t hear from you, they’ll think you acquiesced.
The Prime Minister of Canada just reminded us a few minutes ago that Canada will provide Canadians $102 billion in the form of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit in order to help individuals and families cope with the present impact of COVID-19 on their lives. Universities are now considered an “essential business” under current Ontario legislation. This begs the question, where is the employer’s contribution to the benefit of its instructors (all sister unions included here) forced to cope with the dramatic increases in workload and growing uncertainties in their future in the face of COVID-19? The Prime Minister also said, “We should take action together as a global community”. I thought that we at Carleton were part of such a community yet almost all decisions are top-down.
Some of our members were forced to return from sabbaticals or had them cut short on account of government actions. We want to hear from you! Copy us on your correspondence with the Employer, your chair/director or your dean. We need to know what you are up against and/or whether you have been treated fairly upon your return. Your treatment may become our baseline in negotiations. As for negotiations please note that the deadline for filling out the bargaining survey is March 31. If you’ve done this, then thank you! If not, please fill it out, let us know what is on your mind. Members can find a link to the survey in their emails. Please note that this survey is meant only for CUASA bargaining unit members. We kindly ask that you please not share the link to the survey.
We participated in an online meeting of Campus United this morning, including representatives from CUASA, CUPE 4600, CUPE 2424, and PSAC 77000. Those in attendance discussed shared concerns in the current situation, including concerns around workload, accommodation, and childcare. Concerns were raised about how these topics might be impacted if we see a prolonged period of social distancing leading into the summer or longer. There were also discussions about the extra workload that has been required to shift learning online, and the University’s decision to move the summer term online without any consultation with the unions affected, particularly CUASA and CUPE 4600.
In solidarity,
Angelo Mingarelli
CUASA President
