Fall Welcome from CUASA’s President

September 9, 2026

Dear CUASA friends,

First, welcome to the ten new faculty who are joining CUASA this academic year! This is also the time to acknowledge the retirement of 33 members in the last year, who remain associated to CUASA via the Carleton University Retirees Association (CURA). We also extend a warm welcome to new members of the Steering Committee and Council, and thank those whose terms have ended this past year.

September brings much anticipation as we, faculty and librarians, welcome thousands of students in classrooms, the library, laboratories, offices, and field research, for the attentive and demanding work of passing on knowledge, exchanging and investigating together, making the world more intelligible, and wrestling with the future.

Meanwhile, the ongoing difficult news about the higher education sector leaves students, faculty, and university workers with a deepening sense of loss and powerlessness. Provincial and federal policies rarely seem to address the bewildering and daunting diplomatic, economic, social, and environmental challenges faced by the students we teach, the rising inequities and divisive language surrounding young people, the ethical demands of the research we do, and the intensification of the academic work for which we are responsible. Those of us who have colleagues, family, and friends across the world see how the living and working conditions of academics and students are increasingly threatened. Prevailing expectations of business efficiency, individual success, and self-growth, do little to address or explain such apprehensions and devastating experiences. It is the university’s role to preserve, teach, and expand ways of thinking away from cynicism and isolation.

It is the Union’s role to work in solidarity to ensure that Academic Staff have the time, tools, and working conditions to perform this work well. Over the past years, CUASA has fought to keep class sizes manageable, to document and mitigate the impact of new teaching and research practices on the workload of its members, from the management of meaningful student accommodations to the ethical use of generative artificial intelligence, the allocation of Teaching Assistants, or the safety of field work.

CUASA’s first Collective Agreement was signed 50 years ago. The last round of bargaining yielded significant improvements such as better access to mental health care and improved support of the work of Indigenous colleagues. CUASA enters this new academic year with a focus on the upcoming round of bargaining for the next Collective Agreement (effective May 1, 2027). Meanwhile, the Union remains committed to monitor and provide reliable information about the nature and impact current and drastic changes in higher education have on the lives of academic staff, students, and the larger community. Faculty Associations provide a bulwark against the erosion of collaborative traditions — academic freedom, collegial governance, and peer review. Without these ways of working, serious higher education is not possible.

In solidarity,
Dominique Marshall
CUASA President

All CUASA members are invited to an Open House held by the President in the CUASA Boardroom (2009 Dunton Tower) every month, on Thursdays, from 12:00-1:00pm. Dates for this term are: September 10, October 8, November 12, and December 10. Hot beverages and refreshments provided.