Weekly Update – January 21, 2022

January 21, 2022

Weekly Update – January 21, 2022

 

Save the Date: CUASA Winter 2022 GMM

CUASA’s Winter 2022 General Membership Meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 1, from 2:00-4:00pm.

The GMM will take place online over Zoom. The agenda and connection details will be released closer to the date.

 

Resuming In-Person Teaching and Accommodation Requests

The University announced this week that, barring another dramatic change in the trajectory of the pandemic, it will resume in-person courses (as per the winter 2022 schedule) and activities on Monday, February 7, 2022.

CUASA remains concerned that decisions affecting worker safety are being made without actually talking to workers or their Union.

CUASA members should not be forced to just accept they have to become sick. Our members have worked really hard to stay safe, to keep their students safe, and to keep their families safe. Now is not the time to ignore all the cautions. To make this work, our members need to have a say in whether to return to in-person or not. This is more than just organizing a classroom; it’s about ensuring safety for everyone who could be affected by resuming in-person activities.

Members should be reminded that even though they have no tests, the government stated on January 6, that citizens are to assume they are positive until proven negative. If members feel pressured to return in-person when they believe they have contracted COVID, they should seek immediate advice.

Further, any members who are currently sick are reminded that they have paid sick leave. They should not be forced to work contrary to their doctors’ recommendations, even if working from home.

Any members needing individual advice on seeking an accommodation are encouraged to contact the following CUASA staff members: members with a last name beginning with the letters A-M, please email Hanan Mankal ([email protected]); members with a last name beginning with the letters N-Z, please email Alex Aucoin ([email protected]).

 

Reminder: SEQ Choice Selection

As we wrote last week, under the new process for the administration of student experience questionnaires, members have until January 31, to select their preference for paper or online questionnaires (SEQ).

Courses determined to be “fully online” will have to be administered using electronic questionnaires. The administration of all other courses will be at the discretion of our members.

Members can now make their selections through Carleton Central under “Faculty Services” by accessing “Student Experience Questionnaire Method Preference”. If no selection is made by January 31, the SEQ will be administered online.

Be advised that under the new system, once members make a selection and save it, the choice will be saved for every subsequent term and academic year thereafter and will not change until it is changed by the member.

The Association continues to strongly recommend the paper format, when safe to do so, since the issues of discriminatory effects and bias for the electronic format remain outstanding.

 

Nominations for Steering Positions

We are accepting nominations for the following Steering Committee positions for terms beginning on July 1, 2022 (click on the position title to view the description):

• President
• Treasurer
• External Relations Officer
• Chair, Grievance Policy and Administration
• Instructor Representative
• Librarian Representative

Nominations for President are due to the virtual CUASA Office by Thursday, March 31, 2022. Nominations for all other positions are due by Friday, April 29, 2022. All nominations must be made using the form found here (PDF) or here (Word).

Information on the nominations process can be found on our How to Volunteer page. Remember that our Association is only as strong as its membership, so we count on the time and commitment of our members to achieve our goals. Some of these positions come with a course release subject to the availability of funds (please ask if interested).

If you have any questions about the positions or the process, please contact CUASA’s Chair, Nominations and Elections, Marylynn Steckley, at [email protected].

 

Psychology Let’s Talk Lecture

The Department of Psychology is pleased to invite you to the third annual Psychology Let’s Talk Lecture on Thursday, Jan. 27, at 2:30 p.m. over Zoom. The topic of this lecture will be “Identifying the gaps in efforts to end mental health stigma” by Tina Montreuil of McGill University.

Registration is available here. All are welcome.

 

Academic Community Updates

CUEFA historic strike yields a big victory for Alberta union movement

Concordia University Edmonton Faculty Association (CUEFA) members have ratified an agreement that will improve working conditions and increase salaries of CUEFA members.

A deal was reached after a two-week strike, the first job action by an academic staff association in Alberta.

To keep reading, click here.

 

CAUT asking court to make Laurentian accountable for public funds

Nearly a year since Laurentian University’s bid for creditor protection, the unprecedented crisis remains tied up in court as CAUT and other stakeholders seek answers about how an Ontario post-secondary institution wound up on the verge of bankruptcy.

To keep reading, click here.

 

Harry Crowe Foundation Conference 2022 – Academic Freedom and the Law

Academic freedom in Canada is the right of academic staff to teach and discuss, to research and publish, to participate in the academic governance of and to criticize their administration, and to exercise their civil liberties, including freedom of expression, without institutional censorship. The exercise of academic freedom is both facilitated by and constrained by the law. This conference will explore the legal foundations of academic freedom, as well as the legal limits placed on it with a view to strengthening the protections for academic freedom in Canada.

This important conference will be held online February 10-11, 2022. The registration link and the conference agenda are available at: http://www.crowefoundation.ca/events/.

The Harry Crowe Foundation was established as a charitable organization by the Canadian Association of University Teachers in 2002 to carry out education and research on the role of academic freedom in contemporary society. The Foundation is named in honour of Professor Harry Crowe whose celebrated academic freedom case in the 1950’s helped establish the mission of what was then a fledgling CAUT.

 

Labour Community Updates

Ontario is in crisis. The Ford government must act now.

Ontario workers have come together to sound the alarm and issue an emergency appeal for the Ford government to take action to address the Omicron crisis.

A joint statement released by the Ontario Federation of Labour, endorsed by over 30 organizations including CUASA, outlines six demands that frontline workers in health care, long-term care, education, and other sectors urgently need.

To read the full statement, click here.

 

COVID Prevention at Work

The Ottawa & District Labour Council and the Workers Health & Safety Centre will present “COVID Prevention at Work” as part of the Virtual Health & Safety Information Series. This even will be held on Tuesday January 25, 2022, at 7:00pm.

The event will feature speakers and presentations from OHCOW, OFL and Prevention Link. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Advance registration is required, which you can do here.