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Dear Members:

Please mark your calendars with regards to OCADFA’s Spring General Meeting which will take place on Monday, May 9th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  in room 1525 at 113 McCaul Street (Library Building).

Agenda and other attachments to follow next week.

Worldviews international conference on media and higher education June 16-18, 2011 in Toronto - early registration discount ends March 18 -- for distribution

Worldviews international conference on media and higher education in the 21 st century

Worldviews – an innovative international conference examining the complex relationship between media and higher education –  will be held June 16 to 18, 2011 in Toronto.   The conference is being organized by the Ontario Confederation of University of Faculty Associations, OISE/University of Toronto, the Washington-based Inside Higher Ed, the London and South-Africa-based University World News.

Speakers from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania will encourage an interactive dialogue with participants. As well as debates, panels and workshops, there will be small café discussions and salons, film screenings, interviews with leading thinkers, and the opportunity for audience members to become speakers and debaters.

The 2011 inaugural conference will consider a range of important themes, including:

• How media coverage of higher education has changed over the past two decades and where it is headed
• Research and science journalism\
• The impact of social media and how it is changing what is covered and how higher education is understood
• The role the media play in influencing public policy debates on higher education
• How higher education engages with the media to inform public opinion
• The different realities of the developing and developed worlds

Specific sessions will consider issues such as:

• Understanding the media world and its impact on higher education coverage\
• "Educating Hollywood": Images of higher education in film, television, and cyberspace
• Media depictions of academic staff concerns: current realities, future directions
• Science journalism and research: The battle between the uncertainty of science and the certainty of "news"
• Public opinion surveys, public perceptions of higher education, and the media: Who is shaping whom?
• Creating dialogue and understanding between journalists and academia

Speakers include  Ivan Semeniuk (Nature), Phil Baty (Times Higher Education), Scott Jaschik, (Inside Higher Ed), Jeff Selingo (Chronicle of Higher Education), Karen MacGregor (University World News), Valeria Roman ( Clarín, Argentina), Paul Lewis (Discovery Channel), Daniel deVise (Washington Post), Shari Graydon (Informed Opinions), Jean-Marc Fleury (World Federation of Science Journalists), Sidneyeve Matrix (Queen's University), Penny Park (Science Media Centre of Canada), Bob McDonald (CBC),  Adam Habib (University of Johannesburg), Mark Kingwell (University of Toronto) Ying Cheng (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Dzulkifli Abdul Razak (Universiti Sains Malaysia), Lisa Lapin (Stanford University) , Bill Ayers (University of Illinois-Chicago), among many others.

* Early registration discount ends March 18, 2011: http://guestlistapp.com/events/43005

* For more information, please go to: http://worldviewsconference.com

Message from OCADFA Nominations Committee Members David Chavel and Ted Hunter re Election of Officers and Directors to the OCADFA Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting to be held on Monday, November 29, 2010 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Room 230  – 100 McCaul Street:
_______________________________________________________________________

The following nominations have been received by the OCADFA office for the upcoming elections. 

Nominations for the following positions:

Grievance Chair, 3 year term: Marie-Josee Therrien
Negotiations Chair, 3 year term: Bill Leeming

Director position on the OCADFA Board of Directors
3 year term: John Kuisma

Director position on the OCADFA Board of Directors
1 year remaining on a three year term: Natalie Waldburger

Nominations may also come from the floor at the AGM.

All forms, including proxy forms are linked to our website (ocadfa.ca). Proxy forms are also available from the OCADFA Office – Room 248.  Signed and designated proxy forms may be faxed 4l6-595-0269 scanned at sent to the office conniereid@ocad.ca – all details are outlined on the proxy form.  The deadline to submit a proxy form is Friday, November 26th – noon. Proxies must be registered.

If you have any queries, please contact the office – Connie Reid – Ext. 336 or conniereid@ocadfa.ca

Dear OCADFA Members:

Nominations are now open for the upcoming election of OCADFA Officers and Directors as well the Negotiations Chair and Grievance Chair which will take place at the OCADFA Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday, November 29, 2010 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in room 230.

Completed Nominations Forms (attached here) should be submitted to the OCADFA office (1:00 McCaul Street - Room 248) by noon on November 22nd.  All nominations received will be forwarded to the membership one week prior to the Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Nominations can also be made from the floor during the AGM.

Voting will commence before the 1:30 p.m. adjournment.

All positions will typically be for a three-year term, as stipulated in the Bylaws.

The following positions are open for election:

Grievance Chair - 3 year term- open
Negotiations Chair - 3 year term - open
Director Position - 3 year term - open

Please note that there is one year remaining on a three year Director’s term vacated June 2010 by Lewis Nicholson.  Natalie Waldburger, filled the position temporarily until the November 29th General Members meeting. According to the OCADFA By-laws there is one year left on the term that has to be filled by nomination from the membership.

Director Position - 1 year term - open

Please note that the following Directors/Officers remain in their positions for the following terms:

Sandra Altwerger - President - 1 year left to term (ends 2011)
Tony Kerr - Director - 1 year left to term (ends 2011)
Charles Reeve - Director - 2 years left to term (ends 2012)
Frederick Burbach - Vice President - 2 years left to term (ends 2012))
Christopher Bennell - Secretary/Treasurer - 2 years left to term (ends 2012)

Hello Members:

Please remember to mark your calendar for our Annual General Meeting which takes place on Monday, November 29th from 11:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m. in Room 230.  Agenda and other attachments to follow at a later date.

Connie Reid
OCADFA Executive Assistant
Ontario College of Art & Design Faculty Association
4l6-977-6000 - Ext. 336
conniereid@ocad.ca
www.ocadfa.ca

Dear Members,

Re:  October 25 to 29 is "Fair Employment Week."

The overuse and exploitation of contract academic staff, especially sessionals, is one of the biggest challenges facing the academic profession. That's why the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), which OCADFA is a member of, has joined with a coalition of organizations, unions and activists across the US, Canada and Mexico to organize Fair Employment Week. The goals of the Week are:

1. to raise contingent academic labour issues nationally and locally in media and policy circles,
2. to stimulate organizing and support local collective bargaining initiatives.

Please show support for the OCADFA Sessional Subcommittee and the work of the OCADFA Negotiations Committee in their efforts to achieve fair remuneration and working conditions for our contract academic staff.

Thank you,
Bill Leeming
Negotiations Chair, OCADFA
Associate Professor, Faculty of Liberal Studies OCAD University 100 McCaul St.
Toronto, ON  M5T 1W1

email: bleeming@faculty.ocad.ca

On Thursday, July 29, Vice-President Academic McKinnon sent an email to the OCAD University community to announce that she will be one of eight Ontario university administration representatives participating in sectoral consultations during August regarding a government directive to public sector employers and unions to seek agreements with no net compensation increases for a two year period following the expiry of current agreements.

Bill Leeming and Sandra Altwerger represented OCADFA in a meeting of Ontario university faculty associations hosted by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) on Friday, July 30 to discuss how Ontario Faculty Associations wanted to respond to the government invitation to participate in these consultations.

It was decided by the 131 members present, that the faculty associations should participate. However, because the government has not provided details on the consultation process, none of the faculty association representatives present felt comfortable to participate in the consultations and act on behalf of other faculty associations. (As in the case of the administrations, the government had requested that only eight representatives attend a meeting on August 9.) It was therefore resolved that OCUFA would send a delegation of eight representatives who would attend the consultation for purposes of listening to what the government was proposing. The delegates will then return to tell the collective of faculty association representatives to report what they have heard. At that point, the faculty association representatives will decide what next steps will be.

It has already been resolved by the faculty representatives present that Ontario faculty associations will conduct contract negotiations in the letter and spirit of free collective bargaining, and in the interests of their members and the profession. Furthermore, Ontario faculty associations strenuously oppose any infringement, now or in the future, on free collective bargaining. Further to this, Ontario faculty associations will take such action as is necessary to preserve free collective bargaining in this province and to protect the interests of the people they serve.

Finally, we would like to report that all provincial faculty associations who are currently in negotiations were surveyed to see if any bargaining was on hold, i.e., respecting the government’s request to “pause” until after consultations. We are please to report that there have been NO breaks in negotiation proceedings in this province.

OCADFA will continue to update you as the situation develops.

Dear Members:

It was resolved at the OCADFA Spring General Meeting that there would be a meeting in September to review and update the mandate of the OCADFA Negotiations Committee.

Bill Leeming will Chair the meeting on September l3th from ll:30 a.m. to l:30 p.m. in  Room 230. The meeting is for all members and will focus on the issues to be taken to the bargaining table as well as developments since the Spring General Meeting including the status of provincial governmental policies that may affect bargaining.

Please note that the meeting is for review, questions and discussion pertaining to bargaining only. The resolution made no provision for voting. Proxies will consequently not be necessary.

Bill Leeming
Associate Professor, Faculty of Liberal Studies OCAD University 100 McCaul St.
Toronto, ON  M5T 1W1

email: bleeming@faculty.ocad.ca

Please rsvp your attendance with Connie Reid so that adequate refreshments may be provided (and let us know if you have dietary restrictions as well).

Connie Reid
OCADFA Executive Assistant
Ontario College of Art & Design Faculty Association
4l6-977-6000 - Ext. 336
conniereid@ocad.ca
www.ocadfa.ca

SPRING MEETING MAY 10, 2010
More Notes on recent activities of OCADFA
From OCADFA President, Sandra Altwerger

Intellectual Property
Bill Leeming, Negotiations Chair and Intellectual Property committee members Archie Graham and Tony Kerr, have been working for the past two years hoping to finalize a document for the school. However, there have been numerous delays plus the resignation of Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies, Michael Owen that have made this difficult.

Last week there was finally a meeting with the University administration and legal counsels from both sides. The school has a new lawyer that specializes in Intellectual Property and the discussions went forward quite well. I was able to attend the meeting and could see what an enormous task this has been for the committee. The points of contention have been patenting and copyright and the rights of ownership of the university. Even though we have an appointment scheduled with the arbitrator in December, we are hopeful that the discussions will be finished by then and we will have a good, solid, working document.

New OCAD Document - Respectful Workplace & Learning Environment
OCADFA was asked to take part in the discussions regarding the development of a new workplace policy that will affect all employees and students at the University.

A new Bill is coming into effect in June 15, 2010, that is a significant change to the Health and Safety Act. This is Bill 168 - Addressing Violence and Harassment in the Workplace. The new policy and program are required to cover harassment based on human rights grounds. It was necessary for the university to write this document in order to replace the current Harassment Policy of OCAD.

Jane Ngobia, Director of Diversity& Equity Initiatives, and I met in March to review the document. It was passed at the last Board of Governor’s meeting in April. The emphasis is on a no tolerance policy on bullying in the workplace. The changes in this document will require negotiating changes to Article 6.3.1, regarding Collegial Behaviour, and Appendix A - Academic Freedom in the Memorandum of Agreement.

Course Scheduling - the Registrar is continuing to send OCADFA updates about the progress of the scheduling process this year. There are still some details to be agreed upon between the Vice President, Academic and myself, but I am hopeful that this can be finalized at the Joint Committee meeting scheduled for June.

The Academic Freedom Fund at CAUT
All of the universities across Canada are contributing to a fund set up by CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers). This fund was established in order to help out any of the member organizations that may be affected by catastrophic expenses in the defense of academic freedom. This is a very worthy cause and this year OCADFA donated a thousand dollars to the fund. This was the first donation by OCADFA even though the fund has been set up for several years. You can see an update of the money donated to the fund when you read your CAUT Bulletin. This publication is placed in the mail room of your department every month and is an excellent resource as it contains information from universities all across Canada.

Elections at OCADFA
There will be a Director’s position filled on the Board of Directors by sessional faculty, Natalie Waldburger, as Lewis Nicholson will be leaving the Board of Directors to go on sabbatical leave. I would like to thank Lewis for his participation on the Board of Directors for the last two and a half years. He has been a valued and important participant at OCADFA.

This leaves the rest of his term to be filled. According to our by-laws, Article 4.01, the Board of Directors is allowed to appoint any member until the next general meeting. There was a strong feeling from sessional faculty that they wanted to name someone to fill the position until the November elections as they felt unrepresented at OCADFA. OCADFA welcomes all members to be nominated and be elected to the Board of Directors. There has been representation from sessional faculty at OCADFA for many years in the past and we welcome more sessional faculty representation now.

There will be an election at the Annual General Meeting of OCADFA to elect someone to fill the position for the final year of Lewis’ term. OCADFA is a participatory democracy and as positions become available, all members can be nominated and elected by the members.

Committee Members Needed:
- Health and Safety Committee still needs one more member.
- Academic Council - Judith Doyle has finished a three year term. Many thanks to Judith for her excellent service to OCADFA

If you think you would like to participate in the activities of OCADFA and be a part of these very important committees please forward your name to our Executive Assistant, Connie Reid at ext. 336

Dear Members:

Please note that our Spring General Meeting date has been rescheduled from April l9th to Monday, May l0th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in Room 230 - l00 McCaul Street.

Agenda and attachments to follow at a later date.

Hello Members:

OCUFA (Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations) is calling for submissions for the 37th Annual OCUFA Teaching and Academic Librarianship Awards.  If you would like to recommend one of your colleagues guidelines are available on the OCUFA website - www.ocufa.on.ca. Nominations normally range between 50 and 75 pages (12 categories). 

Deadlines for submission is May 7, 2010

Please contact the OCADFA office for a hard copy of the guidelines

Connie Reid
OCADFA Executive Assistant
conniereid@ocadfa.ca
Room 248 - 100 McCaul Street
Ext. 336