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Thursday, May 6, 2010
MORE NOTES ON RECENT ACTIVITIES OF OCADFA
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
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