Dear Colleagues,
We would like to draw your attention to two upcoming events and two new resources:
1. Anti-Racism Workshop – Tuesday April 6th (4:00 pm to 6:00 pm)
This free workshop organized by CUPE 3908 and co-sponsored by TUFA is designed to inspire and guide participating members on ways to incorporate the fight against racism and discrimination into their academic work. The workshop, led by Future Ancestors Services, will interrogate identity and its impact on our worldview before exploring racism, what whiteness means, and how this is all ingrained in present-day academia. Click here to register.
2. GMM Continuance – Wednesday April 21 (10:00 am – Noon).
It was decided at last week’s General Membership Meeting to schedule a continuance meeting in April to conclude the agenda. We will send updated meeting information nearer to the date, but for now would ask that members note the morning of the 21st in their calendars. Since this meeting will be yet another shared on Zoom, we would also draw your attention to some common-sense research and advice from Stanford on Zoom fatigue.
3. OCUFA Policy on Policing
On February 20th of this year, the OCUFA Board passed a motion supporting a policy position around policing. The policy came to be after discussions about how campuses could be safer for all students, staff and faculty and includes the following calls:
• Moving to anti-carceral safety measures on and off campus;
• Supporting community movements and organizations working to change policing systems and increase racial justice and equity
• Increasing mental health supports and funding on campus (both individual counselling services and increased training for all areas of campus including residences, faculty, support staff etc.);
• Moving away from private security firms hired to monitor spaces;
• Supporting Black, Indigenous and racialized faculty and student initiatives for safe spaces on and off campus, and in exploring alternatives to policing including restorative justice models and Indigenous models of truth telling and harm reparations.
4. New CAUT Journal
Our national affiliate has launched a new online refereed publication. The CAUT Journal is a forum for critically engaged articles on a wide range of topics related to academic staff, post-secondary education, labour and academic freedom. Editorial guidelines are available on the CAUT Journal website. The CAUT Journal will post new articles throughout the year as they are accepted for publication. Four articles are currently available:
• Getting Good Agreements: Does Third-Party Intervention Improve Faculty Union Contracts? by Jennifer Dekker and Cecile Farnum
• Academic Freedom: Freedom of Expression’s Vulnerable Child by Mark Gabbert
• The Properties of Universities and Universities’ Property — Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Accessing Campuses by Sarah Hamill
• Les limites de la liberté d’expression à l’Université by Pierre Trudel
In Solidarity
Marcus