At a recent Connect with the President session, Neil Fassina commented on the transfer credit boycott claiming he did not understand the boycott, and that it was unrelated to the Designation as Academic Policy. There seems to be some confusion about this, so here is some clarifying information.
What is the transfer credit boycott?
Since August, several faculty associations from universities across Canada have contacted Athabasca University. Their letters indicate that if members are removed from AUFA without consent, they will instruct their members to stop recommending AU for transfer credit.
Currently, there is no active boycott. There is the potential for a boycott if AU proceeds with removing members from AUFA.
Why is AUFA doing this?
AU recently passed a new Designation as Academic Policy. This policy can be used to kick members out of AUFA through de-designation. If removed from AUFA, our members could lose protections and pay, and they could be removed from their pension plan.
Representatives from AUFA, AUPE, and CUPE participated in six months of consultations about this policy and raised many concerns. AUFA members are extremely grateful to AUPE and CUPE for their remarkable solidarity in opposing this new policy. AU, however, forged ahead with passing the policy despite not providing any rationale for why it is necessary or articulating what benefit it might bring to AU.
Now that the policy is live, AUFA faces the potential of complete destruction by AU. In an effort to fully represent and defend our members, we reached out for assistance to our sister associations across the country. AUFA has no desire to negatively affect students or enrolment growth at AU, but we have an obligation to do whatever we can to protect our members and prevent the destruction of our union.
Is it working?
Yes. Shortly after the potential boycott was announced, AU made last-minute changes to the policy that softened its immediate impact. To date, no members have been removed from AUFA, though it is still within AU’s power to do so.
We believe that if the potential boycott remains a concern, AU is less likely to remove our members. As such, we will continue to solicit commitments to boycott from other faculty associations. If AU agrees to not remove members from AUFA without consent, we will instruct all associations to stand down and the potential boycott will be off the table.
Why did Neil say he does not understand the boycott?
It is not clear why President Fassina would discuss this potential boycott in the way that he did. He would have had access to all the letters from our sister associations and was present at a half-hour presentation AUFA gave to the Board of Governors about designation. That this potential boycott is not yet active—and that it is within AU’s power to prevent it—should be very clear to him.
Any AU staff members (not just AUFA members!) with questions about AUFA’s actions are encouraged to contact AUFA.
David Powell
President, AUFA