Edit: This post originally stated there was no member of AU Executive Team at the meeting. This is incorrect as the Chief Human Resources Officers is a member of executive. The post has been corrected.
This blog provides an update on AUFA’s efforts to resist AU’s plan to de-designate, including AUFA’s latest proposal to resolve the issue.
Mixed messages by Fassina
In his September 24 Connect with the President session, President Fassina asserted that AU had no “master plan” to de-designate staff when changes to the Designation as Academic Policy were introduced. This is difficult to reconcile with the named exclusion of positions from AUFA that AU included in all but the final versions of the policy.
These named exclusions included deans, associate deans, managers, and systems analysts (basically some or all IT staff). The inclusion of named exclusions demonstrates that AU did have a plan to exclude at least some AUFA members from the union when the policy was introduced. It is unclear why Fassina would say otherwise.
Fassina also indicated that AU does intend to implement the policy that the Board passed. Despite being pressed for clarity, Fassina declined to disclose when this implementation would occur, who would be affected by it, or how they would be affected (e.g., the pension implications).
MRU joins boycott pledge
The faculty association at Mount Royal University has signed on to AUFA’s visiting student boycott pledge. The MRFA indicated that, should AU de-designate AUFA members, MRFA will:
“…advise its faculty to no longer recommend AU for letters of permission. We will ask them to point our students to other institutions such as Thompson Rivers University for letters of permission. The Association will also advise its members to review all AU transfer arrangements with a view to delisting them.”
MRU is the latest faculty association to sign on, joining the associations at Alberta, British Columbia, Brock, Lethbridge, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Simon Fraser, and Western.
De-designation in the media
One of the business risks associated with AU’s efforts to de-designate AUFA members is reputational harm. This week, we saw the first indication of that de-designation will damage AU’s reputation among potential students. The University of Manitoba student newspaper reported on the issue after an interview with U of M faculty association President Michael Shaw.
“Shaw also recently issued a letter to the chair of Athabasca University’s (AU) board of governors on behalf of the UMFA in support of the Athabasca University Faculty Association (AUFA), joining the visiting student boycott pledge. AU’s board of governors passed the designation as academic policy Sept. 11, which AUFA said in a post on their website would “give [Athabasca University] a way to carve out approximately two-thirds [of] AUFA’s members from the bargaining unit.”
“Precarious employment is a huge issue for universities across Canada, really around the world,” Shaw said.
“And there are some places that people have job security so that they have full and fair academic freedom to state controversial opinions and to really expand on learning for the students.
“And when you take away that academic freedom, when people are moved into a precarious position, it really significantly impacts the quality of the teaching that can occur.”
The faculty associations of the Universities of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Western Ontario and Lethbridge have all issued similar letters condemning the policy and advising AU that members will no longer be recommending Athabasca to students to complete credits if any AUFA members are de-designated.
“We are encouraging our members not to do that, not to use University of Athabasca resources if they continue down this track,” Shaw said.
“We can certainly tell our students there are good options at Brandon [University] if you don’t have an option here, there are good options at U of W if you don’t have an option here and there [are] options at the University [College] of the North, so you don’t have to use Athabasca.””
AUFA proposes settlement of designation fight
In an effort to limit further reputational and financial harm to the institution, AUFA proposed a possible resolution during today’s labour-management meeting. In short, AUFA proposed:
AUFA would stop the visiting student boycott and cease organizing anti-designation protests if
AU agrees that, for a period of five years, de-designation of current AUFA positions can only occur if AUFA consents to the de-designation.
The President and the Provost, who normally attend, did not attend the labour-management meeting so AUFA left this offer with the HR representatives in the meeting.
David Powell, President