AUFA membership pass motions on Israel and Laurentian University at AGM

The 2021 AUFA General Meeting was held this past Tuesday with 185 members attending, approximately 44% of the current AUFA membership. This incredible turnout is thanks to engaged, active, and interested members who are taking charge of their own futures at Athabasca University. President of CAUT, Brenda-Austin Smith spoke at the AGM extensively on how executive incompetence mixed with austerity led to insolvency at Laurentian University, and the censure at University of Toronto over academic freedom.

AUFA members also endorsed a new equity statement and an Indigenous Audit of the association, both of which will be discussed on the AUFA website soon.

Motion on Israel, Palestine, and the University of Toronto

The CAUT censure of University of Toronto has brought to bear substantive academic freedom issues relating to scholarship on Israeli settlement and apartheid. Academic research that is critical of the Israeli occupation faces undue censorship and restrictions compared to research on any other number of controversial topics, and it is vital that faculty associations not only stand forth to defend academic freedom, but that they speak to the issue at hand with a collective voice.

AUFA condemns in the strongest terms all attempts to censor and contain legitimately scholarly research on the teaching of human rights and international law violations against Palestinians and Palestine. We publicly support, and voted for CAUT censure of the University of Toronto over this issue.

The motion, which was passed with a 74% majority, reads as follows:

Be it resolved, because Palestinians have the right to exist, we condemn the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and continuing apartheid settler colonial practices of the State of Israel.

Because of the ongoing violations of human rights, forced evictions, deliberate destruction of buildings, and putting civilian life in peril perpetrated by the State of Israel towards Palestinians, we condemn the apartheid State of Israel and stand in support for an immediate ceasefire and end of the violence. 

We call on the Athabasca University Faculty Association and the university to condemn in the strongest terms the attempts to censor and contain legitimate scholarly research on and teaching of these human rights and international law violations against Palestinians and Palestine, and we call on AUFA to publicly support CAUT's censure of the University of Toronto.

Laurentian University

A second motion was passed with a 91% majority to demand the immediate resignation of the entire Laurentian University executive. AUFA once faced vague threats of insolvency in our past and the horrors visited about Laurentian University staff who have been denied access to their union and collective agreement rights must never be repeated. This is due to the incredible incompetence of the Laurentian University executive, and the mindless austerity of the Ontario Minister of Advanced Education Ross Romano.

The AUFA President will send a public letter demanding the resignation of the Laurentian University executive in the near future per the motion.

Motion text reads as follows:

That AUFA demand that all members of the Laurentian Executive resign effective immediately over the issues of financial mismanagement and invocation of Companies Creditors Arrangement Act Insolvency. 

AUFA Executive

The new AUFA Executive will see David Powell and Gail Leicht return as President and Treasurer for second terms. Stepping up as Vice-President will be Serena Henderson, and Dawn Mercer Riseli will be the new Secretary. The elected roster of constituency representatives is Lisa Boone, Travis Burwash, Bangaly Kaba, Joanna Nemeth, Darka Pavlovic, Rhiannon Rutherford, Ingo Schmidt, Myra Tait, and Jason Foster.

Marti Cleveland-Innes will serve as the new Board of Governors Representative, replacing Derek Briton who has fulfilled his term limit as BoG rep. Thank you for your service and excellent reports, Derek. In addition a large slate of elected committees has been filled. All new terms begin on July 1st.

Thank you to the AUFA members for your support, the incredible turnout, and ongoing engagement and participation. This is how we win.

David Powell

President, Athabasca University Faculty Association