Report on 97th CAUT Council Meeting

In November I attended the 97th Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Council Meeting in Ottawa. The reason why I particularly wanted to participate in this Council was that I am submitting my nomination to be Chair of the Contract Academic Staff (CAS) committee. The election will be at the next Council this spring. My participation in the November Council meant that I learned more about the current issues at CAUT and that I could talk to delegates that would be likely to be voting at the election. I accomplished this through numerous conversations with delegates I already knew and by meeting first-time delegates.

It was fortunate that I was at Council because it was there that I found out about the Senate by-election at Saint Mary’s University (SMU; see the Senate petition and update). Cathy Conrad, President of the Saint Mary’s University Faculty Union (SMUFU; which represents full-time academics and librarians), helped me navigate through the nomination process and various staff at CAUT provided advice for me and Erica (CUPE 3912’s SMU Vice President for Part-Time Faculty, who I was emailing constantly throughout Council) about our next steps for securing our right to vote and run for SMU Senate.

As with conferences much discussion and socializing goes on outside of the actual meeting, but there were also important agenda items as part of the meeting itself. The most interesting items were the two emergency resolutions from member associations. The first of these, from the Mount Saint Vincent University Faculty Association (MSVUFA) was a motion to support the association to get the employer to sign their collective agreement, which they had been neglecting to do for months; simply putting this on the Council agenda worked since the employer signed later that day! The other motion about the working definition of anti-semitism and sanctions of the State of Israel was more controversial and time-consuming. Most of the disagreement related to procedure – does this count as an emergency motion? Can we approve this if we have done so already? Should we do something now or wait? There were multiple amendments and votes resulting in an amended motion being accepted if I remember correctly. The part I really disliked was that one delegate on each side appeared to harass the Chair of Council while he was doing a great job in very challenging circumstances.

Other highlights include a report on a survey of public attitudes of post-secondary education in Canada, in which Brad Lavigne from Counsel Public Affairs (one of Canada’s leading public affairs agencies) summarized the results as saying the Conservative Party will win the next federal election but that most Canadians still value universities and its instructors. There were the usual reports and policy statements including one on distance education. The most important item for us was squeezed in at the last minute just before adjournment. A motion to change the procedure for selecting CAS committee members was approved. Before the committee was composed of the 6 largest CAS member associations plus one each representing middle and small associations. We lost out because of this when we were dropped from the committee years ago when we moved from 6th largest to 7th largest. I am only on the committee now after submitting my nomination three years ago to represent medium-sized associations. But now the rules have changed to be similar to other CAUT committees that are composed of 8 CAS members, regardless of the size of the association. 

CAUT also presented its federal election campaign called Unlock Education and mentioned their January lobbying efforts. CAUT encouraged and provided training for members to meet with their MPs in January. Erica and I participated in the training and met with Member of Parliament Lena Diab a few weeks ago. Our meeting was very successful. We heard about how Lena understands the importance of post-secondary education and how she blames the conservatives for resisting efforts of the Science and Research Committee to achieve things like increasing funding for students and researchers. Our key accomplishment was establishing a connection with one of our MPs and sharing stories about part-time instructors.

I am submitting my nomination to continue to be part of the CAS committee and to be its chair. Stay tuned to find out the results of the election in early May. I believe that it is important that CUPE 3912 and Atlantic Canada have a strong representation in CAUT.

In solidarity,

Karen Harper

Karen Harper continues her dedication and commitment to helping improve working conditions for CUPE 3912 members and contract academic staff across Canada through her roles as a member of the CAUT CAS committee (Canadian Association of University Teachers Contract Academic Staff committee). She also recently joined the committee for COCAL (Coalition of Contract Academic Labour). Her experience with CAUT is extensive, having attended numerous Council meetings, forums (for presidents, bargaining officers), webinars and workshops. Within CUPE 3912, Karen was Communications Officer from 2016 to 2019 followed by President from 2019 to 2022. She currently still helps CUPE 3912, particularly with mobilization for SMU. Karen has taught in Biology at the Mount; in Biology, Management and Environmental Science at Dal; and in Applied Science, Biology, Geography and Environmental Science at SMU. Her main motivation for being involved in the labour movement is to try to get more paid research opportunities for CAS – see her article ‘Working part time in name only’  in the CAUT March 2018 Bulletin. Her research focuses on vegetation at forest edges.