Weekly Update – October 2

October 2, 2020

Weekly Update – October 2

Statement on Detainment of Cihan Erdal

CUASA strongly condemns the detainment of Carleton PhD student, and CUPE 4600 member, Cihan Erdal in Turkey. A statement from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology says Cihan and 81 others, including academics, activists, and politicians, have been targeted because they are all signatories to a letter from six years ago calling for the Turkish government to step in to protect a Kurdish town from ISIS attacks, during a time when ISIS was quite active and many Kurds were being killed.

The department is encouraging people to demand the release of Cihan from detention and demand that the Canadian government consular offices support Cihan, who is a permanent resident of Canada. To see the full statement from SOAN, as well as contact information for the Embassy of Canada to Turkey, click here. To sign the petition in support of Cihan, click here.

You can read CUPE 4600’s statement here, CAUT’s statement here, and OCUFA’s statement here.

Winter Term Officially Online

Carleton President Bacon announced this week that the Senate has confirmed that all Winter 2021 courses will be offered online or through other distance methods, with possible leeway for some on-campus instruction (labs, capstone projects, etc.), if circumstances allow.

Fall Term Grade Options

President Bacon also announced that the Senate is considering the implementation of compassionate grading practices for the 2020-2021 academic year, such as allowing for the use of “UNS” instead of an “F”. This topic will return to Senate at the October meeting.

2021 Achievement Awards Competition

The competition for the Carleton University 2021 Achievement Awards is now open. Here are the awards available to CUASA members and the due dates for applications:

• Five $15,000 Teaching Achievement Awards(applications are due Oct. 31).
• Ten $15,000 Research Achievement Awards(applications are due Oct. 31).
• Five $10,000 Professional Achievement Awards(instructor applications are due Nov. 20).
• Two $10,000 Professional Achievement Awards(for professional librarians). Nominations must be made to the Peer Evaluation Committee, which must submit its selections to the University Librarian by Nov. 20. For details, please consult with the University Librarian.

Here is some information on the support available for applications:

• Contact the Carleton Office for Research Initiatives and Services at [email protected] or the Office of the Dean of your Faculty if you have questions about the Research Achievement Awards.
• Contact Faculty Affairs at [email protected] if you need assistance with Teaching Achievement Award, Professional Achievement Award applications.
• More information is available in the CUASA Collective Agreement. Click here to read Article 41.

Shared Online Projects Initiative

Carleton Provost Jerry Tomberlin has announced the second round of the Shared Online Projects Initiativewith the University of Ottawa.

As we’ve announced previously, those who choose to voluntarily participate in this initiative will produce materials under a Creative Commons license, which will allow the materials to be shared, adopted, adapted, and refused at one of the participating institutions. Participants will be able to retain intellectual property rights in that their work will be attributed to them. That said, we want to ensure that our members are fully informed about what their participation in this initiative means: that any slides, notes, lecture content, creative formatting, creative assignments, reading lists, etc. that you create as part of the SOPI can be changed or adapted in future iterations of the project.

CUASA Business and Events

Nominations for Steering Positions

We are still accepting nominations for the following Steering positions:

• Communications Officer
• Chair, Nominations and Elections
• Chair, Internal Affairs
• Instructor Representative

Information on the nominations process can be found on our How to Volunteer page. The work of the Association continues, despite the current environment we find ourselves in. Remember that our Association is only as strong as its membership, so we count on the time and commitment of our members to achieve our goals. Some of these positions come with a course release subject to the availability of funds.

Call for Volunteer: JCEE

We are seeking one CUASA member to serve on the Joint Committee on Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JCEE). Details on the mandate of this important committee can be found here. If you are interested in serving on the JCEE, please email [email protected].

Academic Community Updates

Report shows majority of Ontario universities didn’t consult faculty or students about COVID-19 responses

A new report, published by OCUFA’s University Governance Committee, highlights the concerning results of the “University Governance during COVID-19” survey. Among its findings, it shows that an overwhelming 88 per cent of faculty association respondents considered their institution’s pandemic response to be top-down in nature. Click here to read more.

In case you missed it: Watch the recording of Combatting anti-Black racism in the academy

Did you miss OCUFA’s webinar on Combatting anti-Black racism in the academy? The video has now been posted and can be viewed on the OCUFA website.

Your Rights on Evictions and AGIs

From ACORN Canada:

“ACORN has been fighting for rent relief/assistance measures to ensure that people are not evicted and rendered homeless as all levels of government call upon everyone to stay home. However, we are seeing an escalating housing crisis on top of an ongoing health crisis as tenants continue to face severe hardship due to rent increases, AGIs, no rent support for individual tenants from any level of government, vacancy decontrol, renovictions and much more!

To know more about your rights as tenants in the event of Evictions and Above the Guideline Rent Increases, commonly known as AGIs, click here.

If you haven’t sent a letter to Premier Doug Ford, Housing Minister Steve Clark and your MPP yet, do so now to tell them to include Vacancy Control and AGIs in the newly introduced rent freeze legislation. Click here.”