Dear OCADFA Members:

As I said yesterday, we’ve received several queries about the best way to respond to the survey recently sent out by Carole Beaulieu.

Many people, and not just in OCADFA, have concerns about the process. These concerns include, without being limited to: (1) renewing a president for a third term lies far outside best governance practices; (2) the review process is inconsistent with the principles of bicameral governance; and (3) the survey promises anonymity but requires your name and email address. The optics around this are very poor.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether, and how, to participate. However, we would say that not responding generally is interpreted as not caring—and we definitely care. So, in response to the numerous requests for guidance that we’ve had, we offer the following suggestions:

  1. While several constituencies are looking for ways to challenge this process’s legitimacy, it’s still useful for you to complete the survey as accurately and honestly as you can;
  2. Where you have sufficient knowledge to provide an informed answer, do so;
  3. Where you feel you have insufficient knowledge to provide an informed answer, it is completely appropriate and acceptable to say that.
  4. Regarding the question about Sara Diamond’s fitness for another five-year term, one fair, responsible answer is that this would best be determined through an open, international search, to which the incumbent would be invited to apply. Another possibility would be to invoke the point I made at the top of this note: regardless of Sara Diamond’s merits or demerits, a third term is far outside best practices in university governance.

You have until April 20th to complete the questionnaire, so there’s still time to think about it.

As I also mentioned yesterday, another question people have asked in connection with this, is whether we can distribute the results of our survey. The answer is, yes, and we’re preparing a document now that we hope to circulate in the next few days.

As always, thanks for all you do to advance the quality of education at OCAD University a better place to learn.

Best regards,

Charles