This is a slide. It is green-yellow text on a black background with the OCADFA logo placed at the bottom right corner. The text reads "OCADFA Report on Fiscal and Collegial Governance Fall 2021
This is a slide. It is green-yellow text on a black background with the OCADFA logo placed at the bottom right corner. The text reads: Transparency, Audit statement takeaways, flow implementation and working conditions, continuation of fiscal planning.
This is a slide. It is white and orange text on a black background with the OCADFA logo placed at the bottom right corner. The text reads with a heading titled TRANSPARENCY. It continues below, "Many of us have heard that flow, online teaching, and the restructuring of our library are necessary due to budgetary constraints. But most of us would like to see more transparency in how these decisions are being made." To the left of the slide is an infographic showing a sideways bar graph which answers the question posed above. The question reads: "The third-party review (Trick report) presented to the Board of Governors last Fall identified several recommendations where changes could be made to eliminate OCADU's current budgetary deficit. These include curricular changes associated with Flow. The report also identified partnerships like OCADUCO, and recommended continued investment in OCADUCO as a profit generator. Would you like to see more detailed financial information about projects like OCADUCO made available to the OCADU community?" The bar graph indicates that just a little under 80% responded YES. A small percentage (maybe 2-3%) responded NO. Just under 20% responded with NOT SURE
This is a slide. It is beige, white and orange text on a black background with the OCADFA logo placed at the bottom right corner. To the right of the slide is the header title TRANSPARENCY and below this reads: "On May 28, 2020, the Chair of the Board of Governors, Jaime Watt, sent a response to the motion from Senate to the Chair of Senate." The quoted text on the left of the slide reads: "Having received this motion, the Board and management agree that strengthening the working relationship between the governing bodies at OCAD University must be our top priority. We face so many challenges, from so many fronts, that we need to find a way to move forward and, together, build a sustainable and vibrant future for our University. That's why I am responding to Senators concerns that management and the Board did not provide robust enough consultation mechanisms around the changes that are taking place with our Library. That was never the intention. We very much regret that some members of our community did not feel heard. And I wanted to be clear today that we are committed to doing better. Doing better means doing better together."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "EPIC FAIL REGARDING COMMITMENT TO TRANSPARENCY." Below the title, the text reads: "Last week the University Administration posted the financial audit from KPMG for the 2019/2020 Fiscal Year to the OCADU website without announcement or context. You can find it here: https://www.ocadu.ca/about/accountability" The link has been added to the image caption.
https://www.ocadu.ca/about/accountability
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "TAKEAWAYS" The body content reads: "We should note that the audit document is not a budget. It is a record of the implementation of the 2020 fiscal year. The audit takes as its end date May 2021."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "TAKEAWAYS" and below it in green coloured font reads: "Analysis by Graeme Reniers" The text body reads: "Between May 2020 and May 2021 (Our pandemic year) OCADU generated a surplus ("excess of revenue over expenses") of $6,699,584." Bullet points read: "Last year's surplus was $14,513,3999 but that was mostly due to selling buildings. If you exclude gains on investment* (ie selling buildings) then this past year's surplus was $5,699,584 and the year before was $1,233,432. Essentially, this means that throughout the pandemic, the University has actually been operating at a surplus, which has now added up to $6.9 million dollars." Below the bulleted text is an asterisk that reads: "*It's important for fiscal sustainability not to treat gains on investment as regular cash flow, because selling off assets to pay operating costs means eventually you run out of assets to sell."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "TAKEAWAYS" and below it in green coloured font reads: "Analysis by Graeme Reniers" The text body reads: "The Surplus Came From" and below in bulleted form the text continues, "Increase in revenue from student fees: Student fees went up by $4.8 million last year, and $3.9 million the year before, so student fees have increased by $8.7 million in the last two academic years. A lot of this is driven by increased enrolment and supported by our amazing work transitioning to online teaching, which meant a good rate of student retention." The next bullet point reads: "Stagnation, or decrease, in Academic salaries and benefits: In 2020-21 the University spent $2.2 million less on academic salaries and benefits than they did in 2019-2020, to essentially return us to 2018-2019 levels. (Not that there are far more students with us now than in 2018/2019). The last bullet point reads: "Facility management and operating decrease: Likely associated with the pandemic, the university spent $1.7 million less on facility management and operating costs than it spent two years ago."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "TAKEAWAYS" and below it in green coloured font reads: "Analysis by Graeme Reniers" The text body reads: "With these decreases and the increase in student fees, if everything else stayed flat then you would expect a cumulative surplus of $10.4 million in the last few years. Where did the additional $3.5 million go?" In three bullet points the text continues: "Non-Academic expenses that have increased by almost $1.3 million in the last two years. Writing-off $1.6 million worth of debts owed by OCAD U CO. These two things take up most of that $3.5 million (other, less substantial causes are lowered class fees and supply sales due to the pandemic, and lowered donations)"
This is a screenshot of a slide. At the top in orange font the title reads: "Flow Implementation and working conditions" To the right the white text reads: "In this context it becomes clear what is causing the workload increase we have been experiencing in the last two years." The graphic in the centre is a bar graph and answers the question "In your opinion, if your workload has increased, is that primarily due to:" Out of 104 answered and 0 skipped the bar graph shows approximately 6-7% answered increased class..., approximately 36% answered online delivery, approximately 52% answered "a combination of both" and approximately 7-8% replied "my workload has remained (same)." At the bottom right of the screenshot is the OCADFA logo.
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange, white and green-yellow font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "FLOW IMPLEMENTATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS" and below it in white and green coloured font the text body reads: "75% of respondents reported an increase in class size during the last academic year (and during COVID-19), with 37% of us reporting an over 40% increase in enrolment. 31% of us reported working over 40 hours a week fulfilling teaching and teaching-related duties alone. Of the technicians, academic staff, and faculty, 65% reported increased workload this term from Winter 2020, with almost 50% reporting an over 20% increase in workload. 57% reported that implementing recommendations from the FCDC caused an increase in workload."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and white font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "FLOW IMPLEMENTATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS" and there is a screenshot of a report page which reads: "61. The implementation of the Flow Curricular Change Process further includes the establishment of specific targets for the number of course sections that will be offered by OCAD University in each of the four years in which this process is implemented. These targets were shared with OCADFA as part of the discussions concerning the Flow Curricular Change Process that occurred at Senate and elsewhere. These annual total section targets are set out in the table below." The table below is set up with six columns and four rows. The title of the table reads "Flow Curricular Change Process - Total Sections offered at OCAD University." The column titles are dates by year. The first row reads: "Total Number of Courses" and from left to right the stats read: "2019-2020 - 1685, 2020-2021 - 1380, 2021-2022 - 1146, 2022-2023 - 1034, 2023-2024 - 980." The next row down reads: "Section Reduction Year over Year" and shows nothing for the year 2019-2020, -18.1% in 2020-2021, -16.9% in 2021-2022, -9.7% in 2022-2023, -5.2% in 2023-2024. The last row reads: "Total % of Section Reduction" and is blank for 2019-2020, -18.1% for 2020-2021, -31.9% for 2021-2022, -38.6% for 2022-2023 and -41.8% for 2023-2024. At the right of this image is the text "and according to the future planning expressed in the admin's 2020 arbitration brief, this is a direction that will be accelerated in the years to come."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange, white and green-yellow font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "FLOW IMPLEMENTATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS" and below it in white and green coloured font the text body reads: "Of the 50 OCADFA teaching faculty respondents so far, 62% who have gone through the FLOW process reported that it has affected the amount of time they were able to spend individually with their students. Only 1.94% of respondents reported that their program was able to add sections and course offerings to meet student needs and enrolment numbers where necessary." The text along the right hand portion of the slide reads: "In turn, this direction is severely affecting our ability to meet the needs of our students and to continue OCADU's tradition of excellence in studio-based learning."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange, white and green-yellow highlighted black font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "FLOW IMPLEMENTATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS" and below it the text body reads: "Over half of us have developed physical and mental health conditions linked to online teaching/work. In our analysis, this is linked to the exacerbated workload and other stressors that online work and teaching entail." To the right of the slide, white text reads: "It is also affecting the long-term sustainability of faculty and staff recruitment and retention."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and white font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "FLOW IMPLEMENTATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS" and there is a screenshot of a bar graph which reads: "Have you developed any physical or mental health conditions that you would link to the requirements of providing online course delivery or otherwise working from home?" Out of 104 answers and 0 skipped the graph shows approximately 51-52% answered Yes and 47-48% answered No. The white text to the right of the bar graph reads: "By profoundly affecting our health at work, which is already suffering to an intolerable degree."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and white font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "FLOW IMPLEMENTATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS" and there is a screenshot of a bar graph which reads: "How has the shift to online teaching, or otherwise working from home, affected your stress levels, mood, and well-being?" Out of 104 answers and 0 skipped the graph shows approximately 3-4% answered "it has caused my stress..." and 71% answered "it has caused my stress..." approximately 24-25% said it has been about the same. The white text to the right of the bar graph reads: "Even those of us who have not yet developed a workplace related health condition as a result of these factors are at significant risk for burnout and future injury."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "THE SHAPE OF THINGS THAT DO NOT HAVE TO COME" The body of the text reads: "OCADU does not have the physical infrastructure to accommodate the increases in class sizes that we see proposed here. We must therefore conclude that the large-format online and "Hybrid" lecture and studio courses proposed as means to serve our students during COVID-19 is now being incorporated into university planning as a long-term curricular restructuring project (without consultation with OCADFA, OPSEU, or the University Senate)."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "THE SHAPE OF THINGS THAT DO NOT HAVE TO COME" The body of the text reads: "In other words the surplus that was generated through our hardship and intensified workloads during COVID-19 is being seen as a sustainable path by the administration and the board. In response to a crisis, we all worked harder and put up with more. Now it's become the 'new normal.'"
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "THE SHAPE OF THINGS THAT DO NOT HAVE TO COME" The body of the text reads: "What is this doing to our students? 1) Students are not able to access courses on a timeline that allows them to complete their degrees on time. 2) Students are not receiving the educational experience that they have paid dearly for. 3) Students are noticing that there are not enough faculty to run classes here."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "THE SHAPE OF THINGS THAT DO NOT HAVE TO COME" The body of the text reads: "Unless we speak up, a 'new normal' will take root as 'inevitable'. We can change this. Unlike employees in other sectors, we have unique tools to organize with. OCADFA will continue using our channels: membership meetings, the Joint Committee, the JHSC, or MoA and grievances when necessary. But as faculty and university workers, we are under-using our voice in powerful platforms created by OCAD U's bylaws: The Senate and the Board of Governors. We must use these spaces to organize and build the kind of university we want to work and study in."
This is a screenshot of a slide. It is a black background with orange and beige font. At the lower right is the OCADFA logo. The header title reads: "THE SHAPE OF THINGS THAT DO NOT HAVE TO COME" The body of the text reads: "Contact OCADFA (OCADFA.CA/CONTACT)" - link in image caption. Or through our executive director Graeme Reniers, if you are interested in getting involved in this critical push."
Link to OCADFA Contact Page Here. Our Executive Director, Graeme Reniers, can be reached at greniers@ocadfa.ca

Current OCADFA Board Members and Staff:

OCADFA Staff: Executive Director, Graeme Reniers

OCADFA Executive:

President, Min Sook Lee

Vice President, Mary Eileen Wennekers

Secretary Treasurer, Chris Bennell

Negotiations Chair, Eric Steenbergen

Grievance Chair, Natalie Waldburger

Associate Grievance Chair, Richard Hunt

Director at Large, J.J. Lee

Director at Large, Laura Lovell Anderson

Director at Large Tannis Nielsen