Durham College Administration Sharing DC Connect Materials
All Durham College faculty need to be aware that the college may be sharing any/all documents posted to DC Connect.
Our faculty put students first, and as a result, many professors choose to fully utilize DC Connect in order to maximize the student experience and student success. However, faculty also need to be aware that Durham College does NOT believe that professors’ intellectual property belongs to the professor who created it.
This semester, a full time Durham College professor learned that teaching materials previously posted on DC Connect had been shared with a part-time professor without knowledge or consent.
All full time faculty should be aware that the college asserts a claim of ownership to materials produced by Durham College faculty, and as a result, anything posted to DC Connect could potentially be shared without knowledge or consent.
We, your union local leadership, feel that faculty should have rights of ownership regarding anything we create. This is an accepted concept for university faculty under “intellectual property.” Unfortunately, at the college level, Ontario college administrators do not agree: CAAT-A has asked for intellectual property protection in bargaining over many rounds, without success. All faculty need to consider whether ownership of the materials they create should be an issue they are willing to fight for.