Your local Durham College union representatives urge you to re-consider the importance of intellectual property because of the following developments: Ontario colleges’ claim of ownership of teaching materials produced by faculty; the growth in electronic and on-line delivery; and, the gross increase in contract and part-time teaching at our college and across the Ontario college system.
Since September, 2013, Durham College has offered up to 8 hours to many professors in return for new course design including “deliverables” (posted on their Course Preparation Compensation Guide). This matrix includes “all content,” “all lesson plans,” tests, quizzes, answer sheets, rubrics, assignments, etc.
After consulting with Durham management, your local union representatives have clarified that deliverables will NOT be required to be forwarded to managers. There will NOT be any discipline for any faculty who do not forward these deliverables. Unfortunately, however, this does NOT apply to Partial Load faculty, who could suffer consequences for not complying.
Union representatives were also informed that in the future, managers may attempt to enforce the handing over these deliverables. In addition, Durham College asserts that these deliverables are the sole property of the college: as such, the college feels that it has every right to share these materials without the professor’s consent. Union representatives at Durham College and at the provincial level profoundly disagree with the college’s assertion regarding intellectual property.
The college’s allowance of up to 8 hours on the SWF is a great incentive (but not one that union reps requested). However, in past years, it was always understood that faculty were under no obligation to “share” their materials with the college. Also, with the aggressive push for hybrid, on-line, and DC Connect, most teaching materials are now moving to easily-copied electronic formats.
This is a profoundly troubling development, given the Ontario colleges’ assertion that they own all documents produced. Your union representatives will be ensuring that in the up-coming round of bargaining, academic freedom protections will be sought. In addition, if Durham College decides in the future that “deliverables” are to become mandatory, we will take all possible steps to stop this from happening.
We urge all Durham faculty to protect your teaching materials. Consider the consequences of entering into any agreement or work assignment that involves any commitment to turn over your materials to the college. Contact your manager to state that you do NOT want any of your materials shared with others, whether they are posted on DC Connect or any other format. In light of a recent case of a Durham professor’s DC Connect materials being forwarded to a part- time teacher, without consent or knowledge, we also urge professors to consider carefully what they post there.