Union Office Closed December 22-Jan 4 for the Holidays

Because We All Need a Break!

Every December, somewhere between marking marathons and the last committee meeting that definitely could have been an email, most faculty and our staff start dreaming of some well-earned rest and relaxation! Sadly, the winter break isn’t a jolly holiday for everyone, as one of our precarious term members has reminded us!

We’ve endured long waitlists, sudden course and section cancellations, a never-ending budget drama, stop-and-start bargaining, growing numbers of grievances, and that Post Secondary Review hovering like the Ghost of Education’s Future. Anyone who lived through the dial-up internet era already knows how to be patient, but this year has really tested our ability to respond and adapt quickly to a parade of crises… Like the ongoing use and expansion of AI in our classrooms and everywhere else. (And I’m no exception; you may already have noticed that the allure of labour-saving content generation, formatting, and organizing has been just too strong to resist, but not in this post, lol.)

Yet through all of this, your union and our faculty have held things together with skill, grit, and the kind of aplomb that those who’ve seen this play out before as the Ghost of Education Past when the College’s and Institutes Act was majorly revised and amended in 90s and early 2000s resulting in the changes that lead to the last significant Post-Secondary Education restructuring. So, while we wait for our visit from the Ghost of Education Present, honestly, we deserve a little applause and maybe a very large cookie, or a bunch of small cookie bites! Have you RSVP’d to our Festivus Collectivus invitation yet?

CCFA Holiday Hours & Emergency Contacts

The CCFA offices in the Young Building will be closed from December 22 to January 4 and will reopen on January 5. Emails to ac.ytlucafnusomac@afcc will not be monitored during this time. If something non-urgent comes up, feel free to send it; we will respond once we return. While the offices are closed, Michael Stewart (ac.ytlucafnusomac@gniniagrab), Blair Fisher (ac.ytlucafnusomac@serpeciv), and Martha McAlister (ac.ytlucafnusomac@riahcdp) will be available to address member questions until the College closure. Please CC the general inbox when reaching out to our on-call executives so we can ensure your questions are logged and resolved. If you have a work-related emergency and you require union support during the college closure, please email me, ac.ytlucafnusomac@tnediserp. Otherwise, please attempt to mute everything work-related and reclaim some peace!

Looking Back with Festivus Spirit

This year was packed. Together we challenged messy decision-making, defended collegial governance, stood up for members dealing with workload headaches, and kept calling for transparency even when it felt like shouting into the void. It was a lot, and every bit of progress came from collective effort. We have strengthened our relationship and collaboration with our sibling unions, embarking on our first-ever joint union social event – the Festivus Collectivus, a holiday solidarity celebration!

But we are far from done; the next year is shaping up to be interesting… (Have you heard of that “may you live in interesting times” saying?) The Review will continue, and community, student, staff and faculty voices will matter more than ever. So gather your strength, recharge, and let holiday break work its magic. Rest is not only allowed. It is strategic, it is resistance.

Festivus (Holiday) Wishes from the CCFA

No matter which winter holidays you celebrate or if you and yours proudly raise the Festivus pole in your own living room, we hope this season brings comfort, good company, laughter, and the joy of knowing your out-of-office reply is doing the heavy lifting. And to those working on the Post-Secondary Education Review, we implore you to take to heart the lessons of all the Ghosts as Ebenezer once did… in a bit of paraphrased Charles Dickens:

I WILL HONOUR [EDUCATION] IN MY HEART, AND TRY TO KEEP IT ALL THE YEAR. I WILL LIVE IN THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE. THE SPIRITS OF ALL THREE SHALL STRIVE WITHIN ME. I WILL NOT SHUT OUT THE LESSONS THAT THEY TEACH!

There’s still time to send in your feedback on the Post-Secondary Education Review for the final written submission in mid January. You can submit it in our post-secondary-gov-review channel on Discord or email me. Thank you for all you do to bring this community together and for standing strong with each other, working together as one.

Happy Festivus Colletivus from the CCFA.