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Collegiality

CAUT Policy Statement

Collegiality is the full participation of academic staff in the institutional processes that shape the conditions of academic work. This includes but is not limited to participation in all governance structures, institutional systems of peer review, and decision-making processes at all levels. Collegiality is a fundamental condition of academic work.[1]

An animating sensibility that is vital to the academic mission, collegiality is not about comportment. Collegiality is not congeniality or civility.

To be collegial, processes must:

  1. Adhere to principles of democracy, procedural fairness, and transparency,
  2. Allow for the expression of a diversity of views and opinions,
  3. Protect participants so that no individual is given inappropriate advantage (for example, due to power differentials) with respect to decisions,
  4. Ensure inclusiveness so that all who should be participating are provided the opportunity to do so, and
  5. Be secured by the rights to academic freedom and to equity in the workplace.[2]

For Collegiality to be meaningful, all academic staff should be given the opportunity to deliver their share of the service workload and be supported appropriately.[3]

Approved by the CAUT Council, November 2005;
Editorial revisions, March 2010;
Editorial revisions, September 2012;
Reviewed-no changes, November 2016;
Reviewed, November 2021;
Amended by Council, April 2022.

Endnotes


[1] See Policy Statement on Governance and Policy Statement on the Nature of Academic Work.

[2] See Policy Statement on Academic Freedom.

[3] In addition to the above-referenced Policy Statements, see: Policy Statement on Fairness for Contract Academic Staff.