Candidate for the election to the Board of Governors of two full-time faculty members.

I have been a professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, since 2005. In the 2023-24 academic year, I was co-chair of the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom. In that role, I was part of a group that conducted a listening tour of teaching staff affected by security issues on the uOttawa campus in the summer and early fall of 2023. The Committee has been directly involved in creating workshops and teaching materials for faculty and students on the role of academic freedom at universities.

I have experience with many facets of academics at the University of Ottawa. During my five years on the Committee for the Evaluation of Undergraduate Programs, I met program directors and teaching staff in almost every faculty, and I learned a lot about the different ways that we teach and learn at the University.

I understand the important relationship between unions and the University of Ottawa: for six years (2018-2024), I have been a member of the Board of the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa (APUO). I saw negotiations up close as part of the negotiating team for the 2021-2024 Collective Agreement.

I was recently involved in helping our Reconciliation and Decolonization Committee implement a new course on Indigenous Legal Traditions into the first-year law program that responds to Call to Action 28 from the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

I am a member of the Diversity Committee of the Carleton County Law Association (CCLA), which acts as a sounding board on equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives of our local bar association. The CCLA provides a great link for the University to the local professional community.  

I serve on many boards, including that of the Ottawa Japanese Community Association, Compassionate Ottawa (a group dedicated to changing the way that our community supports people nearing the end of life), and the Income Security Advocacy Clinic (a legal aid clinic that does test case litigation for Ontarians with insecure incomes). 

Graham Mayeda

Letter of Intention

Three things motivate me to run for a position on the Board of Governors:  

  1. ensuring the Board listens to the needs of our community,  
  2. promoting its function as steward for the University in these challenging times, and  
  3. encouraging greater communication between the Board of Governors and the constituencies of our community.

Listening: During the listening tour in which I participated as co-chair of the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom, I was heartened by the capacity and willingness of the people we met to build a strong community. I think it is important that the University of Ottawa continue in its role of fostering a place where the exchange of ideas can happen in a forum of respect, toleration and openness.  

Stewardship: The Board of Governors plays a stewardship role for the University, and I would like to help foster this important function. When budgets seem tight and the mission of universities threatened, the fiduciary responsibilities of the Board of Governors is particularly important. It is a place where debate can happen about how the University of Ottawa can support the change that we need to see in our society to deal with problems that face our most basic systems, among which are challenges to democratic institutions, our relationship to the environment, and how we relate to each other as human beings in a shifting technological environment. A university is an inspiring place to be, and I would like to help the university community protect and foster this place of learning and exchange that can promote hope and optimism.

Communication: After many years of being a representative on the APUO Board, I understand how important lines of communication are for resolving problems and fostering community. We can only really work together if there is trust, and trusting relationships depend on openness and transparency. I hope that I can contribute to keeping those lines of communication open so that the various constituencies stay informed about the big issues that face us: scarce funding for post-secondary institutions; the ever-changing role of technology in how we teach, learn and do research; and the erosion of the capacity of universities to be places that inspire.