Dear Colleagues,
We are writing in response to the ongoing Quercus outage and cybersecurity incident.
The Administration advised UTFA leadership last Friday, May 8th, that it had been notified of an ongoing cybersecurity incident at Instructure, the third-party provider for Quercus, and that it was proactively suspending Quercus access until further notice. Last night, we were advised that the Administration identified a way to reinstate access to Quercus for 48 hours to a limited number of members who taught in the Winter term and who have not yet submitted their final term marks for students requiring those marks to graduate in June. We understand that an email has been sent directly to those members with information relevant to their temporary access. The Administration is directing members with questions or issues related to accessing Quercus for course grades/information to submit a ticket here.
The Administration has further advised that supports for members while Quercus is unavailable can be accessed through the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation. The most up to date information from the Administration can be found on the UTogether Website.
We are in the process of gathering relevant information and will be meeting with the senior Administration in the coming days to discuss the issue. We need to ensure that members are being supported, that any additional workload burden arising from this incident is not falling on members, and that the Administration is taking reasonable steps to address any security and privacy issues that have arisen.
As such, we want to hear from members who are being directly affected by this issue to understand their concerns. This information will help inform our advocacy and engagement with the Administration. We can also provide individualized advice and assistance to those members who are being significantly impacted. If you or any of your colleagues have been directly affected by the incident, please contact advice@utfa.org. A member of our Legal & Advice team will be able to assist you.
Sincerely,
Terezia Zorić
UTFA President
Jun Nogami
UTFA Vice-President, Salary, Benefits, Pensions & Workload