Learning the ABCs of academic governance

Canadian Association of University Teachers

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is a progressive organization that represents over 72,000 professors, librarians, researchers and other academics in 125 universities and colleges. It advocates for academic freedom, and quality and accessibility of post-secondary education.

  • Explainer video
  • Motion design
  • Bilingual social media campaign
  • Landing page
  • Posters
  • T-shirts

    • Governance matters

    For several years, Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has been monitoring the corporate influence encroaching on university boards and the resulting suppression of academic voices. 

    In 2018, the association wanted to launch a campaign that would rouse local action around the issue, so they turned to Camden.

    We were asked to demystify collegiality and shared governance for university staff members while driving home the urgent need to get college governance back on track. Our digital campaign would target campuses with known governance issues and equip local associations to get the word out.

    • CAUT - campaign
    • CAUT - campaign
    • CAUT - campaign

    Simple, not simplistic

    Video is a great way to break down complex information into bite-sized chunks an audience can process in a meaningful way. Whiteboard explainer videos have become a genre mainstay, so we decided to play with that concept by sketching out the collegiality problem in “chalk.” 

    While our copywriters distilled the issue down to its essence, our graphic and motion designers wove together the visual metaphors and cues that would clarify it even further and keep the audience engaged. 

    CAUT T-Shirts

    Going local

    Drawing from the blackboard visuals, we developed a toolkit to support the campaign on a local level, which included promotional material (t-shirts and posters) and branded social media shareables.

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