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The report’s major recommendation was that the college “earmark all continuing periods vacated by retiring faculty over the next ten years as periods to be filled by qualified women.” That would involve 176.5 periods, only five of them to come due in 1990. The college offers 753 periods. When a number of faculty members unexpectedly took advantage of an early-retirement programme, an additional forty-five periods were freed up for the fall of 1990. (“Equity 200,” it should be noted, is a misnomer. Equity won’t exist by the year 2000; in that year, the committee estimated, thirty-eight per cent of periods will be taught by women.)
At its May 1, 1989, meeting, council voted to establish a formal programme of employment equity at OCA and called on the college’s new president, Tim Porteous, to set up a committee to report back on the implementation of the recommendations in the “Equity 2000” document. The committee worked on the recommendations all summer, and Porteous presented a revised summary of the “Equity 2000” proposals at the September meeting of council. Members of council were asked to be prepared to vote on the document at the October meeting. That’s when the fun began.
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 here are more myths, rumours, and conspiracy theories per square foot at OCA than anyplace else I’ve ever been — one of the results, I suppose, of having all those active imaginations under one roof. False rumours and misinformation about equity began to circulate. According to one rumour, the college would be hiring only women for the next ten years. But the fact is, about twenty-three teaching periods a year become available through resignations, deaths, newly funded periods, and so on — more periods over ten years than would open up through equity. All the non-equity periods would be open to both men and women.
Another false rumour had it that, under equity, unqualified women would be hired. A memo circulated by faculty council member Steve Quinlan just before the October council meeting stated: “OCA is at a crossroads and our next move may determine whether we are an institution that offers excellence in its education or mediocrity. ‘Equity 2000’ guarantees the latter.” One conspiracy theory that built on this rumour suggested that Porteous had been appointed president so that he could run OCA into the ground (by hiring unqualified women) and thus provide the Art Gallery of Ontario (our next-door neighbour) with room to expand.
Aware that opposition to equity was growing, Porteous added a preamble to the “Equity 2000” recommendations. It assured the community that “the present composition of the art and design profession and the college’s own record of graduating students provide evidence that there are many well-qualified female candidates for teaching positions at OCA.” The preamble also reminded OCA that the ultimate decision about whether someone was qualified rested with the college’s hiring committees. No-one would be appointed unless those committees were convinced that the candidate was fully qualified to teach the course and would make a valuable contribution to the college. The opposition paid no attention.
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 use the term “marble-roller” to describe the kind of brilliantly perverse (or sometimes just perverse) student one occasionally runs across in class. By means of a clever question or mischievous statement, he or she rolls a marble down one side of the room; while you’re bending over to pick it up, there’s another one on its way down the other side. If you’re not careful, the marble-roller can take over the class’s agenda.
John Grube, who teaches creative writing at OCA and sits on council, is a marble-roller. When Tim Porteous moved at the October, 1989, council meeting that the summary of “Equity 2000” be approved, Grube moved an amendment: “That where in this document the word ‘woman’ or its equivalent occurs, the following words be added: ‘or a member of another group implicitly protected by the Ontario Human Rights Code.’” Although Archie Graham, the president of the faculty association, argued from the floor that the original motion was being stood on its head (a parliamentary no-no), the chair of council nonetheless proceeded to call a vote. Grube’s amendment passed 8-7. The amended document was then approved 11-4. (In addition to the six faculty members, governing council consists of three students, nine lay members, and the president.)
Equity at OCA, continued >
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