I think all North American academics should be aware of this
travesty of academic freedom and human rights.
Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 15:07:59 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Complaint about violation of academic freedom in hiring by SFU
March 26, 2001
To: Jim Turk, Neil Tudiver (Fax 613-820-7244)
Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT)
From: David F. Noble (phone 416- 778-6927/ Fax 416-778-8928)
Re: Complaint to Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee about a
violation of academic freedom in hiring by Simon Fraser University
(1) At the end of October, 2000, completely out of the blue, I
received a letter from Professor Steven Duguid, Chair of the
Department of Humanities at SFU, informing me that I had been
selected as one of three finalists for the James Woodsworth Chair
in Humanities at SFU. The letter described this unique position and
invited me to Vancouver for an interview. In a subsequent
telephone conversation Duguid elaborated, pointing out that the
Chair had been endowed by hundreds of union locals and
individual workers and farmers throughout Canada, that the
position entailed teaching teaching in the Humanities and engaging
in social outreach on issues of social justice and peace in the spirit
of CCF founder Woodsworth, and that, to his knowledge, it was
unique in North America.
I was honored and humbled to be considered for such a prestigious
permanent position (which had heretofore been held only on a
temporary basis by Ed Broadbent and Alan Whitehorn), and
expressed my keen interest to Duguid. I cautioned him at the
outset, however, that there were two matters which might
jeopardize my chances. One was that, although I have worked in
Canada for ten years, I am an American citizen. The second was
that the new SFU president Michael Stevenson had previously
been VP/Academic at York University and, in that capacity, was the
chief adversary of my union in the longest academic strike in
English Canadian history, in which I was both active and visible.
Duguid assured me that there were many Americans at SFU and
that Stevenson would have no more than a pro forma role in the
appointment process.
(2) I visited Vancouver for three days in early January and engaged
in a series of very enjoyable and intensive interviews. By the end
of January I had been informed by Duguid that I had won the
unanimous endorsement of both the Search Committee and the full
Department of Humanities and that the selection of the Department
would be forwarded to the Dean.
(3) Eagerly awaiting a call from the Dean to negotiate the terms of
the job, I received instead a call from Libby Dybikowski,
representing the private Vancouver consulting firm Provence. Ms.
Dybikowski explained that her firm had been retained by SFU to do
a reference check on me. Since BC law requires employers to
obtain a candidate's permission before consulting any reference,
she was calling to ask me to give her permission to talk with four
people whose names had been given to her by SFU. When I heard
the list, everything became clear. None of the people on her list
were even remotely related to my academic fields nor had any of
them had any experience with me as a colleague. The only
connection three of them had to me was as agents of activities or
enterprises which I had publicly criticized. (Linda Harasim, director
of the SFU Virtual U project, and Stan Shapson, York
VP/Research, as avid promoters of both corporate-academic
partnerships and online education, and Steven Feinberg,a
statistician and former York VP, as an advocate of academic-
industrial ties and, in particular, of the U.S.- based International
Space University which I helped to keep out of Canada). The fourth
person, Sheila Embleton, a linguist, now holds Michael Stevenson's
job as York VP/Academic. Since we have had no relation
whatsoever I assume she was listed merely as Stevenson's proxy.
Ms. Dybikowski explained that she had been asked by SFU to
obtain information from these people about my style of "interaction",
my collegiality and character. I informed her that I had never in fact
even met any of these people (except Harasim, with whom I dined
once a decade ago). I told her that the list was unambiguously
political in that it included my political adversaries and antagonists
and that I could not give her permission to consult them. I explained
that the BC law existed to provide protection from exactly this kind
of nefarious practice, that the use of an outside consultant in the
matter of academic appointments was highly irregular and usurped
the prerogative of the faculty, and that my cooperation would lend
legitimacy to what I considered a violation of well-established
academic procedure.
Ms. Dybikowski phoned me back the next day with another list but
before she revealed the new names I informed her that I had been
advised not to cooperate in this irregular administration initiative. I
told her that I had already provided the university with over a dozen
names and that she could talk with any of those people. She did in
fact call some of them and, according to their reports, was indeed
seeking material for character assassination - the time-honored
practice of employers unable to challenge a person's job
qualifications and prohibited by law from overtly objecting to a
person's political beliefs in hiring and promotion decisions.
(4) At the beginning of March I phoned the Dean to inquire about
when I would receive official notification of my selection as
Woodsworth Chair so that I could prepare for the move. I left an
explanation on his voice mail that I needed to tell my employer what
I was going to do and put my house on the market. Rather than call
me back, the Dean used the Department Chair and his secretary as
intermediaries to tell me that no decision had yet been made and
not to sell my house. After I insisted upon the courtesy of a direct
reply he finally phoned me to tell me that I was being
"presumptuous" in assuming that I had the job, that I would not be
hearing anything for "at least several months" and that it would not
be prudent for me to sell my house. I asked him if the
administration intended to block the appointment and he refused to
answer, saying he was only following standard procedure. I asked
him for other examples of SFU's use of an outside consulting firm in
academic appointments and he refused to answer. I asked him how
he knew Steven Feinberg (whom I believe only Stevenson would
have known) and he refused to answer.
(5) On March 19, I learned from Steve Duguid that the Department
had received a copy of a letter from the Dean of Arts to the Vice
President Academic stating that he was "unable to support" the
faculty's recommendation. The only reason given was my refusal to
cooperate with the outside consulting firm. (According to Duguid
that letter should have been addressed to the Department not to
the Vice President.)
(6) On March 24 , I learned from Steve Duguid that the Deparment
had received a letter from the Vice President/Academic stating that
he "was inclined not to support " the Department's recommendation
and requesting that the Department "reconsider" its
recommendation. Here too the only reason given was my refusal to
cooperate with the private consulting firm. Duguid also informed me
that the Department had met to discuss both the Dean's and Vice
President's rejection of their recommendation and decided to
reaffirm their decision and to refuse to reconsider it. According to
Duguid, this throws the matter into the hands of the university's
"Appointments Committee," a subcommittee of the Tenure and
Promotion Committee, with no clear schedule.
(7) I requested of Duguid copies of the Dean's and Vice-President's
letters and was told that he had been told by them not to give me
copies. I made the same formal request of both the Dean and the
Vice- President and never received a reply.
(8) I am asking the CAUT to look into this matter immediately, as it
appears to entail an egregious violation of free speech, academic
freedom and established academic practice. I have not as yet
enlisted the support of the SFU faculty association nor have I
retained an attorney.
(9) I believe this case illuminates all too clearly how corporatization
has compromised the integrity of academia, a trend which I have
been warning about for twenty years and which has in recent years
generated considerable concern on the part of the CAUT. SFU is
increasingly committing itself to the corporate model and the
corporate embrace and considers itself the Canadian flagship of
online education - a potent administration vehicle of institutional
restructuring at the expense of faculty. Michael Stevenson, SFU's
new president, is an outspoken champion of both corporate
partnerships and online education, and, as his central role in the
York strike demonstrated, a vigorous opponent of faculty rights.
The Chair of the SFU Board of Governors, Evaleen Jaager Roy, is
Vice President of Electronic Arts (Canada), a subsidiary of the one
of the world's largest "edutainment" conglomerates, Electronic Arts,
and a leading developer of educational software. Thus, the Board
Chair has a direct interest in the enterprise of online education of
which I have been outspokenly critical. I believe, and the SFU
Humanities faculty shares my belief, that the blocking of my
appointment stems from the SFU administration's opposition to my
political views on matters of grave public import. Insofar as this
prejudice informs university decision-making on appointments, it
violates academic norms as well as the Human Rights Act of British
Columbia which explicitly prohibits discrimination in hiring on the
basis of political belief.
(10) My aim in this matter is to satisfy my rightful claim to the SFU
Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities. The remedy sought is a
prompt administrative ratification of the Department of Humanities
recommendation. Justice delayed is justice denied.
(11) SFU Cast of Characters
Steven Duguid, Chair, Department of Humanities 604-716-6310
John T. Pierce, Dean, Faculty of Arts 604-291-4415
John Waterhouse, Vice President, Academic
Michael Stevenson, President 604-291-4641
Evaleen Jaager Roy, Chair, Board of Governors
------- End of forwarded message -------
