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                                           CAUT         BULLETIN A C P P U

                                                   COMMENTARY
                                            Vol. 42, No. 2 - February 1995

                      CAUT'S DEFENCE Of ACADEMIC FREEDOM UNDER ATTACK
                  BY JOHN J. FUREDY
                                                               The undermining of the traditions of freedom of speech by
CANADIAN ACADEMIC ORGANIZATIONS have an                        the administrations of Canadian institutions of higher
Important task in explaining and defending tenure and          learning has been furthered, indirectly and sometimes
academic freedom, and this task is especially critical in      directly, by the trend to appoint an increasing number and
these days of scarce resources and concerns about the          variety of equity officers on college and university
future restructing of academia.                                campuses.

In her recent statement summarizing the nature of tenure       Academic organizations like CAUT have not, apparently,
and the significance of academic freedom, CAUT                 recognized the dangers inherent in the proposals for
President Joyce Lorimer provided valuable clarification        speech codes which assume that certain "offensive"
when she wrote that "tenure has never been a sinecure"         opinions should be suppressed. These measures have
and that the "quality of Canadian academic staff can be        been enthusiastically supported by most equity officers
assured only if they have the right to pursue the frontiers    who, indeed, have been given the task of interpreting the
of their subject are a without fear or favour" (Letter on      various speech codes in a way analogous to how
"Tenure," The Globe and Mail, Oct. 27).                        commissars in totalitarian countries interpret what speech
                                                               and thoughts are offensive to the state.
Unfortunately, academic organizations like CAUT have
apparently not noticed recent Canadian incidents and          But aside from their negative impact on the freedom of
trends that have been undermining academic freedom.           enquiry in higher education, these officers and offices are
                                                              costly as well. For example, the Canadian taxpayer may
CAUT has done little to actually protect the principle of     be interested to know that at the University of Toronto the
academic freedom in practice. Looking at recent               annual budget for the eight Equity Officers Advisory
incidents, it has been stunningly silent in response to       Groups is $1.5 million. This figure is conservative, as it
Canadian abuses of the principle. There are several           does not include the cost of analogous equity officers and
examples of non-action by CAUT in the face of gross           offices that exist at 'he lower, faculty level of university
institutional attacks on academic freedom, but I shall cite   administration.
only two, both involving faculty with tenure.
                                                              It is apparent that, sooner or later, Canadian institutes of
One case involved the University of New Brunswick, which      higher education will have to release some of their tenured
in November, 1993, first suspended (and only afterwards,      faculty on financial grounds. Before they do this, will they
investigated) Prof. Matin Yaqzan for an opinion piece in a    also trim the "politically correct pork" of their equity
student newspaper (which, in the end, turned out not to       bureaucracies?
be prosecutable even under the university's own speech
code).                                                        The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship
                                                              (which was the only academic organization in Canada to
The other example occurred in July of last year when the      condemn the institutional attacks on academic freedom in
administration of the University College of the Cariboo in    the Yaqzan and MacKinnon cases) will be an interested
Kamloops, B.C., not only suspended Prof. A. MacKinnon         spectator.
for "sexual harassment" (after this professor discussed, in
his class, the issue of average or group differences in       Will organizations like CAUT also raise their voices in
cognitive abilities between the sexes), but also              favour not only of academic freedom, but also of financial
recommended that, when he returns to class, this              responsibility?
professor be subjected to the invasive and insulting
practice of being monitored.                                        (John J. Furedy is President of the Society for
                                                              Academic Freedom and Scholarship.)

                                                                                                      CAUT reply, p.2 ...
                                                              -1-
                                                                                                                          p.2
                                                CAUT Reply

  Defending Academic Freedom
       & Members' Rights
 PROFESSOR FUREDY SEEMS not              drawn. The president of CAUT             these days of tight budgets, ensure
 to know how CAUT defends                publicly attacked the suspension         that there are no overlapping juris-
 academic         freedom.        The    and supported the action by the          dictions or wasteful uses of money.
 Academic, Freedom and Tenure            UNB Faculty Association.                      There is, however, one impor
 Committee of CAUT handles                     Subsequently Professor Yaqzan      tant change in the operations of
 dozens of cases at each of its meet-    chose to negotiate a buy-out with        these offices suggested by the
 ings. Currently there are 36 cases      the administration. The faculty as-      Independent Study Group on
 before the committee.                   sociation assisted him to get the        University Governance sponsored
     This work involves the investi-     best terms possible. Since one of        by CAUT. That group recommend-
gation of the merits of cases that       the conditions of the settlement         ed that these offices should report
. come before it and lobbying univer-    was its confidentiality along with       not just ro the president but also to
sity administrations to rectify in-      all the circumstances surrounding        the senate or senior academic body,
justices. That, of course, is hard       it, no one can know what it was nor      not to discuss individual cases but
work and seldom publicized be-           the reasons for it. It was, however,     for the review of their operations
cause we have found over the years       agreed to by Professor Yaqzan.           and their annual reports.
that universities are more likely to           What, however, is true is that     Regrettably few university senates
rectify injustices through the confi-    SAFS had nothing to do with the          have followed up on this sugges-
dential work of the committee than       withdrawal of the suspension.            tion.
by shouting from the rooftops.                 In the case of the University           The Study Group also recom-
      If, however, there is an impasse   College of the Cariboo, the bar-         mended that senates or senior aca-
 over a serious matter, we would         gaining agent for its staff is the       demic bodies should create an eq-
 their consider publicizing the case,    College       Institute    Educators'    uity committee, perhaps jointly
 or, in extreme cases, censuring the     Association of British Columbia,         with the board, to oversee the poli-
 university.                             and that organization is responsible     cies and procedures in this area.
      CAUT also provides staff           for the grievance and arbitration             CAUT has always been an in-
 lawyers to argue arbitration cases of   procedure, not CAUT nor any of           dependent organization financed
 its members where local associa-        its local associations.                  entirely by the members other than
 tions so request. Grievance and ar-           CAUT has certainly recog-          advertising revenue from the
 bitration procedures under a collec-    nized the difficulty of ill-defined      Bulletin. It is, therefore, not be-
 tive agreement are the most             speech codes. It sponsored a study       holden to governments, university
 effective way of ensuring that the      of the framework document of the         administrations, corporate spon-
 members can have their day in           NDP government in Ontario                sors, or ideological interest groups.
 court and their case heard fairly and   which led the Council of CAUT to         For more than 40 years the mem-
 impartially. That costs a lot of        demand the withdrawal of that            bership has supported CAUT in
 money — about $345,000 a year           document. The study is a public          its defence of the rights of its
 for CAUT.                               document, reported in the CAUT           members even when this has
      This work is much more likely      Bulletin, and available in all faculty   involved the support of unpopular
 to assist members of CAUT than          associations in Ontario as well as       figures.
 the posturing of SAFS. In fact          from the CAUT national office.                CAUT will continue to serve
 CAUT promoted the adoption of                 On the other hand, CAUT            its members as effectively as possi-
 articles on academic freedom in         knows full well that sexual harass-      ble through the Academic Freedom
 university collective agreements        ment remains a significant problem       and Tenure Committee, through its
 which give it a firm legal basis        in universities as well as in the gen-   arbitration service, and by public
 rather than depending on the            eral workplace. University adminis-      statements and documents in de-
 whims of boards of governors. It        trations must address this and re-       fence of academic freedom. It will
 would be interesting to know            lated problems such as violence on       also at the same time strive to en-
 whether or not SAFS supports or         campus and need to have staff to         sure that women and minorities are
 opposes collective bargaining for       do so. In fact, in most provinces the    treated equitably within the univer-
 faculty.                                law requires them to undertake se-       sity community.
      CAUT normally works                rious investigation of such allega-           It is not always easy to balance
 through its local associations. In      tions.                                   these rights, but ill-informed
 the case of Professor Yaqzan, the             Each university will, of course,   rhetoric certainly will not get us
 UNB Faculty Association opposed         have to decide itself how many           there. It is a pity that SAFS cannot
 his suspension and had it with-         staff are needed and should, in          move beyond that.