The Carleton University Academic Staff Association is asking Carleton to withdraw a drafted policy that the union says would undermine academic freedom on campus.
The union, which represents full-time faculty and professional librarians at Carleton, has “serious concerns” about the university’s proposed Institutional Impartiality Policy, it said in a letter to university president Wisdom Tettey on the last day of reading week.
The drafted policy outlines the university — as an institution — will not endorse political parties, candidates, viewpoints or positions on debated issues.
The university would also prohibit any unauthorized expression that “purports to represent the views of the university or that may be misconstrued as the views of the university,” according to the policy’s draft.
The policy could infringe on academic rights and discourage Carleton academics from collaborating in ways that could be considered political or partisan, the union charged.
“Where researchers and educators feel pressure to quiet their voices or tailor their work to avoid censure, the institution risks its foundational mission of driving critical intellectual debate and social progress,” the letter reads.
The proposed policy would apply to all academic departments, URLs, websites and social media accounts owned or managed by the university.
The goal of the policy is to support “an inclusive and respectful campus environment” where individual expression is enhanced while differentiating between personal and institutional views, the university told the Charlatan in a statement Tuesday.
“Members of Carleton’s community will continue to have broad rights to express their views as individuals, consistent with the principles of academic freedom, freedom of expression, university policies and the law,” the university’s statement added.
Carleton said on its website that the proposed policy would not apply to on-campus unions. That means the policy would not apply to CUASA as an organization but would apply to individual members of the union, who work for the university.
In its letter, the union said any “imposition of a requirement of impartiality or neutrality on CUASA members, either individually or collectively, violates academic freedom.”
The requirement of impartiality outlined in the policy also risks being applied too broadly, the union said, leaving enforcement “subject to arbitrary interpretations” and lacking “a standard of transparency that would allow for it to be fairly applied.”
The proposed policy’s scope, which does not allow partisan statements ostensibly made on behalf of a university department, also directly opposes standards of academic freedom, the union said, referencing policy statements from the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
Academics have the right to freedom of association and the right to support departmental statements on political and social issues, according to CAUT standards.
“CUASA asserts that any impartiality or neutrality policy should only, and at most, cover official communications of the senior administration, and certainly not the individual or collaborative expressions of academics,” the letter reads.
The union called on Carleton to withdraw the proposed policy and to “explicitly recognize that academics have the right to express their individual and collective views.”
“The duty of the university is not to manage and constrain free thought and dissent, but to nurture and safeguard an open exchange of ideas.”
CUASA added the “brevity and secrecy” of the policy’s drafting process and the limited time given for community members to provide input was “worrying.”
In addition to community input, “consultation has also taken place with Carleton’s vice-presidents’ academic and research council, the academic heads roundtable and the CUSA and GSA executives,” the university’s statement to the Charlatan reads.
Carleton is seeking community input on the proposed policy on its website until Friday.
Featured image by Sadeen Mohsen/the Charlatan
