Several days ago I found an anonymous letter, written on behalf of your organization, Students Against Israeli Apartheid, under the door of my office.
The letter asks me, as a faculty member of Carleton University, to sign a message to president Roseann Runte and Carleton administration.
I have to turn down your request, for several reasons. I would explain my reasoning to you face-to-face. However, since you have never identified yourselves to me, an open letter remains the only available way to respond.
Firstly, I find your message impolite and disrespectful. Whereas in the past I voiced my disagreement with the administration on several occasions, my ambitions have never gone as far as giving orders to any of those people.
Every discussion that takes place in the university environment is an exchange of opinions between professionals. We have to make an effort to understand the position of our opponents, and we have to always remain polite even if we disagree with them.
While you are still students, it is important that you acquire the skill to express your disagreement respectfully.
Secondly, as a professional mathematician, I would be ashamed to sign a message that contains statements lacking basic logic. I refer to the second paragraph: a decision to buy land and let representatives of a nation to settle on it does not mean that representatives of other nations may not live there. In my opinion, students should not drag such logical confusions anywhere beyond their first year at the university.
My third objection is more fundamental. Carleton is funded by the government acting on behalf of the Canadian people. Every decision made here has to obey the government policies. The actions of the administration, which you complain about, follow this rule as they have to.
I disagree with you in that a university, as an institution, should take an “independent” political stance on an international issue. This is definitely not its mandate.
You might have heard of the recent decision of several countries, including Canada, to withdraw their support to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This decision is a clear reminder that every non-profit organization has to adhere to its mandate.
If you are unhappy with the foreign policy of the state of Canada, you should express your disagreement in the next election. Pestering public officials won’t make any change and is prohibited by Canadian law.
That said, my recollection from the last election campaign is that all of the three leading parties have consistent views on the international politics of Canada. I do not know what political party would share your views.
To summarize, I do not see why we, faculty members of Carleton, should throw ourselves behind doubtful claims, in a suicidal attempt to promote political views of a marginal group of Canadian society.
We should rather dedicate our time to, and invest our energy into, the advancement of learning, the dissemination of knowledge, the intellectual, social, moral and physical development of our members, and the betterment of our community, as we have to do, according to the Carleton University Act.
— Inna Bumagin,
associate professor,
School of Mathematics and Statistics