At its Jan. 26 meeting, Carleton’s Board of Governors (BoG) approved a motion to update their code of conduct to include a duty for members not to speak publicly against Board decisions.
General Duty 10 states board members must “support all actions taken by the Board of Governors even when in a minority position on such actions,” and “once a decision is made it is the decision of the entire Board, and is to be supported.”
Michael Wernick, a community member on the Board, described the update as a “clarification” of language that was already in the statement of fiduciary duties, now referred to as the code of conduct.
He said the new code has the same concepts as the old one, with better language. The old statement of fiduciary responsibilities had been misinterpreted and misrepresented at times, Wernick said. This “misinterpretation” resulted in significant media attention and condemnation from the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA) and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT).
Root Gorelick, a Carleton professor who previously criticized the BoG for not being open enough, said the changes are an improvement but there are still significant problems.
“I still have huge problems with the general duty number 10 which compels speech to support the majority view, which either seems to violate academic freedom or freedom of speech,” he said.
Gorelick has been in conflict with the BoG in the past over his blog about what goes on at their meetings. Late last year he refused to sign the statement of fiduciary duties because it would have forbidden him from speaking publicly about the Board’s business.
Anthony Tattersfield, chair of the BoG, said the changes were made to better reflect the current times, when people have social media accounts and online blogs.
“The world changes and institutions have to change—governance has to change,” Tattersfield said.
He said the update makes the Board better prepared to deal with the issues it could face during the 2016-17 academic year.
Kenneth Evans, a community member on the Board, said the update to the code of conduct will help them move on to more important things instead of issues of governance, which it has spent a considerable amount of time on recently.
“Once you come to a decision then there is the obligation to support it in order to further the best interests of the university,” Evans said.
He said those who want to criticize the decisions of the Board should resign.
The amendment to the code of conduct was approved, with only Gorelick opposing it.
Carleton’s Food Collective held a protest outside the River Building to coincide with the open session of the BoG’s meeting. They said they are unhappy with what they see as the Board becoming less open and more undemocratic.
“Professors would tell me democracy is a great thing. Well, it would be nice if we actually practiced what we preached,” said Espoir Manirambona, a Carleton alumni at the demonstration.
Carleton Safety also had a presence at the meeting with officers stationed outside the Tim Hortons in the River Building and directly outside the meeting room. The elevator servicing the rear of the building was put out of service for the duration of the meeting.
Allan Burns, director of university safety, said their role at the meeting was to make sure nobody interfered with either the protesters’ right to demonstrate or the Board’s right to meet.
Gorelick said despite his conflict with the other members, he believes they still have the best interests of the university and students in mind.
“There is a detachment because they don’t interact with students—they interact with money and the places,” he said. “But I think in their hearts they really do care.”
