The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) has released an open letter urging select members of Carleton’s administration to carefully consider a threat to sanction the university.
The Canadian Association of Undergraduate Teachers (CAUT), a governing body made up of 70,000 academic professionals from 122 different Canadian universities, is threatening to censure Carleton amid transparency concerns within the university’s governance.
In January 2016, Carleton’s Board of Governors (BoG) amended its Code of Conduct to restrict members from sharing information discussed in board meetings with the Carleton community.
According to Valerie Dufour, a CAUT spokesperson, the ruling violates the CAUT’S Openness and Transparency in Post-Secondary Education policy and led to the censure motion.
Dufour equated potential censure to a boycott, where the CAUT would instruct professors to avoid speaking at Carleton conferences or taking positions at the university.
“Carleton is a public university—it should act like a public university,” Dufour said.
According to Eric Hitsman, the GSA president, the open letter aims to voice students’ concerns about the university’s failure to take appropriate measures in order to avoid censure and its lack of concern for consequences to faculty and students.
He said the BoG’s transparency continues to be an issue.
“The openness of the BoG has been a problem for some time, which is kind of the root of this censureship,” Hitsman said.
Steven Reid, Carleton’s media relations officer, said in an email that Carleton is aware of the censure motion and is continuing a “dialogue” with the CAUT.
“The Administration is in communication with the CAUT and has clarified misconceptions regarding certain provisions and application of the Code,” Reid said.
According to Dufour, censure would seriously limit academic outreach for students and faculty members while shaming the university.
Hitsman said weakened student conferences and limits on hiring would affect the quality of education for Carleton students.
“The other big question we wonder is ‘what does that do to our degree?’ ” he said, outlining the fact that potential censureship could decrease the value of a Carleton education.
In November 2015, the CAUT first discussed potential censure at a council meeting, after the university made BoG members sign a confidentiality agreement. One of the BoG’s members, Root Gorelick, who had been blogging about board meetings, refused to sign the statement and was threatened with removal from the board. Dufour said this represented an “infringement on academic freedom.”
“The chair of the board declined an explicit request from a governor to allow any discussion of CAUT censure during the open session, instead shunting all discussion of censure to the closed session,” Gorelick wrote in his blog.
“Ironically, CAUT is considering censure because of lack of openness and transparency on the part of Carleton’s Board of Governors.”
According to Dufour, censure is a final measure because the aim of the CAUT is not to hinder the progress of Carleton community members, but to ensure that the standards of academic freedom are being upheld within the university.
In spite of concerns, Hitsman advised students should not give in to the potential censure.
“The best we can do is raise awareness,” he said.
According to Hitsman, one of his administration’s aims this year will be “getting more graduate students and undergraduate students unified.” He highlighted that student unification would serve as an effective means of protecting the interests of the Carleton community.
Although voting on whether or not to impose censure was supposed to take place during the CAUT’s spring council meeting earlier this month, Dufour said it has been postponed until November in the hopes that Carleton will be able to make sufficient changes to its conduct in time to prevent censure.
According to Reid, the vote was postponed as a result of the CAUT’s discussion with the university.
If censure is imposed, Dufour said it would not be lifted until Carleton complied with the CAUT’s demands.
Photo credits: Meagan Casalino
