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SAFS Letter to
Acting President Gordon MacInnis
Mr. Gordon MacInnis
Acting President
University College of Cape
Breton
Box 5300
Sydney, NS
B6P 1L2
Dear Mr. MacInnis:
I am writing to you as president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship. We are a national organization of scholars whose goals are to promote academic freedom in teaching, research, and scholarship and to uphold the merit principle as the basis of academic decision-making regarding students and faculty. For further information, please visit our website at http://www.safs.niagara.com
David Mullan, one of the professors at UCCB, has written to us about a dispute he is having with your administration. Professor Mullan’s version of the dispute is available on his UCCB website http://faculty.uccb.ns.ca/~dmullan/ According to Professor Mullan, the UCCB administration is attempting to force him to apologize for having written a letter, published in the Cape Breton Post on July 14, 2000, in which he claimed that the then president of UCCB, Jacquelyn Thayer Scott, had not published any books, contrary to the information provided in an earlier story in the Cape Breton Post on July 11, 2000.
Professor Mullan was also told that “it is intended that you receive the disciplinary sanction of a letter of reprimand” because ... of “improper criticism of Jacquelyn Scott, the President of the University College, contrary to your employment duties and responsibilities to the University College.” Later Professor Mullan was asked to write a letter to the president acknowledging that he had acted contrary to his obligations as an employee of UCCB; Professor Mullan claims the nature of the obligations were never defined. For the record, Professor Mullan states that the UCCB collective agreement entitles him to criticize the institution.
It would seem a simple matter
to settle the question of whether former President Scott had, in fact,
published any books. Again, according to Professor Mullan, neither
President Scott nor her office was forthcoming in producing the books or
in allowing
Professor Mullan to satisfy
himself of the existence of the books. Further, Professor Mullan
could not find evidence that the disputed books were in any library in
Canada or the US. The university and Professor Mullan are at
a impasse.
Clearly, it is not any kind of an offence to state the truth about the publication record of anyone, let alone a university college president. Frankly, one wonders at how such a tiny event could have lasted almost two years now, involving many letters, telephone calls, meetings, the involvement of the faculty association of UCCB, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, and now our organization. My most recent information is that the University College and Professor Mullan are headed for arbitration, beginning September 3, 2002. All this because two books, authored by Scott, can not be shown to exist. Perhaps, Professor Mullan has greatly distorted the situation, and, if so, we would like to be so informed.
However, if Professor Mullan’s case, as described on his website, is substantially correct that this matter is all about a faculty member’s right to call into question the publication record of the president of the University College, then I urge you, Acting-President MacInnis, to end this business now by withdrawing whatever charges or demands have been levelled at Professor Mullan. By continuing to pursue this matter, UCCB risks being held up to even more ridicule than it has so far experienced.
I look forward to hearing from you as to whether you have concluded that it is time to drop all disciplinary action against Professor Mullan. We will be posting this letter, and your response on our website.
Sincerely,
Clive Seligman
President