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SOCIETY FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND
SCHOLARSHIP(SAFS)
WWW.SAFS.CA
March 3, 2010
Dr. Mamdouh
Shoukri
President and
Vice-Chancellor
York University
Dear President
Shoukri:
As president of
the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, a national
organization of scholars whose goals are the defence of academic
freedom and the
merit principle in institutions of higher education, I am
writing to express profound concern and disappointment with the
situation
described in an
op-ed article that appeared in the National Post this past
Saturday.
In the article,
“Something’s seriously wrong at York University,” David Frum
gives several examples of how York University appears to have
taken sides
in the Middle
East conflict, effectively favoring an anti-Israel group over a
pro-Israel one. Taking sides in a political controversy is
clearly something that a university must not do. Rather a
university’s role must be to provide a forum in which
controversial ideas can be debated. That is, a university’s role
is
to protect and
promote the academic freedom and free speech of all of its
members. It appears that York University has failed in this
regard.
More
specifically, Mr. Frum has noted that anti-Israel groups are
allowed to express their views on the York campus without
bearing any of the cost
of their
security, whereas pro-Israel groups have been assessed security
expenses they could not afford, thereby silencing them.
Furthermore, according
to his report,
the rationale given by one of your officials for the extra
security costs was fear that opponents of the pro-Israel group
might resort to violence.
Effectively, this means that thugs now have the veto over debate
at York.
On March 1, you posted a
statement on the president’s webpage, presumably in answer to
David Frum’s allegations. Incredibly, in that statement you
claim “The University’s
priority is that discourse on the Middle East and other
contentious issues be freely conducted… Freedom of speech is for
everyone,
or it is for no one…The
University is firmly committed to protecting the safety and
security of all members of the community.” Yet, as Provost
Monahan
confirmed in a letter to
the editor of the National Post (March 2), York University
requires that the costs of hiring extra security be borne by the
group against whom violence might be committed. In what way,
then, can it be said that York University is “protecting the
safety and security of all members of the
community?”
York University must do
more in response to these serious allegations than post
motherhood statements that are belied by events on its own
campus.
We urge you to begin a
serious investigation of the university’s policies dealing with
academic freedom and free speech and whether they are
effectively being implemented.
Sincerely,
Clive Seligman
President
CC: Patrick Monahan,
Provost and VP Academic
Paul Cantor,
Chair of the Board of Governors
Zahir Janmohamed, Vice-Chair of the Board of
Governors
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Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship
1673 Richmond Street, Number 344
London, Ontario
N6G 2N3
Website: www.safs.ca
BOARD OF DIRECTORS (Current Affiliations)
Clive Seligman, PhD, President (UWO)
Rodney Clifton, PhD (Manitoba)
Andrew Irvine, PhD (UBC)
Tom Flanagan, PhD, FRSC (Calgary)
Steve Lupker, PhD (UWO)
Mark Mercer, PhD (St. Mary's)
John Mueller, PhD (Calgary)
Peter Suedfeld, PhD, FRSC (UBC)
PAST PRESIDENTS
Doreen Kimura, PhD, FRSC (Simon Fraser)
John Furedy, PhD (Toronto)
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