Newsletter

April 2009

Professor Makes His Mark, But It Costs Him His Job

Erin Anderssen

OTTAWA — On the first day of his fourth-year physics class, University of Ottawa
professor Denis Rancourt announced to his students that he had already decided
their marks: Everybody was getting an A+.

It
was not his job, as he explained later, to rank their skills for future
employers, or train them to be “information transfer machines,” regurgitating
facts on demand. Released from the pressure to ace the test, they would become
“scientists, not automatons,” he reasoned.

But by abandoning traditional marks, Prof. Rancourt apparently sealed his own
failing grade: In December, the senior physicist was suspended from teaching,
locked out of his laboratory and told that the university administration was
recommending his dismissal and banning him from campus.

Firing a tenured professor is rare in itself, but two weeks ago the university
took an even more extreme step: When Prof. Rancourt went on campus to host a
regular meeting of his documentary film society, he was led away in handcuffs by
police and charged with trespassing.

With his suspension raising questions of academic freedom, the Canadian
Association of University Teachers has started an independent inquiry into the
matter. “Universities are to be places that not only tolerate, but welcome,
vigorous debate,” said executive director James Turk. “There would have to be
some very serious misdeeds by Dr. Rancourt to justify this action.”

A
university spokesperson refused to comment specifically on the trespassing
incident or give reasons for the disciplinary action, saying that the decision
was “very serious” and “not made lightly.”

Prof. Rancourt’s suspension is the most serious step in a long series of
grievances and conflicts with the university dating back to 2005, when, after
researching new teaching methods, he first experimented with eliminating letter
grades. He also altered course curriculum with student input – although not the
approval of the university – an approach he calls “academic squatting.”

A
well-published and politically outspoken scientist who revels in hashing out
theories on napkins at conferences, Prof. Rancourt’s unconventional teaching
style has generated both an ardent following among a core group of students, and
the rancour of many of his fellow faculty members, one-third of whom signed a
petition of complaint against him in the fall of 2007. In the letter, which he
provided, the complaints stem largely from a series of critical e-mails he
distributed about their “paternalistic” teaching methods – a criticism he still
expresses, with little restraint, today.

But he also has some high-profile support from an award-winning psychology
professor at the university, Claude Lamontagne, who wrote in an e-mail that
faculty members need to fight for the freedom to teach how and when they want,
lest their independence be “pressed out of our souls like juice from an orange.”

Building on his science and society lectures, the self-described “anarchist”
developed a popular course on activism at Ottawa U, which was cancelled by the
university the following year, and started an alternative film society focused
on social justice.

He
made headlines after 10-year-old twins registered for his course with their
mother – and he supported the filing of a human-rights complaint claiming ageism
when the university said they couldn’t stay. His research can be equally
alternative: He has called global warming, for instance, a myth. He has also
been an outspoken critic of “Israeli military aggression” and is not shy about
expressing those views with students.

And while the university may be keeping quiet, Prof. Rancourt has freely
disseminated his side of the story: correspondence with university officials and
a video of his arrest has been posted on the Internet. “I have nothing to hide,”
he says.

Sean Kelly, a master’s student who had Prof. Rancourt as his thesis supervisor
until his suspension, said some students complained in class when the professor
allowed debates to wander off-topic – or refused to set deadlines for homework.
Some people, Mr. Kelly admitted, took advantage of the free A, but many others
put more energy into the class. Comparing Prof. Rancourt to other professors who
practically give students the questions that will be on exams in advance, the
27-year-old said, “He really pushes you to think more for yourself.”

For now, Prof. Rancourt, 51, is meeting his graduate students in cafés,
continuing to advise them unofficially on their thesis projects. He is still
receiving his salary while awaiting a final decision from the university. The
independent board of inquiry appointed by the Canadian Association of University
Teachers may take many months to release a report.

But the professor is undeterred
about those A-pluses: “Grades poison the educational environment,” he insists.
“We’re training students to be obedient, and to try to read our minds, rather
than being a catalyst for learning.”

Editor’s Note:
On March 31, 2009, the Board of Governors unanimously recommended the dismissal
of Denis Rancourt.

Globe and Mail, February 6, 2009