Newsletter

January 2009

SAFS Letter To Harvey P. Weingarten, President, University Of Calgary

Clive Seligman

December 5,
2008

Dear President Weingarten:

Re: Censorship at University of Calgary

We are a national organization of
scholars and interested others whose main goals are the protection of academic
freedom and the merit principle in higher education (see

www.safs.ca for further information).

I am writing to you to express our opposition to recent attempts
by your administration to censor legitimate protest on your campus. According to
numerous media reports, a Campus Pro-Life club has faced considerable obstacles
in their attempt to hold an on-campus protest against abortion. We take no stand
on the issue of abortion, but we are frankly appalled by your administration’s
tactics, including threats of fines, suspension, expulsions, and even arrests,
to try to control the abortion protest. These tactics are all the more
surprising, because we understand that these protests have occurred in previous
years without incident.

We are gratified, however, that the university ultimately
decided to reverse its decision and last week allowed the club to hold its
protest for two days, despite threats from others to disrupt the protest. We
commend you for standing up to threats of violence against the protesters.
Nonetheless, we continue to be concerned by reports that you directed your
security personnel to record the names, addresses, and identification numbers of
the student members of the club. We can think of no reason to do so other than
intimidation.

Clearly, students and faculty have the academic freedom to
debate controversial issues, so long as they do so in a lawful and non-violent
manner; we have read no reports indicating that this protest was anything other
than lawful and non-violent.

Thus, we believe you owe the broader academic community an
explanation of why the Campus Pro-Life club continues to face harassment in
expressing its views. We would also urge you to destroy the identification
information you have collected regarding members of this club, and to promise to
treat those club members in the same manner as you would other students by
guaranteeing their academic right to express their opinions on contentious
issues.

We look forward to your response. We will post your unedited
reply along with our letter on our website.

Sincerely,
Clive Seligman, President.