April 2003
March 19, 2003
Dear President Marsden:
I am writing to you as president
of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship. As you may know,
our Society represents a broad cross-section of professional academics,
students and interested others from across Canada, and elsewhere.
Our goals are to maintain freedom in teaching, research and scholar-ship,
and to support the merit principle in Canadian higher education.
You can learn more about us at our website: www.safs.ca.
According to stories in the
Globe and Mail and the National Post, several incidents have occurred at
York University recently that are troubling. The first of these concerns
the visit of Dr. Daniel Pipes to York. Dr. Pipes was invited and
then uninvited by the Centre for International and Security Studies, and
described by both the York University Faculty Association and the York
Federation of Students as having a racist agenda. Once at York, extraordinary
security was required to allow him to speak, with protesters intimidating
those wishing to hear him. In the end, fortunately, he was allowed
to speak but only because of the intervention of your office.
We applaud your commitment to academic freedom in making the alternate
arrangements to enable Dr. Pipes to speak.
In the more recent episode
of concern, students and others protesting a possible war in Iraq apparently
broke prior agreements with the university to keep open the entrances to
the campus and intimidated several students, including those at a booth
set up by the campus Canadian Alliance Party. In addition, several
of these protesters were arrested, although they were released without
being charged.
In a letter to the Globe
and Mail (March 12), Mr. Richard Fisher, Chief Communications Officer,
defended the university against some of the assertions made against it.
We appreciate many of his points including the fact that York did arrange
campus security for the anti-war protests, called in the city police to
help, and is not responsible for intemperate remarks made by faculty and
student organizations. We also agree that those who were wronged
should come forward and make formal complaints
to allow the university to deal with them in an appropriate manner.
The purpose of this letter
is to ask whether more could be done to eliminate intimidation on campus
and increase the appreciation for academic freedom and the value of reasoned
discussion. Without wishing to be presumptuous, we would like to
suggest that it might be useful for you, as president of the university,
to issue a public statement upholding the university’s commitment to an
open campus, free from intimidation, where teaching and scholarship may
continue without regard to conventional dogma or political beliefs.
Indeed, one of the important purposes of a university is to provide a forum
in which to debate controversial ideas.
We recognize that York University
does stand for these academic values, but they cannot be repeated too often,
especially on a campus which has had to go to some lengths recently to
defend them. It has been said that the price of liberty is
eternal vigilance, and it would be worthwhile, in our view, for York University
to issue a formal statement, in your name, reminding the campus community
of its obligations to defend academic freedom and tolerate opposing views.
Sincerely,
Clive Seligman, SAFS President.
Help us maintain freedom in teaching, research and scholarship by joining SAFS or making a donation.
