September 2011
August 15, 2011
Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte
President and Vice-Chancellor
Carleton University
503 Tory Building
Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6
Dear President Runte:
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: www.safs.ca.
We are concerned about a recent Carleton
University faculty job advertisement (attached) in Canadian Studies News (and
distributed widely via email by Richard Nimijean, Assistant Dean in the Faculty
of Arts and Social Sciences) for a two-year visiting Aboriginal-scholar position
for the Indigenous Studies Program. The ad states that the position, at the
assistant professorship level, “is open only to Aboriginal applicants (First
Nations, Metis, Inuit).” Ironically, at the bottom of the ad is the statement
that “Carleton University is committed to fostering diversity within its
community…All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.”
Many people will draw the inference that
Carleton believes there are some positions for which only Aboriginal applicants
are qualified. And from there, they will also draw the inference that there may
be some positions for which only other ethnic groups are qualified. Such
suggestions run counter to the very basis of the modern university, in which
qualification depends not on race but on achievement, and in which learning and
teaching are open to all. Should your position require that specific
qualifications (such as having had experience living on or teaching on a
reserve) be satisfied, these qualifications can be included in your
advertisement without the current reference to race.
To be fair, we accept that your intention to
increase the number of Aboriginal faculty, students, and curriculum content is
well meaning. However, a good intention does not excuse what is essentially a
racially discriminatory hiring policy. And, there is no reason to restrict the
applicant pool – you would lose nothing by opening up the competition for this
job to all people, so long as you were also open to hiring the person who could
do the job the best, regardless of the race of the applicant.
Indeed, there are strong reasons to ignore race
as a job criterion: fairness to all qualified applicants, competence of future
faculty, and respect for Aboriginal people who deserve to be held to the same
standards as others when applying for an academic job. It is not much of a
stretch to say that when you restrict the applicant pool to Aboriginals, you are
suggesting that Aboriginals cannot compete with non-Aboriginals. And, equally
problematic, you are suggesting that Aboriginal students cannot thrive unless
tutored by Aboriginal faculty.
We urge you to open up this faculty position to
all applicants.
We would be grateful for your response to our
concern. We will post our letter and your response on our website.
Sincerely,
Clive Seligman, President
Encl.
cc: Dr. Richard Nimijean, Associate Dean,
Dr. Donna
Patrick, Director, School of Canadian Studies.
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