September 2003
July 3, 2003
Dear Vice-Chancellor Denis:
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.
On March 26, this year, your
university issued a press release “The UQAM declares Zone of Peace,” in
which the Board of Directors reaffirms “the resolution of the Commission
of the studies of the UQAM, inviting the whole of the community to be opposed
to the war against Iraq.” Subsequently, one of your faculty members,
Professor Stephen Schecter, responded in the Montreal Gazette (April
3, 2003), criticizing the university’s actions in an article, entitled
“UQAM Anti-War Resolution was Inappropriate.”
My first purpose in writing
to you is to inquire whether there has been any further development in
UQAM’s political activities regarding
the war in Iraq, and whether you
or any other official at UQAM
has answered Professor Schecter publicly or privately, or taken any disciplinary
action against him.
A second purpose is to ask
why UQAM, as an institution of higher education, whose function is essentially
epistemological, would align itself with any particular political position.
Generally speaking, universities, as corporate entities, do not hold political
positions on matters removed from the direct administration of the university.
Universities are communities of scholars, who, individually, believe many
different things about politics, society, culture, religion, and so on.
The explicit expression of an opinion by the university administration
on the war in Iraq necessarily threatens the academic freedom of individual
scholars to state their own views by suggesting there is a correct university-approved
position on the matter. It is concerning enough that the university
administration took a political position, it is even more troubling that
its faculty were asked to support it in an email message.
Professor Schecter, in his
article, correctly points out that “the people on the commission des etudes
were elected or appointed to decide questions pertaining to the academic
life of the university, not on matters of politics or law.” He then
goes on to distinguish between political and epistemological functions
and clearly believes that the university and society are better served
when the university limits itself to matters of truth-seeking and avoids
the politicization of the Academy. We could not agree with
him more.
My final purpose in writing
to you is to register for the record that our society opposes your university’s
declaration of a resolution concerning the war in Iraq, asks that you recommend
to the relevant university committees that the resolution be withdrawn,
and that UQAM refrain from further actions that politicize the academy,
including the adoption of political positions and asking individual faculty
members to support the university’s political positions.
I would be grateful for a
response and we will be happy to post your reply alongside our letter to
you on our website.
Sincerely,
Clive Seligman, SAFS President.
As of today we have received
no response to either letter.
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