SOMA DALAI

Faculty, members of the general public and a very small number of students slowly filtered into the Neatby-Timlin Theatre Oct. 1 to the sounds of live guitar music for “To the Wall: The Last Stand for Academic Freedom,” an event organized by the University Faculty Association to discuss the importance of autonomy for staff and students alike.

The Academic Freedom conference has been a yearly occurrence at the University of Saskatchewan since 2005 when faculty members Len Findlay, Richard Gray and Nurul Chowdhury founded it. However, this year’s conference occurred in March, before the events that transpired last spring which included the firing of tenured faculty member Robert Buckingham.

According to Richard Gray, a member of the Faculty Association, that firing was when the seeds for last week’s conference were planted.

“Because of what happened [last spring], we were asked to put another one together because we considered it an emergency — and others did as well. In fact, we’ve had responses and support from as far away as India, and China, and Europe,” Gray said with enthusiasm.

As main organizer of the event and chair of the Academic Freedom Committee, Gray was happy to step aside for a few minutes and speak to the Sheaf about the importance of academic freedom

in universities and why the Faculty Association felt this was a critical time for a discussion about academic freedom at the university.

“This past year, of course, we didn’t anticipate the number of problems that we had with the previous administration, with [then president Ilene Busch-Vishniac] and her attempts to remove the right to tenure from the collegial committees and put it exclusively in the hands of herself, and with a small consulting group,” Gray said. “That’s where you have the genesis of this particular event coming from.”

October’s conference was unique for another reason as well, as it was attended by university faculty members from across the country who viewed the U of S as a symbol for the wider struggle for faculty autonomy occurring throughout Canada and the rest of the world.

“When other colleagues across the nation found out [about this event], they wanted to come,” Gray said, listing the names of a few of the 25 delegates from across the country who had come to attend. This list included Robin Rose, the president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers from St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, James Turk, the former director of the CAUT from Ryerson University and Rudy H. Fichtenbaum, the president of the American Association of University Professors from Wright State University.

“It’s quite incredible the number of people who are coming to talk about it today,” Gray concluded.

Gray also spoke of the court case the Faculty Association began against the U of S regarding presidential powers over tenure.

While the faculty has won the decision that tenure should remain in the hands of the Board of Governors rather than the president alone, the university may still appeal. Gray also expressed hope that interim president Gordon Barnhart and interim provost Ernie Barber will be open to negotiating with faculty on the issue. Both Barber and Barnhart were slated to attend the Faculty Association’s evening event as a continuation of the Academic Freedom conference.

Turk was invited to give the hour-long keynote speech titled “The Contested Terrain of Academic Freedom.”

In his speech, Turk outlined numerous threats to academic freedom affecting universities today, including “legislation of civility,” the rise in proportion of untenured and non-tenure track faculty, the ineffectiveness of collegial governance, and infringe- ment of “the rights of academic staff to act freely as citizens without censure from their academic employer.”

Turk’s audience listened attentively, some nodding their heads in agreement as Turk outlined and substantiated his points. He ended his speech by emphasizing the need for faculty to know and aggressively protect their rights as academics.

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Graphic: Stephanie Mah/Graphics Editor