RACISM ISSUES IMPACT SOME MRU STAFF
Racialized staff speak of a toxic environment they say is only getting worse
One year after Mount Royal University's president vowed to take action to address racism, racialized faculty say a “toxic environment” has intensified, leading some professors to take medical leave or resign.
Four faculty members, including one professor who said she resigned after anti-indigenous harassment, told Postmedia about overt and covert racism they've experienced. They say systemic barriers are upheld by leadership when it comes to academic promotion and tenure, funding opportunities and salary equity.
“Things have gone too far,” said one professor. “We're risking people's careers.”
The four faculty members who spoke to Postmedia described a “culture of fear” at MRU, in which leadership and administration have discouraged racialized staff from filing official complaints and limited them from speaking openly about their experiences.
Lee Easton, president of the Mount Royal Faculty Association (MRFA), said the union has received grievances related to racism and discrimination, but he was unable to offer specifics due to confidentiality concerns.
“As an association, we are certainly aware that we have had a number of colleagues leave the institution. That is a source of great concern,” said Easton. “We are no different than any other post-secondary institution across Canada. We've seen across the country that there are serious issues around systemic racism and discrimination.”
MRU president Tim Rahilly said the allegations are “concerning ” and encourages faculty members to go through the formal complaints process at the university.
“This last year has been extraordinary. Between the pandemic, and everything that's been going on in the world around us, people have been more forthcoming. They have been sharing accounts of what their lived experiences are and I don't think that's unique to Mount Royal,” Rahilly said in response to a list of concerns shared with Postmedia.
“Those complaint processes are there for them specifically to bring forward these kinds of concerns.”
The faculty members who talked to Postmedia say at least eight racialized staff members have tendered their resignations in the past eight months, two of whom were Indigenous. This includes one of the four people who spoke to Postmedia.
The faculty members aren't identified due to concerns that speaking out would have professional repercussions. Postmedia has viewed emails and letters that document their allegations.
“I know that a lot of us don't feel safe,” said one faculty member. “You're made to feel like you're going crazy when you bring these issues forward, when you're really not. They're legit. The MO seems to be to isolate, rather than bring people together to support.”
Formal harassment complaints are handled through a confidential process at the university. In a statement, MRU said some of the complaints intersect with racism and discrimination but are not tabulated and reported.
One professor spoke about her initial salary grid placement, indicating her international experience should have placed her at a higher level, but the committee discounted it. White faculty members, hired at the same time with equal or less experience, were placed at a higher level on the grid, she said, which will impact her pension.
It demonstrates MRU'S “valuing” of western experience, a colleague added. White people are afforded opportunities to negotiate a market rate but people of colour are “shut down completely” when they do the same.
MRU said unconscious bias training is provided to recruitment committees and faculty are hired through a peer-review selection process. There is a formal process if someone wishes to appeal a decision.
The professors who spoke with Postmedia say an outside party should be hired to audit the university's policies and practices as it relates to racism and systemic barriers.
Rahilly said he is open to discuss this.
Results of the MRFA'S recent pay equity review only collected demographic data associated with gender, which racialized staff told Postmedia failed to unearth the racial inequalities at play.
“We're getting failed by the institutions doing the hiring, but also getting failed by the people who are supposed to guarantee that we have safe working conditions, which is our association,” said one professor.
Easton said the MRFA is “working now to rectify” concerns with the review. He said the university was “reluctant” to include demographic data they did not yet have access to when the university agreed to the evaluation. MRU said it is currently considering the collection of race-based data.
According to the group's own review, BIPOC faculty are under-represented in leadership positions, including the MRU board of governors, deans, associate deans, chairs, directors and managers.
Easton added you only have to look as far as the university's 10-person leadership group, none of whom identify as Black, Indigenous or people of colour, to see more work needs to be done.
Cornel Bogle, a PHD candidate in the department of English and film studies at the University of Alberta who specializes in the Black diaspora studies, said racism is part of the structure of post-secondary institutions.
“(Racism) is so structural,” he said. “It's both predictable and unpredictable for the individuals who live within these structures. The expectations of knowledge in these systems were never made for people like myself, Black and Indigenous people. These structures were never designed with us in mind, so that in itself creates tension and conflict.”
Bogle called for further hiring initiatives to attract racialized scholars and build institutional representation at the university.
TENURE PROFESSOR A LIGHTNING ROD
Faculty members and one student who shared their experiences with Postmedia say systemic barriers and aggressions impact their jobs and studies.
Tenured associate professor Frances Widdowson, who has been criticized for her opinions on Indigenous issues in Canada, is at the centre of these concerns.
Widdowson, who teaches in the MRU political science department, has come under fire from colleagues, students and academics outside of the Calgary-based university for her perspectives, while being considered a champion of free speech and academic freedom by others.
She has publicly rejected the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's conclusion that Canada's residential school system was “genocidal” and has argued in favour of the assimilation of Indigenous people to improve their quality of life.
Widdowson has been quoted online as saying the Black Lives Matter movement “destroyed MRU” and backed the use of the n-word when veteran CBC journalist Wendy Mesley faced disciplinary action for using the racial slur in a closed-door meeting.
One petition launched by an MRU student, with more than 6,000 signatures, demands the university dismiss Widdowson.
And two racialized professors have alleged targeted harassment by Widdowson as a reason for their departure, one of whom filed a formal grievance through the university's human resources department.
One professor resigned last year citing senior leadership's “lack of regard” for the well-being of Indigenous staff and students and harm allegedly caused by Widdowson.
“I would like it to be known that the reason for my departure is directly related to the lack of support by senior leadership in protecting my health and well-being and an inability to provide an environment that honours my basic human right to work in spaces free of racism and discrimination,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
Widdowson twice declined to comment when contacted by Postmedia.
The former MRU faculty member said Widdowson “dehumanized” the suffering of residential school survivors and challenged the validity of Indigenous knowledge while “passing it off” as academic freedom.
“When views are expressed by a member of the MRU community, it does not mean the institution shares these views,” said Rahilly. “Within the bounds of Canadian law, people have the basic right to freely express their ideas.”
Last September, Rahilly said the school would review the concerns.
Its findings, however, are confidential.
Bogle said free speech and academic freedom “go hand-in-hand in any democracy” but there are limits: “When it becomes hate speech is, really, when that freedom to speak on any topic, without any evidence, impinges upon the freedom of another group or another individual.”
Rahilly said he sees the “friction” taking place between the obligation to balance academic freedom and freedom of expression with people's lived experiences.
“If we're going to find our way forward, we have to find a way to manage these two seemingly opposing forces,” he said.
But the former professor said it speaks to a bigger issue of belonging, especially as Mount Royal's slogan is “you belong here.”
A student said it's professors like Widdowson, and others, who prevent meaningful change from taking place at the university.
He recalls being one of five Black students in a 50-person class last year. He said the professor played a video about the rap industry before pausing it to offer his thoughts.
“(The professor) said, `I can't listen to music nowadays, because all they say is the n-word, n-word, n-word.' But he said it. He said the word three different times,” recalls the student. The five Black students met after class and composed an email to MRU leadership about the incident.
In response, the students were told “he showed very poor judgment but had no malicious intent.”
The professor is still employed at MRU.
Just a few months later, anti-racism protests thundered through Calgary streets after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes last May. Mount Royal, like many institutions, was forced to look internally after people drew attention to systemic racism in all facets of Canadian society, including education.
The student, who was later involved in various anti-racism initiatives across campus, said it's been all talk and no action. In certain committees where he was one of the few racialized students participating, he said his voice was silenced and his ideas discarded.
Rahilly said he is unaware of tension felt by members of his presidential advisory committee on anti-racism. “I do believe that I have created an environment on that committee, where people are sharing their experiences,” he said.
The university released its Indigenous Strategic Plan in 2016, which was created to “address the legacy of broken promises” and rebuild relationships between Indigenous and non-indigenous people. The plan outlines a strategy to acknowledge, integrate and foster Indigenous teaching practices, knowledge and experiences.
In April, MRU named Linda Manyguns, a member of the Siksika First Nation, associate vice-president of indigenization and decolonization to advance its commitments.
In a recent Indigenous strategic plan update, Manyguns noted the General Faculties Council has approved a motion that paves the way for all major MRU programs to include a degree completion requirement of three credits of Indigenous content coursework.
Campus events showcasing Indigenous culture also increased from five to 14 in the academic year before the pandemic hit, she wrote. MRU is also offering a course to employees called “4 Seasons of Reconciliation” to increase understanding of Indigenous issues and reconciliation.