Hall retiring from U of L
Professor dropped from class listings for fall semester
Tony Hall will not be returning to a University of Lethbridge classroom. He has decided to retire, both the U of L and Hall confirmed to The Herald on Wednesday.
Hall, who was a tenured professor who taught Globalization studies, Native American studies and liberal education at the U of L since 1990, was suspended without pay in October 2016 over concerns he had contravened Section 3 of the Alberta Human Rights Act, including providing a platform for hate speech regarding some of his online activities.
Hall had maintained some of the issues involve academic freedom and that he should be allowed to promote his work as he sees fit. He was reinstated in 2017, but was recently dropped from class listings for the coming fall semester.
“The University of Lethbridge confirms that Dr. Anthony Hall will be retiring from the U of L in the fall of 2018 and therefore will not be teaching any classes during the upcoming fall 2018 academic semester,” the U of L said in a statement to The Herald. “As this is a human resources matter, no additional comments will be provided.”
“I have been a full-time faculty member in Canada for 36 years, the last 28 of which have been at the University of Lethbridge,” Hall said in an email statement to The Herald.
“In that time there have been many very fulfilling and fruitful periods of professional activity interspersed with more challenging and difficult times. Sometimes the difficult times have proven to be the most significant in terms of my own experiential learning about how power is structured and exercised in the academy. Over almost three decades at the U of L I have enjoyed collegial interactions with many wonderful colleagues and students. I will cherish many warm memories of these interactions as I move into retirement from the school that took me on in 1990 as associate professor of Native American Studies.”
Last week, B’nai Brith Canada reported that Hall was listed as teaching two courses during the fall 2018 semester. After registering a complaint, the university immediately removed Hall’s name from the syllabus.
“This is a monumental and precedent-setting victory for human rights in Canada,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada, in a release to The Herald. “B’nai Brith commends our supporters for keeping pressure on the university, the Government of Alberta, and ultimately on Hall himself.”
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