U OF S PROVOST RESIGNS
Board to determine future for president
University of Saskatchewan provost Brett Fairbairn, who controversially fired an outspoken tenured professor last week, tendered his resignation Monday, minutes before the university’s board of governors convened an emergency evening meeting.
“My motive for offering my resignation is my genuine interest in the wellbeing of the University of Saskatchewan,” Fairbairn said in a letter to university president Ilene Busch-Vishniac.
“I believe the work I have done as a student, faculty member, and provost has contributed to the growth of our university’s reputation. The same interests lead me to offer stepping aside from the provost role as the best contribution I can now offer under present circumstances.”
The board of governors, which includes Busch-Vishniac, went into a closed-door meeting at 8 p.m. Monday. They had not emerged by press time.
Provincial Advanced Education Minister Rob Norris, who requested the meeting, appeared before the board late Monday night and then spoke with reporters while board members continued to debate.
Norris said board members must determine whether administration violated the University of Saskatchewan Act, which outlines the roles and responsibilities of senior administration. Norris said that under the act, senior administration must clear staff suspensions and dismissals with the board of governors — something that may not have happened when tenured professor Robert Buckingham was fired on May 14 for sending a letter to the provincial government and Opposition criticizing the university’s controversial cost-cutting Transform-US plan. The decision to fire Buckingham was later reversed and the university admitted it “blundered” when stripping Buckingham of his tenure.
Norris would not speculate on whether the act was violated or what sanctions should be applied if the president and provost are found to be in violation of the act. He simply told the media that “notions that the University of Saskatchewan Act have been compromised or in any way that they’re in non-compliance is a very serious allegation.”
Norris acknowledged there is “a deepening controversy, if not crisis, regarding the national reputation and international reputation of the University of Saskatchewan” and said it’s up to the board to decide how to rectify the problem.
An open letter to board chair Susan Milburn signed by about 1,000 academics across Canada urges the board to take strong action against U of S administration in order to restore the university’s tarnished reputation.
“It’s incredibly important that the University of Saskatchewan be very, very clear in its defence of academic freedom,” said Carolyn Sale, an associate professor of English at University of Alberta in Edmonton who helped draft the letter.
The letter stresses that “deans at Canada’s public universities must be free to criticize and speak publicly against decisions being taken by their university administrations,” and says both Fairbairn and Busch-Vishniac failed to uphold the principles of academic freedom when they fired Buckingham.
Nick Marlatte, a recent graduate of University of Saskatchewan who is organizing a rally at the U of S for Tuesday, said outrage will only die down if both the president and provost are fired for their actions.
He said he expects more than 500 students, faculty members and concerned citizens to arrive on campus Tuesday afternoon to express concern over the firing of Buckingham and to call for the termination of TransformUS.
“The reputation of the university has really been damaged in the last week because of the decision by the senior administration to fire Robert Buckingham,” he said. “It’s compromised the entire TransformUS policy because now we know that deans and senior administration can’t speak out against this.”
Buckingham, who said he simply wants all this to go away, said Monday he’d “hate for anyone to lose their jobs over this.”