Faculty Council meeting triggered actions from the administration
The hiring controversy continues to develop at University of Toronto Faculty of Law. In September, Dean Iacobucci allegedly withdrew a directorship offer to fill the vacancy at the law school’s International Human Rights Program (IHRP). Supposedly, this was influenced by a donor — and sitting Tax Court judge — concerned about the candidate’s scholarship on Palestinian human rights issues. Calls for investigation have been persistent ever since the story broke out. After much public consternation, U of T announced that the Faculty would be conducting an external review on October 14. Dean Iacobucci also appointed Professor Emerita & Co-Director, International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program Rebecca Cook as interim director for IHRP.
Faculty Council meeting on October 7 brought students and faculty no closer to finding answers
From the opening of the meeting, the Dean emphasized that concerns around IHRP were “Human Resource matters” not to be discussed at Faculty Council. The precise purview of the Faculty Council is not very clear as it lacks a consolidated constitution. According to the document creating the Council in 1941, a power and duty of the Council is to “consider and report to the Senate upon such matters affecting the School as to the Council may seem meet.”
Nevertheless, attendees of the meeting had quickly begun to populate the chat with questions about the IHRP. Professor David Schneiderman raised a point of order to ask why the Dean, as chair, had not yet called on those attendees. The Dean responded that as the IHRP had no director at the moment, no one would be in the position to make a statement to the Faculty Council.
Later during the meeting Students’ Law Society Representative Jean-Pierre d’Angelo introduced a motion to discuss the faculty’s academic plans for the IHRP. A roll call vote was taken. The majority of professors present opposed the motion, but it passed by a margin of three — with every student representative voting in favour.
Repeated questioning on a number of matters — from imminent student expectations for IHRP, to academic freedom for Faculty employees — yielded no response. The Dean acknowledged the frustration but repeated that he had already said everything he could say in his previously-released statements. Perhaps the Dean was legally constrained from saying more. Professor David Dyzenhaus said to the Globe and Mail that many of his colleagues are inclined to trust the Dean’s integrity.
The administration subsequently announced an external review and appointed an interim director
The day after the Faculty Council meeting, nine professors released a letter to Vice President and Provost Cheryl Regehr. They criticized Dean Iacubucci’s handling of the controversy as “high-handed manner of governance” and “rule by fiat.”
The Faculty Council meeting and the professors’ letter helped generate another round of publicity on the controversy.
A week after the Faculty Council meeting, the university’s Vice President of Human Resources and Equity announced an external review. Its aim is to provide “(a) a comprehensive factual narrative of events pertaining to the search committee process and (b) the basis for the decision to discontinue the candidacy of the search committee’s preferred candidate.”
Professor Bonnie Patterson, former President of the Council of Ontario Universities and former President and Vice-Chancellor of Trent University, will conduct the review. A public written report will be submitted in January, and its findings will eventually be made public.
The official statement also stated that cooperation with interview requests from the review was voluntary. Critics highlighted multiple omissions from review’s mandate, namely, whether academic freedom covers clinical positions, whether a job offer was indeed made, and the substance of the donor’s alleged interference, and an analysis of the Dean’s response.
Doubts also emerged as to whether this will truly be an “impartial” review. Louis Century, a member of the IHRP Alumni Network Committee, questioned if Patterson was in a position to conduct an unbiased review. In a Twitter thread, Century outlined Patterson’s past decisions as a higher education administrator in disregarding dissent and downplaying academic freedom.
On October 15, Dean Iacobucci responded to another concern expressed at the Faculty Council meeting — the impact of the IHRP Director vacancy on the program’s academic future. In an email, the Dean announced that he has appointed Rebecca Cook as the interim director.
Cook is a Professor Emerita at the law school and a well-respected human rights scholar. Her leadership will hopefully help IHRP clarify its future in such a challenging time for the program.
For more information on the IHRP controversy, see UV’s Resource Page.
For more information on the October 7 Faculty Council meeting, see here.
