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CAUT Bulletin Archives
1996-2016

February 2015

Ad hoc inquiry to examine Laurentian’s faculty of arts

CAUT has established an ad hoc investigatory committee to examine allegations within the faculty of arts at Laurentian University.

The committee members are Sheila Embleton, a distinguished research professor of linguistics at York University and Eric Tucker, a profes­sor at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School and a distinguished scholar in resi­dence at the Cleveland-Mar­shall College of Law, Cleveland State University.

Under the terms of reference for its inquiry, the committee is to investigate claims of improper procedural practices and restrictions on academic freedom; disregard of collegial decision-making; irregular hiring procedures; inappropriate interference in workload assign­ments; restrictions on faculty access to the departmental office; failure to maintain appropriate faculty comple­ment; failure to provide particulars in disciplinary investigations; breach of privacy; improper changes to grades; and interference in teaching methods and styles.

Based on its findings, the committee has been asked to make recommendations to deal with any issues it uncovers.

The committee, says David Robinson, executive director of CAUT, will begin its work in the next few weeks and “hopes to meet with university officials as well as representatives of the faculty association and any member of the faculty of arts who can assist in its probe of the allegations.”