Renowned seismologist Kin-Yip Chun, who was fired by the University of Toronto and escorted from the campus by police in 1994, was reinstated on Sept. 7 after a mediation which lasted for more than 14 hours.

Dr. Chun has been appointed as research scientist and associate professor (without tenure) and a member of the graduate department of physics. In his fifth year a review will determine whether his appointment will be continued beyond June 2005. To satisfactorily pass the review he will have to attract peer-reviewed research funding and have published (or have acceptances of publication for) four research papers in refereed journals.

The university will provide $210,000 start-up funding for his research and an additional $50,000 of computer equipment for his laboratory. He will receive an annual salary of $85,000 plus benefits.

The university will also give Chun $100,000 in compensation, and pay up to $150,000 of his legal fees. And, he may apply for any tenure stream position for which he is qualified.

CAUT played an important role in the outcome of a case which had become widely known in Canada and elsewhere, and which involved charges of racial discrimination. "At long last the university, under the leadership of Bob Birgeneau, has behaved with courage and generosity in correcting a wrong," said Bill Graham, past president of CAUT and a member of the team that negotiated the settlement on Chun's behalf.

Chun joined the university's physics department as a research associate in 1985 and secured $1.4 million in research grant funding over nine years. On four occasions he was turned down for tenure stream positions in the physics department. His experiences led him to charge the university with racism, charges which the university bitterly contested.

He appealed to CAUT's Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee which launched an investigation into his case in 1995. The AF&T investigators conducted interviews and had access to the university's own internal report, by Professor Cecil Yip, which found irregularities in one of the searches, but no evidence of intentional discrimination. Nevertheless, Yip's report concluded that Chun "had been unfairly treated and exploited."

Unlike other research associates Chun acted as his own principal investigator and was acknowledged as the leader of the program on nuclear test ban verification and earthquake seismology. He even had his own research associates. Furthermore, he taught upper-level courses and supervised graduate students. In short, he performed the duties normally expected of professors.

Chun filed a human rights complaint against the university in 1992. In February 2000 an investigator for the Ontario Human Rights Commission reported evidence of systemic racial discrimination in the university's hiring practices. But in July, after hearing submissions by the university, the commission declined to refer the case to a board of inquiry.

Graham said the commission's decision and the arrival of a newly-appointed president at the university, Robert Birgeneau, paved the way for the negotiated settlement.

Since the firing, the 54-year-old father of two has been living on social assistance and the largesse of many friends.

The resolution is in line with that suggested by CAUT's 1998 AF&T report which recommended that Chun be provided with "an opportunity to return to work at the university with genuine job security on a continuing basis at a rank and salary commensurate with his actual experience, and a fair chance to compete for any position in seismology at the university which may occur in the future." Professor Patrick O'Neill of Acadia University and former chair of the AF&T committee, was an original member of the committee of inquiry and was a long time advocate of a solution along the lines of the settlement.

CAUT also made it possible for mediator George Adams and the university members to hear from a distinguished professor of physics from the University of Pennsylvania and former president of the Seismological Society of America.

For his part, Chun has agreed to withdraw the appeal of his human rights commission case and his civil suit against the university.

Both Chun and the University of Toronto view the settlement as a win-win situation. In a joint statement both parties "express regret at the harm done to all those involved in this protracted dispute."

Graham said that Chun has put the past behind him, "withdrawing his allegations and wishing only to return to his research in collegial fellowship with the other physicists."

In an open letter to the university community, Birgeneau wrote "I am confident that our colleagues who are directly involved in the reconciliation process will do their very best to ensure that the University of Toronto distinguishes
itself in this difficult transition period."

Background: Bulletin reports Feb. 2000 & Apr. 2000. Also, search online at www.utoronto.ca/acc/chun/.