As a result of positive responses from university administrations, CAUT council voted unanimously last month to discontinue consideration of censure of McGill University, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

“We are pleased all three university administrations responded so positively to our concerns and resolved the issues that originally led council to move ahead with censure proceedings,” said CAUT executive director James Turk.

Concerns first raised more than five years ago at McGill University Library were the subject of a CAUT committee of inquiry and considerable work by the librarians section of the McGill Association of University Teachers, which identified 28 issues that needed to be resolved.

“Over the past six months, there has been substantial and continuing progress to resolve these issues,” Sharon Rankin, chair of MAUT’s librarians section, advised council delegates Nov. 24. “Of the 28 issues identified, 23 are considered resolved, efforts are underway to resolve four, and one is flagged as a future concern requiring no action at present.”

Censure proceedings started last April against the administrations of Wilfrid Laurier and Waterloo over governance of the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) — an initiative made possible in part by a large donation from former Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie. The root of CAUT’s issues concerned the donor agreement and BSIA governance document approved by the two universities that gave the donor’s private think tank, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a role in the school’s academic decision making.

After months of discussions between CAUT and the two universities, “the result is a memorandum of understanding signed by the universities and CIGI that makes clear that ‘none of CIGI, BSIA, the BSIA board and the director has autho­rity over any academic matter whatsoever in connection with (the Balsillie School’s) academic programs,’” said Turk.

Turk said the memorandum they signed also clarified for the first time that the Balsillie school director, chosen by the BSIA board, on which CIGI sits, “has no role whatsoever in any academic matter related to any program offered by either university, including no decisive role in the appointment of faculty and chairs and selection of students.”

The memorandum further clarifies that the board’s role is limited to non-academic matters, in that it “oversees management of (Balsillie school) functions other than academic matters and has final authority over its non-academic budget and operations.”