Professors accuse the university of violating their academic freedom.
Concordia University Provost and Vice-President, Academic Anne Whitelaw sent an internal memo on Sept. 5 prohibiting departments from posting political statements.
In addition to this ban, the university took down departmental political statements from Concordia’s website. Among the statements that were deleted where pro-Palestinian stances from several departments.
“Like many universities, Concordia is facing a series of unprecedented challenges with respect to its campus politics,” Whitelaw wrote in the memo. “Recent geopolitical conflicts, particularly in the Middle East, have led to an escalation of tensions that have made dialogue and debate increasingly difficult. The tensions have had a chilling effect on campus, leading some students, faculty, and staff to feel that it is unwelcoming.”
Whitelaw cited the university’s Policy on the Use of Concordia University’s Name, and the Governance of its Visual Character and Digital Presence to outlaw departmental political statements.
“The use of the University’s Name, in a manner which could directly or indirectly convey the message or impression that the University is engaged in a purely commercial, political, illegal or immoral activity is prohibited,” reads the policy, which was last updated in December 2022.
However, multiple professors have opposed this new decision, saying that it infringes on academic freedom. This is notably the case of Elena Razlogova, an associate professor of history at Concordia University and the regular councillor for the history department and the School of Irish Studies to the Concordia University Faculty Association (CUFA), which represents full-time faculty members and professional librarians.
“With these new regulations, the employer restricts the ability of CUFA members to collectively represent themselves through their departments: the employer 1) censors evidence of members’ past work in service to their departments, the university, and society at large; 2) takes away faculty members’ ability to determine the principles and values of the department, as the past statements have done; and 3) restricts members’ ability to make future statements collectively,” Razlogova wrote in an email to CUFA executives and councillors.
Razlogova also noted in the email that Concordia’s new position contradicts some of its previous actions, which supported political statements from departments.
In the email sent to CUFA executives and councillors, she mentioned the Simone de Beauvoir Institute’s position statement, “A Feminist Position on Sex Work,” which the university advertised on its website and called a press conference for. This position was also used in a 2013 Supreme Court of Canada judgment, which ruled that some of Canada’s laws regarding sex work were unconstitutional.
“Now the same position statement that served to advertise Concordia’s role in public policy and law reform has been censored by the university,” Razlogova wrote in her email. “In its 50th Anniversary year, Concordia University erased its own celebrated history from the internet.”
In the memo, Whitelaw argued that academic freedom only applies to individuals and groups of academic members who teach or do research at the university. According to her, academic units, which include departments, are not protected by academic freedom.
Concordia University spokesperson Vannina Maestracci refused to make further comments on the subject.