[Fdu] Self-Proclaimed Dissident Riles Up Canadian Academe

[Cynthia Wright]

Chronicle of Higher Education August 5, 2013
A Self-Proclaimed Dissident Riles Up Canadian Academe

Denis Rancourt, a physics professor who was dismissed in 2009 by the U. 
of Ottawa, in part for his unorthodox grading: "Socrates did not give 
grades. My job is to educate."

By Karen Birchard and Jennifer Lewington

Denis Rancourt is a self-described "anarchist" and "dissident," an 
internationally recognized researcher in physics, and a blogger who 
writes bluntly about social activism, climate change, and the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But it is the challenge to his dismissal as a tenured professor at the 
University of Ottawa—a rare occurrence in Canadian academe—that has 
brought him the most recent attention, raising questions about academic 
freedom and its limits.

Mr. Rancourt was dismissed in 2009 after 23 years at Ottawa, setting off 
a lengthy, still unresolved legal battle between the scholar and his 
former university. In June an arbitration hearing on the dispute ended 
after 30 days of deliberations over two years. A decision is expected in 
2014. In theory, the arbitrator could decide that the dismissal 
constitutes an erosion of academic freedom or merely a provocative 
professor's failing to respect agreed-upon university procedures.

"This is a case certainly about a university that is very, very 
uncomfortable with an individual and the fact that he is extremely vocal 
in his criticism," says Sean McGee, the lawyer representing Mr. Rancourt 
for the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa, which 
took up his grievance. "One of the things the arbitrator will decide is, 
How far can you go in all the senses with your criticism of the university?"

For its part, the university has painted Mr. Rancourt as a bully who has 
flouted rules and repeatedly defied his superiors' orders.

The relationship between the professor and the administration was not 
always so fraught. In 2001, Mr. Rancourt was even featured in a 
University of Ottawa publicity campaign, "Can you recognize Canada's 
university of the 21st century?"

But since then, the mutual admiration has withered. Before and after his 
dismissal, Mr. Rancourt filed more than two dozen grievances against the 
institution. Several still await arbitration. Of nine settled 
grievances, the faculty union has won six on his behalf. He lists the 
grievances on his Web site, where he continues to write a blog sharply 
critical of university policies and administrators.

In 2006 he provoked a controversy when he allowed 10-year-old twins to 
register for one of his courses. After the university reversed their 
registration, he publicly supported the mother's case for age 
discrimination before the Ontario Human Rights Commission. (The 
commission dismissed the case on technicalities.) He also backed several 
of his students who filed a lawsuit against the university demanding the 
appointment of more teaching assistants. Over the years, he was 
disciplined several times by the administration before being dismissed 
by the institution's Board of Governors.

During the arbitration hearing, both sides fired charges and 
countercharges, and numerous facts are in dispute. An important part of 
the case—one that touches directly on academic freedom—involves the 
right of a professor to grade as he or she sees fit.

The university argued that Mr. Rancourt had committed "a serious form of 
academic fraud." The accusation was made by Lynn Harnden, the 
university's lawyer, as reported by the Ottawa Citizen. He was 
describing Mr. Rancourt's unorthodox pedagogy, which supposedly included 
his promise on Day One of a fourth-year physics class to award all of 
the students grades of A-plus. He allegedly went on to give the high 
marks despite a specific order from a dean not to do so.

"If you endorse how this professor conducted himself, that would 
represent a threat to the credibility of the principle of academic 
freedom," Mr. Harnden told the hearing. "The principle of academic 
freedom does not protect the right of professors to engage in academic 
fraud."

Mr. McGee, the faculty-union lawyer for Mr. Rancourt, says that the 
principle of academic freedom extends to how professors grade. He 
concedes that his client holds "very, very, very countercultural" views 
about pedagogy but says Mr. Rancourt believes deeply in the need to 
rethink the teaching of physics. Mr. McGee contends that protecting a 
professor's right to speak up is all the more vital when you don't agree 
with the opinions expressed. "It is the hard cases of protection that 
build the rights of the individual," he says.
Strong Protections

Mr. Rancourt has described his approach as "student centered" and says 
he relied on continuing evaluations, not tests, to measure comprehension 
of physics concepts. "Socrates did not give grades," he told The 
Chronicle at the time of his suspension. "My job is to educate. Over the 
years, I've come to the conclusion that what we've been doing with the 
grading system doesn't work. We are creating obedient employees, but not 
people who think."

In a recent interview, Mr. Rancourt says his dismissal only strengthened 
his resolve to fight for his beliefs. "Personally, I was not emotionally 
or psychologically scarred by this. I always felt the grading thing was 
a pretext by the administration to get rid of me."

He describes his post-dismissal life as one of an intellectual: "I can 
still think, read, and do calculations." He has written a book of essays 
about human rights, helped write several published scientific papers, 
and has been invited by colleagues at Carleton University and even the 
University of Ottawa to deliver guest lectures.

Asked if he wants to return to teaching at Ottawa, he is quick to reply. 
"Absolutely. That's the hope. We have asked the arbitrator to order me 
back to work."

Caroline Milliard, Ottawa's manager of media relations, says via e-mail 
that the university has no comment, because the case is in arbitration.

Not surprisingly, observers are loath to predict the outcome of such a 
high-profile and complicated case, though some say access to 
arbitration, typical in dismissal cases, indicates Canada's strong 
protections for professors to speak their minds in and outside of the 
classroom.

"Academic freedom in a cross-Canada sense is better protected than it is 
in the United States," says Jon Thompson, a professor emeritus of 
mathematics at the University of New Brunswick and an expert on academic 
freedom and due process.

With labor rules that are consistently strong across the provinces, 
"there's much better opportunity for professors who come under attack 
internally or externally on academic freedom to succeed," he says.

Still, Mr. Thompson worries about a weakening of academic freedom in a 
global political climate that has become more anti-intellectual and 
anti-union, with growing support in Canada for restrictive labor laws.

While there have been few arbitration cases quite like Mr. 
Rancourt's—many disputes are settled long before a hearing—one notable 
ruling found in favor of a professor. In 2004 an arbitrator concluded 
that York University, in Toronto, had infringed on the academic freedom 
of one of its professors, David Noble (since deceased), when he 
distributed fliers questioning the influence of what he called 
pro-Israel interests in the university's fund-raising operation. Without 
naming the professor, the university issued a news release denouncing 
the flier as "highly offensive." The arbitrator ruled that York had 
undermined the professor's right to criticize the institution and 
ordered it to pay Mr. Noble $2,500 in damages.

More recently, the definition of what constitutes academic freedom has 
sparked a dispute between faculty and administration representatives 
nationally. In 2011, the Association of Universities and Colleges of 
Canada issued a statement on academic freedom that came under fire from 
the Canadian Association of University Teachers for the narrowness of 
the wording, which included no references to protection for "extramural 
utterance and action."

Some higher-education experts, however, warn against speculating on the 
implications of the Rancourt case for academic freedom in Canada. "The 
situation is enormously complex and complicated, with a whole range of 
issues," says James L. Turk, executive director of the Canadian 
Association of University Teachers, which set up an independent 
three-person panel to investigate the dispute.

"The documentation was voluminous," he says of the inquiry. "It 
stretched 27 linear feet ... and took six months to digitize." The panel 
has yet to submit its findings, which carry no legal weight but, based 
on the history of past reports from such panels, can carry moral authority.

If the arbitrator decides that Mr. Rancourt's unconventional grading 
falls within the bounds of academic freedom, his lawyer, Mr. McGee, 
contends that the onus will be on the university to spell out accepted 
approaches to evaluating students if it wants to ban such unorthodox 
practices.

But higher-education scholars in Canada note that academic senates are 
typically the forum for such discussions. "University charters in Canada 
assign responsibility for academic-policy issues to the university 
senate, and while there are clearly variations by institution, academic 
policies related to grades are clearly the responsibility of the 
senate," says Glen Jones, a professor of higher education at the 
University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, in 
an e-mail.

Without commenting on the Rancourt case, Harry Arthurs, a former 
president of York University and a scholar in labor and employment law, 
says universities must be vigilant in safeguarding academic freedom. 
"Clearly, people legally and morally are entitled to due process," he 
told The Chronicle. "And if you are moving against someone to restrict 
their behavior or to get rid of them, you should be scrupulous about 
ensuring their procedural rights are protected."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserv.physics.utoronto.ca/pipermail/fdu/attachments/20130816/4c304e93/attachment.html