Professor Jennifer Berdahl has resigned from the UBC committee that is searching for a new president.
Berdahl announced her resignation on her blog, saying that she has “lost confidence in the willingness of the committee to hear the concerns of the faculty and to learn from the mistakes of the recent past to improve the future of UBC.”
Berdahl was elected to the committee by faculty. She is the same professor whose blog post ignited an academic freedom storm after Arvind Gupta quit abruptly as president last summer. Berdahl questioned whether he had lost a masculinity contest among the leaders of the university, raising issues of racism and bullying. When the then chair of the Board of Governors called her to discuss the post, she raised concerns that her academic freedom had been infringed. An investigation later found no individual at fault, but said the university had failed to uphold her academic freedom.
In her resignation letter, Berdahl refers to a faculty survey that found that 72.5 per cent of UBC faculty who responded do not have confidence in the presidential search committee. A similar number, 71.4 per cent, said that UBC chancellor Lindsay Gordon and board member Greg Peet should resign from the search committee. A total of 885 faculty members responded to the survey.
“I no longer see how I can productively contribute to this process, and I do not wish to be part of a process in which I lack confidence,” Berdahl wrote, adding her hopes that new leadership will bring a renewal in the relationship between faculty and administration.
The committee is hoping to find a new president by June.
Sun Education Reporter
tsherlock@postmedia.com
Filed under: B.C. Education Report, Education, News Tagged: Arvind Gupta, Greg Peet, Jennifer Berdahl, Lindsay Gordon, UBC, University of British Columbia Image may be NSFW.
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