Ryerson University called in an external investigator last year to probe allegations of workplace bullying by Wendy Cukier, one of the school’s most prominent academic leaders, the Star has learned.

Cukier was slated to become the first female president of Brock University in St. Catharines, but the appointment was unexpectedly cancelled in a “mutual decision” announced Monday, three days before she was scheduled to take the job.

John Suk, chair of Brock University’s board of trustees, said in an emailed statement Thursday that Cukier was initially chosen after a “vigorous reference check process” and that the school was not aware of the investigation into alleged bullying at Ryerson.

Cukier, meanwhile, has not responded to requests for comment from the Star this week.

According to a series of internal emails, as well as interviews with former staffers, the long-time Ryerson executive was accused of fostering a “toxic” work environment where some employees felt demeaned, overworked and disrespected.

The allegations originally came from an anonymous email account that claimed to represent the views of about 15 staffers in Cukier’s office, when she was Ryerson’s vice-president, research and innovation. The accusers also claimed they were frequently “coerced into” working overtime without pay, and spoken to disrespectfully by Cukier, which in some cases caused people to weep in the office.

One email to the human resources department claimed the worker had to miss a dead family member’s visitation because Cukier made the employee work.

The emails show that in August 2015, after the group of employees threatened to leak their allegations to the media, Ryerson hired an external investigator to interview people from Cukier’s office and produce a report on any problems with the workplace culture.

According to one former staffer who spoke with the Star on condition of anonymity, the report was delivered to the office verbally last January, at a meeting attended by Cukier and other managers. By that time Cukier had already been announced as the next Brock University president, which was revealed in December 2015.

The staffer said the participants were not told that bullying had occurred nor that it was a toxic environment. They were told the investigation uncovered problems with office communication and suggested staff exercises and retreats to improve a sense of workplace “togetherness.” This included a team-building activity that featured Lego blocks, as well as an off-site retreat where “respect, better communication and work-life balance” were discussed as ways to improve the workplace.

According to an email to employees from Ryerson’s human resources office last summer, the bullying investigation was carried out by Jennifer Wootton Regan, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in workplace mediation and training. She did not return requests for comment Wednesday and Thursday.

The Star was unable to determine if any action against Cukier was prompted by the investigation. An email last March to the employee account from Ryerson’s assistant vice-president of human resources, Christine Sass-Kortsak, said a “number of measures” had been taken to address issues raised by the investigation, but did not say what they were.

Ryerson’s director of communications, Michael Forbes, said the school would not comment on specific human resources issues. He added, however, that school management takes such matters seriously.

“We are dedicated to being an employer of choice with a very strong commitment to workplace civility,” Forbes wrote. “When issues do arise, the university has a variety of tools, processes and procedures to ensure a positive workplace for our community.”

Now that Cukier won’t be taking the job at Brock, she will return as a faculty member at Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management, Forbes said. She is currently on “post-administrative leave,” which Forbes described as akin to a sabbatical that typically lasts for a year, to which tenured employees like Cukier are entitled.

According to Ontario’s public salary disclosure database, Cukier was paid $289,784.04 for her role as a Ryerson vice-president in 2015.

The Star reached out to dozens of people who worked with Cukier at Ryerson. Several declined to comment. Five people agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they worried it could affect their careers.

Four said they felt bullied working for Cukier.

That wasn’t the fifth individual’s experience, who reported having stayed in that work environment for several years — implying that if it had been “toxic” the person would have moved along.

Julie Cafley works for the Public Policy Forum and has researched executive hiring — and firing — at Canadian universities. Commenting on media speculation that the cancellation of Cukier’s Brock presidency could bring up issues of gender bias, Cafley noted that many people she has interviewed in her research have said some post-secondary institutions maintain an “old boys’ club” culture where women are disadvantaged. Furthermore, she said only 19 per cent of university presidents in Canada are women, while only two of the last nine presidents to have been fired are men.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“Is there inherent sexism, are there different expectations for male and female leaders?” Cafley asked. “I can’t help but go back to that gender question.”

She added that the “long transition” between the time Cukier’s Brock job was announced and her scheduled start-date — nine months — could have been a factor that caused friction between existing leadership and the incoming president.

In a statement Thursday, the chair of Brock’s board of trustees, John Suk, would say only that the decision to cancel Cukier’s presidency was “mutual.”

Read more about: