Academics are threatening to internationally blacklist Carleton University over allegations of a lack of openness and transparency with its Board of Governance.

Last Saturday, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) — which represents about 68,000 academic professionals in Canada — and the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA) unanimously passed a motion condemning what it calls a university decision to muzzle members of the board.

“Universities are public institutions and shouldn’t be run like private corporations,” Pum van Veldhoven, president of CUASA, wrote in a statement. “Faculty members are elected to the Board of Governors to ensure that the University community has a voice in governance. It is simply unacceptable and antidemocratic to impose a gag order on its members.”

Carleton Governance Commitee chairman Michael Wernick denies the allegations in a statement sent to the Sun.

“The Carleton Board strives for transparency, conducting most of its business in open session, with campus media present, and has begun streaming meetings to venues where interested members of the university community can participate,” Warnick wrote.

The associations got involved during the summer when Dr. Root Gorelick, one of two elected faculty representatives on the Carleton University Board of Governors, was allegedly ordered to stop blogging about the open meetings.

Gorelick said he was asked to sign a “revised statement” prohibiting him (and others) from discussing meetings in public. He says he refused to sign the document and now risks losing his job or being sanctioned. That decision will be made Dec. 14.

The amendment in question changed a clause which originally stated it was “generally considered inappropriate” and against the interests of the school if a governor comments in any public forum outside of a board meeting.

But now, “it is inappropriate and not in the best interests of the University...” rather than being “generally considered.”

Wernick claims the blog was used as a platform to launch attacks against governors and the school.

“Personal blogs that attack fellow Governors and university staff and dissent on matters the Board has decided are simply not consistent with the role of a Governor,” Wernick wrote.

The other allegation is that board meetings are not open to the Carleton University community, unless its members are given advance permission to attend.

“When it goes in camera — yes, every governor has to keep those conversations confidential,” said David Robinson, CAUT executive director. “We don’t object to that. What we object to is that the current statement says that all matters — whether open or closed, whether confidential or not — no governor is allowed to talk about them.”

He added, “It is essentially the kind of confidentiality agreement you’d sign if you worked for the CIA or CSIS. It’s hard to imagine that there are similar kinds of secrets being discussed at a body like a university.”

The matter has been referred to the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee. Should the committee decide to go through with an investigation, the university risks being blacklisted.

“If the university doesn’t respect core values like shared governance — like academic freedom — we put them on a list,” said Robinson. “There (is) currently no university on this list and the list is actually rarely used. The list is a signal to the academic community in Canada and internationally that this is a university that doesn’t respect core academic values and core academic freedom.”

Robinson adds that should a university be placed on the list, the academic community is encouraged to boycott it – that means not to accept jobs there, reject any honours or awards and not participate in conferences at the university.

Since referring the matter to the committee, the situation has become a waiting game, said Robinson.

“We have to wait and see what the administration has planned,” said Robinson. “This is probably the most egregious use of confidentiality provisions to essentially gag someone from talking.”

Carleton University is the only university in Canada facing an investigation for lack of transparency and openness.

dani-elle.dube@sunmedia.ca

-- With files from Sam Cooley