Controversial Ryerson field placement coordinator Heather Bain has left the building, the Toronto Sun has learned.

An “automatically generated message” from Bain’s e-mail address says she’s “currently on leave” from her position as field education coordinator in Ryerson’s School of Social Work.

Bain refers students needing placements for September to another e-mail address or to her immediate boss, Kristie Wright.

Whether that “leave” is with pay or without — and whether she’ll be back to Ryerson’s leftist social work faculty in some other role — is anybody’s guess.

Ryerson public affairs manager Johanna VanderMaas told me in an e-mail Monday “all human resources issues at Ryerson are addressed as confidential matters.”

Bain first came under fire in a Toronto Sun exclusive at the end of May for telling social work graduate Rebecca Katzman in August of 2015 that she could not do her third-year placement at the Prosserman Jewish Community Centre (JCC) or the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) because both agencies have a “strong anti-Palestinian lean.”

Bain also informed Katzman in an August 2015 e-mail that she might reconsider if Katzman wanted to bring a “critical awareness” (of Palestinian solidarity movements) to either Jewish agency.

Katzman, fearing reprisal, waited until she graduated earlier this month to tell her story.

In a June 2 open letter on the Ryerson website, officials said Katzman’s “legitimate concerns” were taken very seriously and appropriate action was taken with Bain.

Ryerson officials also insisted they do not condone “actions of anti-Semitism” and that the JCC and the UJA are “appropriate agencies” for placement — although Katzman says Bain and her superiors never offered to place her at either agency once she complained to former Ryerson president Sheldon Levy.

But then another Ryerson social work student stepped forward as a result of Katzman’s revelations.

In another Toronto Sun exclusive in mid-June soon-to-be third year student Kathryn Wallace said that Bain would not permit her to do her placement this fall at the Canadian Centre for Men and Families (CCMF) — characterizing the agency as an “act of violence.”

When Wallace broke down at her January meeting with Bain and revealed she’s a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence, Bain offered her a sexual assault colouring book. She also referred her to Ryerson’s Office of Sexual Violence support, headed up by councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam’s fiancée.

Coincidentally, Wallace met Monday with social work’s associate director of field placement, Susan Preston, who told her students will no longer be working with Bain and reiterated more than once that they are “committed to working” with her.

They also told her they understood she wanted to work with men and boys during her placement, but avoided the issue of whether she could do her placement at CCMF.

She said they were “incredibly vague” in the meeting. Wallace added that she kept asking them to ensure the school removes its bias and be more “pragmatic” with the agencies they selected for placement because that will only benefit the students.

Wallace said so far there’s been no fallout from speaking about Bain, noting she’s glad the controversial field coordinator is on leave.

But she says she’s concerned they’re just playing “position games” recycling people around and at this point many students don’t have placements for next year — and that the social work faculty will be scrambling over the summer to fill the gap left by Bain.

VanderMaas insisted while the student placement process begins in January, it will continue into the fall term.

Meryle Lee Kates of Stand With Us, an on-campus pro-Israel advocacy group, said she hopes with Bain’s departure from the placement position (and the Sun’s revelations), students at the Ryerson School of Social Work will be able “to choose their placements free of bias.”

SLevy@postmedia.com