UBC's Promises to Protect Academic Freedom
Twenty months ago UBC accepted the findings of the Smith Report : that UBC failed in its obligation to protect and support my academic freedom. There was no public (or departmental) apology or acknowledgement of the wrong and harm done, and a lot of unpleasantness ensued for me in the following year, including the loss of my funding (eventually restored thanks to the Faculty Association ) and named professorship, as well as becoming persona non-grata in the Sauder School of Business. On a more positive note, the Faculty Association tells me the Smith Report has helped protect other faculty's academic freedom at UBC by articulating the scope and nature of academic freedom and the duty of the institution to protect and support it. I sincerely hope this is the case. What happened to me as a full professor felt like a deep wound but is merely a scratch compared to what happens to those without my title or tenure. What I hear from many of my colleagues at UBC - even tenured ones - is