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Academic Freedom And University “Reform”

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This action by my parents’ alma mater was remarkable, and not in a good way:

A University of Saskatchewan dean who spoke out about the university’s efforts to muzzle senior administrators has been fired, stripped of his tenure, had his retirement benefits revoked and was escorted off campus by security.

Robert Buckingham, former executive director of the University of Saskatchewan’s School of Public Health, was dismissed from both his role as the executive director of the school of public health and a tenured professor Wednesday morning because of a letter he wrote in which he detailed efforts to keep senior leaders in line over a new plan to cut spending and potentially merge his department with another.

“I always thought, of any place, freedom of speech would be at a university,” Buckingham told the Star from Saskatoon. “I’ve learned differently.”

Relieving someone of their administrative position because of some public process-based criticisms doesn’t strike me as the best way to run a railroad, but it’s at least not an issue of academic freedom. But stripping someone of their faculty position? Their pension? That’s a different story. That’s simply incompatible with academic freedom on its face.

Fortunately, the administration has partially retreated and recognized this important distinction. But a message has been sent, and I don’t think this is the last time we’ll see something like this.

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