MONTREAL — A letter this week from McGill principal Suzanne Fortier has failed to allay concerns among faculty that their academic freedom is threatened following Andrew Potter’s resignation last month as director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. Eleven McGill academic administrators — professors who direct research centres and institutes — wrote to Suzanne Fortier on April 4 to say the university’s response to a controversial article written by Potter risks undermining academic freedom and stifling public debate. Fortier’s reply, dated April 20, said academic administrators “enjoy the full protection of academic freedom in the pursuit of their scholarly activities.” But at the same time they have “an obligation to ensure that administrative responsibilities are discharged effectively to the highest institutional standards.” She added there are no “bright-line rules” to resolve conflicts between academic freedom and the exercise of administrative responsibilities. RelatedAnother signatory, Víctor Muñiz-Fraticelli, associate director of McGill’s Centre for Research on Religion, said Fortier’s response is out of step with national and international standards of academic freedom. “That was the intent of the (tweet),” Fortier said, “but I recognize that it raised its own ambiguities about the University’s commitment to academic freedom .

Source: National Post April 22, 2017 00:11 UTC