https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/decision-on-denis-rancourts-firing-undermines-academic-freedom-professors-say/ OTTAWA — The association that represents University of Ottawa professors says an arbitrator’s decision upholding the university’s firing of former professor Denis Rancourt undermines academic freedom. In a posting on its website, the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa said it was “extremely disappointed” by arbitrator Claude Foisy’s Jan. 27 decision upholding what it described as Rancourt’s “unjust dismissal”. “The arbitrator also made some troubling statements concerning academic freedom which can have a profoundly negative impact on academics everywhere,” said the association, bargaining agent for 1,250 University of Ottawa professors, language teachers, counsellors, librarians and research fellows. The APUO, which represented Rancourt at the hearing, has filed for judicial review of Foisy’s decision by the Ontario Divisional Court. According to Rancourt, this is the first time the association has taken an individual grievance to judicial review. The APUO pledged to “continue to work diligently on this case so the decision does not adversely affect the right to academic freedom of professors, librarians and students in the university setting.” Rancourt was fired in 2009 after he awarded A+ marks all 23 students who completed an advanced physics course he taught. He testified that he’d come to believe that traditional methods of teaching and evaluating physics students were ineffective. Instead, he favoured a “student-centred” method that allowed students to learn free from the stress produced by grading and marking. No one from the association responded to Citizen requests for an interview Friday. But during the hearing into Rancourt’s dismissal, which consumed 28 sitting days over two years, the APUO argued that notions of academic freedom were “absolutely critical” to the case. The manner in which Rancourt taught and evaluated his students was protected by the concept of academic freedom, the association maintained, along with the protection stemming from Rancourt’s status as a tenured professor. In his decision dismissing Rancourt’s grievance, Foisy said the case did not turn primarily on questions of academic freedom. None of the legal precedents dealing with academic freedom filed during the course of the hearing dealt with the concept “in the context of a professor not objectively grading his students,” Foisy wrote. The definition of academic freedom, he declared, “is not so wide as to shield a professor from actions or behaviour that cannot be construed as a reasonable exercise of his responsibilities in an academic setting.” Nor does academic freedom protect professors when attempts to exercise it conflict with provision of their collective agreements, said Foisy, noting that the APUO’s agreement with the university obliges its members to evaluate and grade students objectively. | 