UBC chair John Montalbano says he won't resign, denies violating prof's academic freedom

Arvind Gupta's resignation as president continues to breed controversy

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      The embattled chair of the University of British Columbia board of governors is vowing to stay on in that capacity.

      John Montalbano is also denying that he violated the academic freedom of a professor who has claimed she felt "institutional pressure to be silent" after writing a blog post about the controversial resignation of Arvind Gupta as UBC president.

      "First and foremost, I want to reinforce the University of British Columbia’s commitment to academic freedom and my commitment as Chair of the Board of Governors to academic freedom. At its August 17, 2015 Board meeting, the Board of Governors reaffirmed their confidence in me as Chair, which I respect and appreciate. It is an honour to volunteer my time as Chair and I will continue to serve," Montalbano, who's also the vice chair of RBC Wealth Management, said in a statement today (August 18).

      On August 17, the UBC Faculty Association announced that it had lost confidence in Montalbano as UBC chair. It also asked for "full disclosure" on Gupta's departure.

      "The Chair of the Board should not be able to meddle directly in internal academic affairs. Yet, disregard for this organizational structure as well as interference in academic affairs, is precisely what is alleged to have happened this past week in relation to the comments made by a faculty member concerning the President’s resignation by the Chair of Board," the association's executive committee stated in a letter.

      Nassif Ghoussoub, a professor of mathematics and a former member of the board of governors at UBC, has called on Montalbano to resign.

      Jennifer Berdahl, the Montalbano professor of leadership studies in gender and diversity at UBC's Sauder School of Business, followed her initial post, which suggested Gupta lost a "masculinity contest" at UBC, with a bombshell post alleging that the response from Montalbano and other senior UBC officials made her feel "gagged or threatened".

      "He said my post would cause others to question my academic credibility," Berdahl wrote. "He repeatedly mentioned having conversations with my Dean about it. He also repeatedly brought up RBC, which funds my outreach activities, to say that people there were on 'damage control' should the media pick up on this."

      For his part, Montalbano said he is "deeply concerned" about how his phone call with Berdahl has been portrayed.

      "My intention in contacting Professor Berdahl, who has been a trusted colleague for two years and with whom I have regular contact, was to discuss her blog post and to further understand the professor’s concerns. I asked the professor if she would be comfortable with discussing the blog and, in particular, I asked if she thought the discussion would in any way compromise her academic freedom. I asked her to stop me at any time if she felt uncomfortable. She agreed to the call and said that she welcomed the discussion and would not see it as affecting her academic freedom. At no time did I ask the professor to retract any of her blog and at no time did I threaten her funding. In fact, I reinforced that her funding would continue. At no time did I intend to impinge her academic freedom. At the end of our telephone call, Professor Berdahl agreed that we had a productive conversation and though we didn’t agree on all points, she confirmed that I did not ask for any retraction, that I affirmed her funding and did not interfere in her academic freedom. Given this, I’m sure most people can understand that I’m upset and hurt by the allegations that our call was an impingement on the professor’s academic freedom. I have immense respect for Professor Berdahl and I am saddened that our interaction has caused her such concern," Montalbano stated.

      On August 17, UBC provost pro tem Angela Redish and incoming interim president Martha Piper announced an investigation into alleged breaches of Berdahl's academic freedom.

      "The allegations of breaches of academic freedom in a recent blog post are serious and UBC has the processes to appropriately address such allegations," they said in a statement.

      In his statement, Montalbano thanked his "family, board colleagues and the campus and broader community for their support".

      "As the acting President and Provost said in her recent statement, it is important that an objective, independent and thorough process be followed to determine whether there is any validity to the allegations made against me. The Faculty Association collective agreement includes a thoughtful, thorough grievance process and I welcome – in fact, I ask – the professor to engage in this process. I commit to fully engaging in the grievance process if and when the professor lodges a formal grievance request," Montalbano said.

      * * *

      Editor's note: Here's the full text of UBC chair John Montalbano's statement.

      First and foremost, I want to reinforce the University of British Columbia’s commitment to academic freedom and my commitment as Chair of the Board of Governors to academic freedom. At its August 17, 2015 Board meeting, the Board of Governors reaffirmed their confidence in me as Chair, which I respect and appreciate. It is an honour to volunteer my time as Chair and I will continue to serve.

      It is important now that I briefly address some allegations that I interfered in a professor’s academic freedom. Let me first say, that I’m deeply concerned with the way in which my interaction with Professor Jennifer Berdahl about her recent blog post (August 8, 2015) has been portrayed.

      My intention in contacting Professor Berdahl, who has been a trusted colleague for two years and with whom I have regular contact, was to discuss her blog post and to further understand the professor’s concerns. I asked the professor if she would be comfortable with discussing the blog and, in particular, I asked if she thought the discussion would in any way compromise her academic freedom. I asked her to stop me at any time if she felt uncomfortable. She agreed to the call and said that she welcomed the discussion and would not see it as affecting her academic freedom. At no time did I ask the professor to retract any of her blog and at no time did I threaten her funding. In fact, I reinforced that her funding would continue. At no time did I intend to impinge her academic freedom. At the end of our telephone call, Professor Berdahl agreed that we had a productive conversation and though we didn’t agree on all points, she confirmed that I did not ask for any retraction, that I affirmed her funding and did not interfere in her academic freedom. Given this, I’m sure most people can understand that I’m upset and hurt by the allegations that our call was an impingement on the professor’s academic freedom. I have immense respect for Professor Berdahl and I am saddened that our interaction has caused her such concern.

      As the acting President and Provost said in her recent statement, it is important that an objective, independent and thorough process be followed to determine whether there is any validity to the allegations made against me. The Faculty Association collective agreement includes a thoughtful, thorough grievance process and I welcome – in fact, I ask – the professor to engage in this process. I commit to fully engaging in the grievance process if and when the professor lodges a formal grievance request.

      I want to thank my family, board colleagues and the campus and broader community for their support. Being subject to these allegations is difficult for me, and this support is much appreciated.

      In closing, I would like to say that I look forward to working with Dr. Martha Piper, who will be interim President on September 1, to provide strong leadership as we continue our efforts to be one of the world’s leading universities through our core mission of teaching and research. We look forward to celebrating the many successes of the university and its people in our upcoming 100th anniversary.

      Comments

      5 Comments

      it seems like..

      Aug 18, 2015 at 2:36pm

      ...its the same two faculty members who are causing all this media uproar.
      im getting tired of being inundated by the bloggings of privileged faculty complaining about other privileged people.

      Get Out Already

      Aug 18, 2015 at 3:03pm

      For a pubic funded institution UBC why is there an entitled Chairman from Canada's largest Banking organization naming Professorships etc after himself?

      It is unacceptable for a Public institution to be subject to the whims of a Banker Chairman.

      In the private sector if Chairman speaks about a CEO / President the way he did there would probably be lawsuits etc against the Chairman and company.

      Than there is the matter of Deficits and the loss of Confidence of the Faculty Association.

      In the private sector if your employees don't respect your judgment or leadership you resign or are fired.

      Look at the Reddit CEO.

      Do you think UBC in a huge Deficit ought to be spending the following or flying only Economy?

      Here are the Board Compensation look at the Life of Luxury here...

      Mr. Toope - $123,000 on expensive Airfare only one the Publics Dime

      Total Compensation 3 years ....

      2014/15 = $279,276
      2013/14 = $587,366
      2012/13 = $582,860

      Source UBC :

      http://bog.ubc.ca/files/2015/07/UBC_PSEC_Exec_Comp_Report_2014-15.pdf

      http://bog.ubc.ca/files/2014/07/SJT-Expenses-2013-2014.pdf

      As a business owner operating in multiple currencies and countries for Software Development i deal with Banks in the EU, US and Canada.

      Canada has by far the most expensive Banking Fees by the protected oligopolies.

      UBC is no place for drones or the huge compensation & expenses on the public dime.

      Get rid of them and don't give me the excuse of attracting "talent" at the Board what BS.

      And by the way I am pulling my accounts from RBC going elsewhere.

      UBC student

      Aug 18, 2015 at 9:24pm

      As far as I am aware, the Chair and the Board of governors are volunteers with not a dime of pay!

      Ask More Questions

      Aug 18, 2015 at 10:31pm

      I have posted a slightly different version elsewhere today, but I would like to do so here as well.

      Montalbano, as head of the BOG of UBC, released a statement today that appears to be at complete odds with what Berdahl had reported in her blog regarding their phone discussion. I certainly have some doubts as to whether her claim of denial of academic freedom has not been exaggerated as a means of rallying large swaths of academics to call for Montalbano’s head. Not for this alleged abuse but for forcing the resignation of Gupta (who was the long-time protege of the lead and most vocal opponent Prof. Ghoussoub). Do we do need to do a public assassination and blog lynching of Montalbano before all the facts are uncovered through some inquiry? I don't think so. Berdahl's judgment is really called into question when she shows a photo on her twitter of Dana Montabalno rebuffing her tweet. Is this really necessary? This is not at all a classy move from any member of the university.

      Regarding the president’s sudden resignation, we should have some faith that the BOG did make some decision based on a careful performance review. After all, there are many other people on the BOG who must have participated in reaching some consensus that fateful day. That being said, we do need to insist on a clear, direct, account by the BOG of the true underlying reason for Gupta’s resignation.

      The current media frenzy and circus, driven primarily by ONLY a few individuals, and then re-tweeted, re-blogged, by others who are unaware of the underlying close relationship between the FEW core vocal opponents, is really over the top. One needs to only look at previous entries of Prof. Ghoussoub's blog from 2011 to see the strong links between Ghoussoub, Berdahl, and her partner who was recently hired as the associate director of the Pacific Insitute for Mathematics. I suggest we look a little deeper here and ask more questions as to who is pulling the puppet strings to attempt to lead this coup.

      This media blitz, and attempted character assassination of Montalbano before any of the facts are in, is damaging the reputation of UBC locally and internationally. The faculty does deserve a clear answer on why Gupta has resigned, but this is not the way to achieve this goal.

      frank jones

      Aug 29, 2015 at 1:54am

      So, let me get this straight... The daughter of the Chancellor or UC Berkley and President of the University of Texas-Berdahl-the definition of white privilege-
      is accusing the son of poor Italian immigrants form east van, who worked hard, was successful and then, upon retirement, decided with his family, to give $2 Million out of his own bank account to try to help solve the issue of how to break the glass ceiling of initiating a racist coup against President Gupta--because he was Indian?

      This whole thing is nuts. Berdahl, Naciff and the rest of these clowns have done so much harm to the legitimacy of academia not to mention the legitimacy of her own research into finding solutions to gender and diversity in business. In the real world these folks would be fired. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't extend to universities.