UNB profs denounce president’s ‘disappointing’ response on Gaza

The University of New Brunswick has been under fire for its response to pro-Palestinian activism.

On Wednesday, about 50 faculty, staff, students, and community members rallied outside Sir Howard Douglas Hall, the location of UNB President Paul Mazerolle’s office. They called for the university to divest from companies that benefit from or directly support the occupation of Palestine.

According to Matthew Sears, an associate professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, Mazerolle’s response has been “disappointing” and “disingenuous,” noting the UNB president’s background as a criminologist.

“It is hard for me to believe that a trained scholar in a field as evidence-based as criminology and sociology really thinks that saying nothing or doing nothing amounts to neutrality, or autonomy for an institution,” Sears said.

When dozens of faculty members and university librarians released an open letter in support of student protesters from the Saint John campus on May 31, UNB responded immediately with a dismissive statement from Mazerolle later that day.

In his statement, Mazerolle reaffirmed UNB’s “political neutrality” and denied calls for a boycott of Israel.

“As a university, we must remain focused on our core functions – teaching, research, engagement, and service,” he said, in part. “We are not a political entity and we will refrain from making political statements on this or other matters.”

Faculty and librarians responded with another open letter on June 4, saying “neutrality in the face of genocide is tantamount to complicity.”

Besides calling for divestment from Israeli companies, the signatories called on the largest university in the province to condemn Israel’s current military campaign and the ongoing colonial occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people; commit to no longer criminalizing and treating with suspicion students and members of the university who raise voices in solidarity with and as Palestinians; and end all academic contacts with Israeli higher education institutions on Occupied Palestinian Territories or those supporting the apartheid state.

“It strikes me as disingenuous, because having our investments in various places, having the academic connections, and seeking the partnerships we’re seeking as a university, those are all choices and actions,” said Sears.

While UNB showed its support to Ukraine in 2020, the Palestinian cause has not garnered such institutional support, which has faculty reflecting on systemic racism in their institution.

“In society, there is clear racism when you have white Christian Ukrainians [whose situations] warrant people changing their profile pictures to Ukrainian flags, and then somehow either ignoring the Palestinian situation, or openly supporting Israel,” added Sears.

The difference in the response to each of these events is “very striking,” according to Tia Dafnos, a sociology professor who specializes in the study of policing.

“I think the question of Palestine has been treated exceptionally by the Global North, and I see a reflection of that, in terms of that differential response,” Dafnos said.

The open letters, which referenced UNB’s response to the invasion of Ukraine, were “certainly not about criticizing the statements on support for Ukraine, but rather drawing attention to that double standard in the lack of response, in relation to Palestine,” she explained.

Mazerolle’s statement said, in part, that “violence will not be tolerated at our university” and noted that “hate speech is not protected in Canada.”

Dafnos sees a remarkable discourse of criminalization in Mazerolle’s statement: “A key concern about the response was how it seems to associate things like protests, including the camps, with a kind of violence.”

“As someone who studies things like the criminalization of dissent, it is a very common trope or common discourse that is used to dismiss the demands or the claims that are being made by a dissenting group or party,” she added.

Thom Workman, a professor in political science, shares the same perspective as Dafnos.

“[Mazerolle] was casting aspersions on the demonstrators, impugning motives, calling into question their integrity and associating, creating what others have called a kind of criminalization discourse, or a sense that they’re misbehaving almost in a criminal way,” said Workman.

“The main concern I have is that the note was, rather than celebrating the students and those who are protesting against genocide, he is casting aspersions on them, impugning them.”

“If I am a university administrator, and I get a letter like that from a large number of employees at my institution, the first thing I do is say ‘thank you’ for the letter. And then I say ‘let’s study your proposals, and we will get back to you as soon as possible,’” Workman continued.

“We got no indication that the process was in the works, what we got was what many of us saw as a condescending and severe dismissal. There is an arrogance to the current administration that is extremely disappointing.”

The faculty letters show there is a pro-Palestinian movement happening within the ranks of the university. Faculty associations at other institutions across Canada have passed motions calling for the boycott of Israel, the most recent of which being Dalhousie University.

The union representing the faculty, the Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers (AUNBT), recently released a statement denouncing UNB’s official stance, as it challenges academic freedom, collegial governance, and freedom of expression. For this reason, AUNBT is filing a grievance against UNB.

However, the union was careful to avoid passing judgment on Palestine (or, as it is worded “the issue”).

“The AUNBT is now pretty clearly involved, whether it is something that the union membership could vote on… Someone would have to propose a motion as happened in Dalhousie, to call the university to sever academic ties or divest,” Sears said.

Workman points to the students, rather than the faculty, as the engine of the pro-Palestinian movement on North American campuses.

“The faculty have very much been catching up and following along, offering support,” he continued, “but the primary energy has always been coming from the students — to their infinite credit.”

Sophia Cohen is a graduate student in history at the University of New Brunswick and a freelance journalist. She is based in Fredericton.

With files from Tracy Glynn.