Palestine and the moral bankruptcy of universities

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

With Israel unilaterally breaking the fragile ceasefire in Gaza and increasing targeting of protesters in the U.S., it is a chance to take stock of how Western universities have (mis)handled the student-led Palestine solidarity movement. The University of New Brunswick has taken a heavy-handed approach, as reported by the NB Media Co-op.

More protests can be expected as Israel ratchets up its repression in the West Bank, and as President Donald Trump makes provocative statements about the U.S. potentially annexing Gaza. Will university leadership and University of New Brunswick president Paul Mazerolle reconsider their approach?

Mazerolle privileges UNB’s alleged commitment to neutrality above anything else. The Chicago Principles and the Kalven Report, which he cites to explain his administration’s position, recommends that the university remain neutral on social and political issues. The report was written in 1967 in response to students protesting the Vietnam War. 

Neutrality is a myth now, as it was then. This myth relies on a fallacy that deflects responsibility: that supporting and maintaining the status quo is apolitical. Furthermore, the argument that these principles support academic freedom and unrestricted debate on campuses is flawed; academic freedom is already protected in Canadian universities.

An institution’s decisions about its money, its partnerships, and its treatment of people are inherently political statements. Collaborating with polluters destroying the planet is a political position. “Arthur Irving is celebrated for his commitment and dedication to the environment,” wrote Mazerolle in an email after the death of the former Irving CEO. Such whitewashing of Irving’s exploitative legacy can be traced to research funding, scholarships and financial gifts received by UNB from the Irving treasury. Mazerolle cannot hide behind moral pretensions of “institutional autonomy.”

Mazerolle has used the language of “civility” when responding to protests, letters, and petitions by students and faculty. The weaponization of civil discourse in this context ends up silencing protesters at best, and characterizing them as dangerous at worst.

As universities become increasingly dependent on funding through investments, private philanthropy, and corporate donors, civility is used to shield reputations and marketing brands. Civility and respect have been used to reassert control not only over the physical boundaries of the institution as private property, but also to manage the conduct of the campus community.

The administration professes support for free speech even as it encourages depoliticization: student groups, including the student union, are wary of activities that might be considered political. Conveniently, this means a disempowered student community that accepts the status quo and does not ask critical questions.

“No one, despite their concerns, has the right to disrupt the learning experiences of UNB students,” Mazerolle wrote in one of his mass emails last fall, painting a false picture of students gathering support for a divestment petition.

The university used intimidation tactics instead of addressing the growing call for dialogue and divestment in the context of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, belying its own claims about encouraging civil discourse.

The university ignored civil discourse while decisions that affected people’s careers and their opportunities were made by university administrators without openness or discourse – see former faculty member Susan O’Donnell’s story of her treatment at UNB, contract flipping for campus food service workers, and UNB’s posturing on diversity as examples.

In a senate meeting in October last year, while responding to a question on whether neutrality extends to declarations (of war crimes or genocide) by international bodies, such as the ICC and ICJ, Mazerolle said the university would not respond to such declarations. Mazerolle, with his many years of experience in criminology, failed to recognize the crumbling of international law due to Western complicity in supporting and shielding Israel’s impunity. Mazerolle’s attitude and moral abdication are in line with the approach taken by other universities, the ruling political class, and the media in censoring voices in support of Palestinian liberation.

The university employs private security, fund managers, construction companies and PR teams. It is ever selling itself to prospective students and their parents as a route to success, ever competing for status with other institutions, ever struggling to balance its many constituencies—not only students and faculty but also its board, its present and future donors, the media, and the government. UNB presents itself as a moral leader, a force for positive change with initiatives on sustainability and social justice. It advertises “bold new ideas” and “just future,” and claims to “tackle society’s great challenges head-on.” All this, while making most decisions through the lens of money.

Mazerolle has faced increasing pressure from the faculty after the association of UNB teachers passed a divestment resolution recently. The divestment petition forwarded by the Student Organizing Collective (SOC), a student club at UNB, has gathered over a thousand signatures since the fall of 2024. Members of SOC have also led efforts to educate the community on Gaza and to highlight UNB’s financial complicity through its investments and its partnerships with weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin. These efforts have received heartfelt support from the UNB community. 

Mazerolle agreed to meet representatives from the student group SOC after they confronted him at a public meeting of the UNB senate. In the meeting, Mazerolle reiterated UNB’s institutional autonomy and commitment to political neutrality. He mentioned that UNB’s investments in Israeli companies constitute 0.1% of its total investment portfolio, while denying that any investments were unethical or contributed to war crimes. Mazerolle refused a disclosure request, stating that students did not have the required expertise to ethically evaluate the university’s investment decisions. He said that the university’s investment committee reserves the sole right to evaluate its own decisions. Mazerolle also refused the students’ request that the university publish a statement condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Mazerolle agreed to share students’ concerns and demands with UNB’s Board of Governors and ask them to meet with student representatives. However, he did not provide a timeline. 

Universities across Canada face several challenges, from constant funding cuts to attacks on EDI policies. They can continue to chase the logic of a neoliberal economics where education becomes increasingly reliant on returns from questionable investments, private donors and student tuition. Such logic, which will lead to posturing on ethics and human rights while hiding behind neutrality/civility/autonomy, increasingly exploits and demoralizes students and staff, weakens collegial governance, and decays the learning ecosystem. Instead, universities could participate in building empowered spaces that are accessible to everyone, that encourage local and global solidarity, that can challenge oppressive power structures, and imagine decolonial, sustainable futures interconnected with nature. Mazerolle and his fellow administrators must step out of their comfort zone and think hard about which future they want. 

Colin Cyr is a student at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, completing a degree in political science. He is a founding member and current co-chair of the UNB Student Organizing Collective (SOC).