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Daily Bulletin
University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Tuesday, July 16, 1996
Report on the Westhues case
The longstanding "Westhues case", which has been in and out of the
news at UW since November 1993, is aired at length in a report from
the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee of the
Canadian Association of
University Teachers. The report is now complete, though it's not
scheduled for official publication until the fall, after all the parties
have had a chance to file their comments.
Following the usual procedure, CAUT sent a "committee of inquiry" at the
request of UW's faculty association. The request was
based on a complaint by Ken Westhues,
of UW's sociology department, that
he
was unfairly disciplined as the result of a conflict with a colleague,
Adie Nelson, and several overlapping controversies. He was suspended from
involvement in the sociology graduate program, he was reprimanded, his
performance review and salary increase were affected, and he was required
to write an apology, which university officials
then
made public and said was not acceptable.
Some highlights of
the CAUT's findings:
- "Westhues was not fairly treated in the course of the disciplinary
action taken against him. . . . The University's resort to the use of
publicity against Westhues was unfair and inappropriate."
- "Westhues' behaviour towards Nelson . . . was improper. . . . A
reprimand and warning were probably warranted, and . . . it might be
appropriate that there be some impact on Westhues' annual merit
increment. . . . We cannot agree with the University Administration
that a proper case for further disciplinary action was made out."
- "Just as Westhues was insensitive to the power imbalance between
him and Nelson, so too was the university administration insensitive
to the power that it held over Westhues."
- A report of the affair, published in the book Moral Panic
by Trent University professor John Fekete,
"seems to be based entirely on Westhues' account of events. Once
again, a one-sided picture of Nelson is presented in a forum where she
cannot adequately defend herself."
A large part of the report is devoted to criticisms -- along lines
that have been heard before -- of UW's grievance and ethics policies:
"Discipline and faculty grievances are managed at the University of
Waterloo using procedures that seem to be unique in Canadian
universities. Provisions that many are accustomed to seeing in their
collective agreements . . . are strikingly absent at UW. . . .
Policy
33 and
Policy
63 are still so severely flawed that they serve as very real
impediments to the fair resolution of grievances. . . .
"All of these deficiencies (and others) have been brought to the
attention of the faculty and administration at Waterloo on previous
occasions. Now again, as we shall see, a case has arisen that
demonstrates how far these policies have failed to provide proper and
fair procedures for the redress of a grievance -- with significant
damage to the careers and reputations of a number of parties
involved, wittingly or unwittingly, in the dispute, and to the
reputation of the University of Waterloo itself."
Grad students in computer science
I said in Friday's Daily Bulletin that the "first general meeting" of a
Computer Science Graduate Student Association was being held. Serves
me right for reading too fast: it was the first general meeting this
term, maybe, but the CSGSA has been around for several years. "CSGSA
Council members have been very active in the GSA," writes David Bauer
of the Graduate Student Association.
New in the CS webspace in recent days, by the way, is a
Grad Student
Survival Manual, aimed specifically at graduate students in
computer science.
![[Pink Tie]](http://math.uwaterloo.ca/DOM/PinkTie_big.gif)
The dean of math has a birthday
Greetings to
Jack Kalbfleisch in his office in the Math and Computer building. And
just a few other notes today:
As exams draw near, the UW libraries are beginning extended hours of
operation. Through August 12, the Dana Porter Library will be
open until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 12 midnight Sunday through
Thursday. The Davis Centre Library will be open one hour later than
Dana Porter each night. . . .
The federal government, as part of the "unity" initiative that's had
extensive press in the past few days, has launched a Web site, dubbed
"Conversation Canada", that provides an interface to all sorts of
information about this country. It's at
http://www.conversation.gc.ca. . . .
The food services department says it's added corn on the cob to the
sausages and dogs for sale on the peripatetic Warrior Weenie Wagon.
The price is a buck an ear -- could there be pirates involved?
CAR