CAUT approves censure on First Nations University of Can.

OTTAWA

The First Nations University of Canada is faced with major pressure to accelerate changes to its governance as the Canadian Association of University Teachers(CAUT) unanimously voted for its censure in late November.

The censure entails that throughout Canada and internationally, academic staff must refuse appointments, invitations to speak, and participation in academic conferences at FNUniv. Now the university may face serious difficulties attracting and retaining staff and hosting academic conferences.

"It is with great sadness and only after careful deliberation that we have (made) this decision," said CAUT President Penny Stewart. "This is the first time in nearly 30 years that CAUT has had to impose censure," she added, referring to the CAUT censure last imposed on the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1979.

Stewart stated the censure was not a reflection on the academic staff, many of whom have been harmed directly or indirectly by the governance difficulties at the university.

The problems stem from the controversy in 2005 when Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Vice-Chief Morley Watson was chair of the university's board of governors and responded to allegations of financial wrongdoing by suspending several senior administrators, seizing the university's central computers and copying the hard drive with all faculty and student records. He then ordered administrative staff out of their offices.

After facing protest from FUniv academic staff and Elders, the University of Regina Faculty Association and CAUT--FSIN appointed an All Chiefs' Task Force to create a new governance model for the university.

A November 2005 task force report suggested a smaller and depoliticized board that would respect and incorporate First Nations and governance traditions and ensure governance effectiveness and efficiency. It also called for high quality governance standards, a linkage with--and participation of--the University's ownership and to improve accountability.

CAUT executive director James Turk states that although FSIN's own task force proposed a new governance structure that would solve the problems, the recommendations have not been carried forth.

"Censure is a measure of last resort used only when we are faced with violations of principles that are fundamental to higher education," he said. "In most cases, university and college administrations recognize the serious consequences censure will have on the reputation of the institution and its ability to recruit staff and students, and they look for ways to resolve problems before censure is imposed."

"Unfortunately, while the FNUniv administration and board were given every opportunity, they refused to show any serious willingness to address the concerns," he added.

Ongoing governance problems at FNUniv has led to the dismissal and resignation of the president, two vice-presidents, deans of two campuses, more than one-third of the academic staff and about half of the administrative, professional and technical staff. FNUniv has furthermore seen a significant drop in enrollment and in research and special project revenue, which fuels an already serious financial crisis.

Turk stated that a university has to be accountable to the government while at the same time to have a reasonable amount of autonomy from that government.

"The All Chiefs Task Force made a recommendation to depoliticize its board and it is not happening," he said. He pointed to the All Chiefs Task Force report that stressed what happened in 2005 was an even longer history of governance problems of the FNUniv.

"And they made a series of recommendations to fix the problem. The most important recommendation they were making had to do with changes to the governance structure of the university," he said. "Governments create universities and in the case of the FNUniv, the government is not the Government of Saskatchewan but the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations as it should be."

"Universities and faculty especially can't be looking over their shoulder all the time if somebody powerful in the government is going to (interfere), because then they can't do their jobs properly. So the practice everywhere in North America is to have a reasonable degree of what's called institutional autonomy. The university has to have autonomy from the government."

"What has existed then and what exists now is the largest group of people that are appointed by tribal council. And they're all chiefs and they're all politicians. As the All Chiefs Task Force suggested there should be two Elders and two representatives of alumni of the university on this board. When FSIN changed the Act in 2008 they didn't take the advice of their own task force, but instead created a board structure that is almost identical to the one that existed in 2004. The only difference is one of the FSIN Vice-Chiefs is not chair of the board."

He said in absence of any willingness to resolve the matter, CAUT decided on a vote to impose censure.

"And the motion was very clear that we look forward to removing the censure as soon as possible. It's so important to have a strong First Nations University in this country at this time."

Censure can be lifted immediately if the proposals put forth by the All Chiefs' Task Force are implemented. Turk added that he has received a phone call from Chief Lyle Whitefish and they are expecting to meet in Ottawa to speak about the matter in early December.

BY CHRISTINE FIDDLER

Sage Writer