Get out of presidential search completely, MUN tells government

Memorial University released a report Tuesday that advises Newfoundland and Labrador's politicians to change legislation that would effectively prohibit them from picking the institution's president.

The report, by an ad hoc committee of the university's board of regents, was written after Education Minister Joan Burke admitted that she had vetoed the final two candidates for the presidential search.

The search stalled early in 2008, after Burke screened the candidates and declared them unsuitable to fill the post. Among other things, Burke said the next president must back the government's vision to make Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook autonomous.

Burke's move caused academic groups across the country to denounce the Newfoundland and Labrador government's move as an attack on academic freedom, and to question Memorial's autonomy.

Under current legislation, the government has the right to approve or not approve the choice of a presidential search committee.

The board committee makes four recommendations that, if enacted, would give MUN the complete authority to appoint a president.

Ross Klein, president of the university's faculty association, welcomed the release of the report.

"MUN is clearly out of step with practices common to most universities across Canada," Klein said in a statement Tuesday.

The report was completed in November, before Burke removed five members of the board of regents and appointed others, some with close ties to the governing Progressive Conservatives.

However, the newly appointed chairman of the board has indicated the body will act independently.

Bob Simmonds, who had been both Finance Minister Jerome Kennedy's law partner and campaign manager, said last month he will quit if the government rejects the university's choice of president.

Government will insist on role: minister

But Burke has indicated that government very much expects to be part of the appointment process.

"I don't think anyone will ever take this present government and this present administration as one that will merely rubberstamp a position as important as the president of the university," Burke told reporters in July.

"It has to be approved by government, and it will ... and if anyone thinks this whole process will be a rubberstamp at the cabinet level, they are mistaken," said Burke.

Burke's comments brought stinging criticism from academics across the country, with some suggesting that Premier Danny Williams's government was effectively making the president's office an extension of the government.

Tensions continued through fall, including an incident in September, when Burke's office issued a statement quoting Eddy Campbell, the acting president of the university who Burke had personally vetoed from the competition, as saying that the "university continues to expect to be held accountable to the provincial government." The government retracted the release soon after it had been sent out.

Campbell, a mathematics scholar, was chosen in February as the sole candidate to be the next president of the University of New Brunswick. The UNB position becomes formal in the summer.

Klein said the government has wound up giving the appearance that it wants to control the university. He said the replacements of the board members "further compromised" the university's autonomy.

"The optics suggest the board of regents lacks independence from government, and tells a board member holding a view different from government that [he or she] risks being dismissed and replaced by a member that will support government's agenda," Klein's statement said.

"Implementing the ad hoc committee's recommendations will go a long way in restoring MUN's positive reputation and will emphasize government's commitment for MUN to have the same autonomy enjoyed by most universities across Canada," Klein said.

The search for a new president was recently revived, and is expected to take six to 10 months to complete.