The saga continues between Thompson Rivers University and one of its teachers, Dr. Derek Pyne.
Pyne tells NL News the school has suspended him for one year, saying it’s because of a Facebook post he wrote on June 10.
In that post, Pyne shared a link to a statement from the Brock University Faculty Association, which stated that Brock University administration “fell short” on upholding academic freedoms, when it spoke out against research done by a professor on the university’s hiring practices.
“Unlike Thompson Rivers University Faculty Association, it seems that some university unions are not opposed to academic freedoms… the bottom line is that (BUFA) comes out in support of academic freedom, even when it goes against the university’s, and the union’s, position,” Pyne says in his post. He then goes on to tag several faculty members, and claims they will “end up running” to human resources at TRU, “like they have in the past.”
Pyne’s post was shared three times.
Despite the lack of attention, he says the school issued his one-year suspension yesterday.
TRU director of executive and government relations, Darshan Lindsay, did not directly comment on Pyne saying he is suspended. She says it’s “unlikely the university would suspend an employee for a single social media post.”
“When there are concerns in the workplace, our process is to start with conversations with an employee, to understand their point of view and also share ours, and work through a process of seeking a resolve to the issue. When concerns remain, stronger measures are introduced. For faculty, such processes are laid out in the collective agreement, and the union supports the faculty member throughout the process,” Lindsay says.
Pyne had been suspended in July of 2018, which was 15 months after publishing a research paper looking into “predatory journals.” In that paper, he claimed more than half of the faculty members at the department of Business and Economics had published papers in illegitimate journals to advance their careers.
Pyne was reinstated in January of 2019. Two months earlier, an independent investigation by the Canadian Association of University Teachers claimed that TRU had violated Pyne’s academic freedoms in issuing his suspension.
Lindsay says the university fully supports academic freedoms, and says matters that have involved suspending Dr. Pyne do not relate to his academic freedoms.
“Universities provide significant employment protection for faculty members which is intrinsically tied to them being able to exercise academic freedom. At TRU, this protection is included in our collective agreements with faculty, and includes the freedom to criticize the university. As such, in situations where faculty members have faced discipline, it is not about their academic freedom but rather other issues that have arisen in the workplace,” Lindsay says.
