29
May 2018
Lindsay
Gordon, Chancellor, UBC
Santa
J, Ono, President and vice-Chancellor, UBC
Dear
Mr Gordon and Dr Ono:
“Pursuing
excellence in research, learning and engagement to foster global citizenship
and advance a sustainable and just society across British Columbia, Canada and
the world.” – UBC’s purpose per Shaping
UBC’s Next Century: Strategic Plan, 2018-2028
A
UBC alumna, Loujain Al-Hathloul (Arts, 2014), has been detained without clear
charges and without ability to contact her family in Saudi Arabia. Ms Al-Hathloul is a well-known human rights
activist in Saudi Arabia. The nature and timing of her detention strongly
suggest that it is part of a crackdown on human rights in Saudi Arabia.
We,
the undersigned, are deeply troubled by the following official response to a
request that UBC comment on Ms Al-Hathloul’s detention:
“A
spokesperson for UBC declined to comment on the case, saying the
university has over 300,000 alumni and that it would be ‘inappropriate’ to
comment on actions unrelated to their time at UBC.”
[Quoted
from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/incredibly-fierce-ubc-graduate-among-activists-detained-in-saudi-arabia-1.4681151]
As
a degree-holder from UBC, Ms Al-Hathloul is a life-long member of UBC
Convocation. In this sense her time in
the UBC academic community has not ended.
We as faculty members at UBC (and thus as members of Convocation also)
expect and demand that UBC show more concern for the welfare of all members of
the UBC community—and certainly those whose human rights are actively being
violated.
Moreover,
we do not believe and would be entirely chagrined to discover that Ms
Al-Hathloul’s human rights work is “unrelated to [her] time” as a UBC
student. UBC endorses human rights in
many of policies and statements. We
expect that these values will be instilled in all of the members of our
community. When alumni lead in the
effort to advance human rights around the world, we must actively support
them. Otherwise we cannot fulfil what
our new strategic plan claims to be our university purpose—the advancement of
global citizenship and justice around the world.
We,
the undersigned, call upon the President, the Chancellor, and the Board of
Governors to fulfil their obligations to Ms Al-Hathloul: to actively and
publically demand that she be treated justly in Saudi Arabia and to work to
assure that she is so treated.
Dr
Ono is quoted in Shaping UBC’s Next
Century as saying “This is our time to inspire.” In this matter UBC has
been anything but inspiring, anything but just.
Sincerely,
- Alan Richardson, Professor, Philosophy
- Nassif Ghoussoub, Professor, Mathematics
- Charles Menzies, Professor, Anthropology
- Sima Godfrey, Associate Professor, French Studies
- Ayesha Chaudhry, Associate Professor,
- Judy Z. Segal, Professor, English
- Anthony Paré, Language and Literacy Education
- Jennifer Berdahl , University of British Columbia, Sauder School of Business
- John Stockie (UBC Alumnus), Simon Fraser University, Mathematics
- Carla Nappi , University of British Columbia, Department of History
- Don Baker, University of British Columbia, Department of Asian Studies
- Siobhan McElduff, University of British Columbia, CNERS
- Miranda Burgess, University of British Columbia, Department of English
- Michael Krisinger, University of British Columbia, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Tal Jarus, University of British Columbia, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Department, Faculty of Medicine
- Brian McIlroy, University of British Columbia, Department of Theatre and Film
- Adam Frank, University of British Columbia, Department of English Language and Literatures
- Sheryl Adam, University of British Columbia, Koerner Library
- Stephen Guy-Bray, University of British Columbia, Department of English
- Sebastian Prange, University of British Columbia, Department of History
- Juliet O’Brien, University of British Columbia, Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies
- Alfred Hermida, University of British Columbia, School of Journalism
- Stephanie van Willigenburg, University of British Columbia, Mathematics
- S Dollinger, University of British Columbia, Department of English Language and Literatures
- Miguel Mota, University of British Columbia, Department of English Language and Literatures
- Maureen Ryan, University of British Columbia, Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory
- T’ai Smith, University of British Columbia, Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory
- Bruce Rusk, University of British Columbia, Department of Asian Studies
- Thibault Mayor, University of British Columbia, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Michael Smith Laboratories
- Elyse Yeager, University of British Columbia, Mathematics
- Hotze Rullmann, University of British Columbia, Department of Linguistics
- ND Ruse, University of British Columbia, Dentistry
- Patricia Badir, University of British Columbia, Department of English
- Tai-Peng Tsai, University of British Columbia, Mathematics
- Carolyn Gotay, University of British Columbia, School of Population and Public Health
- Alan Mackworth, University of British Columbia, Department of Computer Science
- Joshua S. Mostow, University of British Columbia, Department of Asian Studies
- Sam Rocha, University of British Columbia, Department of Educational Studies
- Ross King, University of British Columbia, Department of Asian Studies
- Joseph Stemberger, University of British Columbia, Department of Linguistics
- Christian Schoof, University of British Columbia, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
- Michael Zeitlin, University of British Columbia, Department of English Language and Literatures
- Ignacio Adriasola, University of British Columbia, Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory
- Judith Paltin, University of British Columbia, Department of English
- Kellogg Booth, University of British Columbia, Department of Comupter Science
- Thomas Kemple, University of British Columbia, Department of Sociology
- Alla Sheffer, University of British Columbia, Computer Science
- Richard Froese, University of British Columbia, Mathematics
- Gordon Slade, University of British Columbia, Department of Mathematics
- Sunera Thobani, University of British Columbia, Department of Asian Studies & Social Justice Institute
- Joy Dixon, University of British Columbia, Department of History
- Nathan Hesselink, University of British Columbia, UBC School of Music
- David Kirkpatrick, University of British Columbia, Computer Science
- E. Wayne Ross, University of British Columbia, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy
- Kurt Huebner, University of British Columbia, Institute for European Studies
- Tina Loo, Department of History
- Jessica Wang, Department of History
- Andrew Rechnitzer, Professor, Mathematics
- Michael Tenzer, Professor of Music
- Suzana K. Straus, University of British Columbia, Professor of Chemistry
- Susanna Braund, CNERS, UBC
- Bill Winder, French, Hispanic and Italian Studies, UBC
- Stephen Petrina, Professor, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, UBC
- John Roosa, Department of History, UBC
- Bruno D. Zumbo, Professor & Distinguished University Scholar, Department of ECPS, UBC
- Stefan Taubert, Medical Genetics, UBC
- Anne Gorsuch, Professor, Dept of History, UBC
- Gunnar Ólafur Hansson, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, UBC
- Jennifer Love, Professor, Chemistry, UBC
- Sven Bachmann, Assistant Professor, Mathematics
- Alexei Kojevnikov, Associate Professor, Department of History, UBC
- Cristina Conati, Professor, Department of Computer Science, UBC
- Scott Anderson, Associate Professor, UBC Department of Philosophy
- Mark Mac Lean, Department of Mathematics, UBC
- Rik Blok, Lecturer, Integrated Sciences, UBC
- Lisa Matthewson, Professor, Department of Linguistics, UBC
- Jude Walker, Assistant Professor, Educational Studies, UBC
- Ed Perkins, Department of Mathematics, UBC
- Katherine Bowers, CENES, UBC
Colleagues are invited to send me their names if they wish to be included as signatories to this letter.
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