By James Peters / Dave Barry

Union investigates Kamloops professor suspension, says TRU could be blacklisted

Oct 31, 2018 | 10:40 AM

KAMLOOPS — The case of a TRU professor is the subject of an investigation to determine if the university violated his academic freedom.

Professor Derek Pyne published an article in April of 2017, looking into so-called “predatory publishers” by some members of the faculty and administrators in TRU’s School of Business and Economics.

He was suspended by TRU in July.

The investigation is being conducted by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), whose membership includes 70,000 academic staff across the country.

CAUT Executive Director David Robinson says the initial allegations raised by Pyne are troubling.

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“One of the foundations of academic freedom is the right to pursue research, even into controversial and potentially troubling matters,” said Robinson. “That’s the cornerstone of how our institutions are supposed to operate to advance knowledge. We need to ensure that academics have the freedom to do that.”

“We gathered some initial facts and felt that we needed to launch a full investigation to see whether or not Dr. Pyne’s academic freedom, which includes his right to criticize the institution and his colleagues and to pursue his research as he sees fit, had been violated,” said Robinson.

The committee looking into the matter will be chaired by Dr. Mark MacLean from the UBC mathematics faculty. 

Robinson says the investigation will meet with as many people as are willing, including Pyne. Invitations will be sent out to TRU’s administration, faculty association and Pyne’s colleagues.

While Robinson stresses a conclusion is “down the road a bit,” he says if the investigation concludes Pyne’s academic freedom was violated, TRU could be blacklisted in the world of academia.

“In past cases when we’ve had administrations who refused to correct problems and refused to protect academic freedom, we’ve had to initiate what we call censure proceedings, which are essentially blacklisting the university, communicating to the academic community in Canada and abroad that this is an institution that does not promote or protect academic freedom,” said Robinson.

“That’s highly speculative at this point and I hope that we’re not going to have to go down that particular direction.”

Pyne’s research delved into a practice he believes is increasingly common, where publishers of bogus journals offer academics a chance at publication for a steep fee.

Robinson says CAUT considers it a very concerning trend.

“Part of the difficulty is that we live in a time right now when there’s an increasing focus on research output — that in order to get tenure and promotion and merit increases, you really have to produce more and more publications. That’s leading academics oftentimes into being approached by predatory publishers. They may not be fully aware that it is a predatory publisher or a deceptive publication,” said Robinson.

“So we’re hoping to provide some more information to our members about these predatory operations, to be able to warn them against them.”

“(These investigations are) not all that common,” continued Robinson. “We take this step only when we feel there is no other avenue to pursue at this point. Dr. Pyne has raised some troubling allegations. They are only allegations and we hope our investigation will get to the bottom of the matter.”

In an email, Thompson Rivers University Director of Executive Communications Darshan Lindsay said the university just received CAUT’s letter yesterday, and has not yet had time to send a formal response.

Lindsay would not comment on the investigation specifically, or whether TRU would participate.

“It is important for the public to know, though, that TRU is unequivocally committed to academic freedom and the independent research activities of its faculty. This is the bedrock of Canadian universities – that we provide and promote an environment where the thoughtful exchange of ideas and research is cultivated,” said Lindsay.