TRU suspends professor at centre of academic freedom debate, citing Facebook post
KAMLOOPS — A TRU professor at the centre of a dispute with the school over academic freedom says the school has suspended him for one year.
Dr. Derek Pyne says TRU’s human resources department informed him of the suspension Thursday (July 16).
According to Pyne, the suspension is in response to a post he made on Facebook in June. The post shared a statement from the faculty association of Ontario’s Brock University (BUFA) about academic freedom. In lauding BUFA’s stand, Pyne contrasted it with that of TRU and his own faculty association, TRUFA. He then tagged specific members of TRUFA’s leadership, predicting they would go “running” to Larry Phillips, TRU’s executive director of human resources.