Member Grant Recipients

Thanks to the HxA member grant, the Academic Freedom Group at Simon Fraser University, whose members include the HxA Campus Community co-chairs, including Mark Collard and Rachel Altman, hosted a gathering with cheese and wine for current and prospective members on May 30, 2023. In total, 17 people attended the meeting, including 4 new members.

In addition to time for general socializing and discussion, we had two talks. Andrew Irvine from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, spoke on "The New Culture Wars," sharing his extensive experience with violations of academic freedom or freedom of expression at Canadian universities. He also presented some legal insights into public universities as (supposedly) non-political institutions and some ideas on how we might allow for and benefit from greater freedom of expression among employees other than faculty members. Andy Sellwood from Vancouver Community College then spoke about his experience as the HxA Canada Moderator. He shared perspectives on the importance of viewpoint diversity and resisting the temptation to form a homogeneous group (e.g., "anti-woke") in response to a homogeneous group with whom we disagree.

This event, funded by the HxA member grant, helped us accomplish our goals of bringing more members to our group and further discussing issues related to academic freedom at SFU. This meeting has mobilized our group to prepare a letter to the faculty association requesting clarification on how the "non-political" nature of SFU is ensured in some of the current job advertisements at SFU that require job candidates to commit to certain political beliefs and causes.

Our completed activity was an event titled "EDI In Canadian Higher Education - A Panel Discussion". It was held at SFU's Wosk Centre for Dialogue (Vancouver). The event was advertised through SFU. The grant allowed us to rent the room and have A/V set-up, as well as a set-up for live streaming.

The panel went very well. Each of the five panelists took 8-9 mins outlining their initial thoughts about EDI in education in Canada. Questions were then taken from both in-person and online attendees. Afterward, many of the panelists and attendees went for drinks and discussed plans for further similar events.

A recording of the event can be accessed here.

The HxA Member Grant allowed the hosting of a meeting with three key takeaways from the discussion.

• Miami and Florida is important in terms of demographic growth and economic/political/social influence it has nationally, so HxA's increased engagement could yield important results.

• Universities could include pluralism, citizenship, and character as ideas for student outcomes among our graduates which can, over time, help to shift urban political culture in person and online.

• There is no consensus on common values and truth. Ideology has become an identity in America. The center is being renegotiated and institutions are being remade. What does the new America look like? It is an inflection point, perhaps organizing a new rational center would help to improve local, then state, and national politics.

On Friday, April 14th, approximately 160 people screened Meg Smaker’s documentary The UnRedacted (Jihad Rehab) at the Post Theater on the University of Utah campus. During my introductory remarks, I thanked HxA for its support of the event, which was attended by members of the public and the university community.

After the screening, I engaged Ms. Smaker in a civil/critical conversation about her film before turning over the time to the audience. Ms. Smaker took questions for about an hour. To my surprise and delight, the majority of questions had nothing to do with the “controversy” surrounding the film and instead focused on the film’s content. Ultimately, everyone did an excellent job of discussing the film in a critical, open, and productive way.

This event, which was a great success insofar as it gave people a chance to see this important film and to make up their own minds about its significance. Given the quality of the conversation that followed the film and how ideas were presented, I firmly believe that audience members’ confidence in critical thinking and civil discourse was restored.

We organized a 2-day conference on academic freedom and EDI. We had just over 15 speakers present and participate in round table discussions. There were over 500 registrations for the online presentations (as well as 25 participants for an in-person event, which was also streamed online). The event was simultaneously translated and therefore available in both English and French. This 2-day conference attracted participants from across Canada. It was recorded and will be made available online shortly after.

We are quite proud of the success of this event. Support from HxA was crucial to pay for the simultaneous translation as well as some Zoom costs.