Reading time: Less than 2 minutes
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that there are many problems at UBC. It’s a large school with more than 59,000 students. But how does the university handle these problems? Aye, there’s the rub…
What exactly is going on at my alma mater, and the place my three adult children are now attending, the University of BC?
- The university president, Arvind Gupta, “resigned” earlier this year. The university made the announcement in late August 2015, on a Friday (a time when many people are on holiday). It gave no details. He has since been temporarily replaced by former UBC president Martha Piper.
- Canada’s attorney general is now suing UBC and Christopher Zed, a former associate dean of dentistry, for fraud and negligence in connection with money from Health Canada. The suit claims the dean siphoned several million dollars away from clinics —intended to provide dental services to First Nations patients in Haida Gwaii. UBC allegedly discovered this in 2013 and quietly dismissed him, according to the suit, but didn’t provide details of this investigation until almost a year after it was completed.
- UBC took more than a year and a half to suspend a history grad student despite complaints of harassment or sexual assault by at least six women on campus. The CBC TV show the fifth estate uncovered this news in a story it aired Nov. 24.
- UBC has has suspended with pay the head of its Creative Writing program and noted novelist Steven Galloway, pending an investigation into “serious allegations.” This information was shared in a memo sent to students, faculty and staff. Galloway was not given the reason for his suspension.
As I examine the pattern here, it seems clear that UBC still hasn’t figured out exactly when it needs to employ “communications.” It woefully under-communicated three of the stories and over-communicated the fourth. The under-communication problem is serious for everyone, particularly the women in the history department who were unnecessarily exposed to a risk of sexual assault.
It was also serious for the First Nations people who didn’t get the dental care they needed because a dentist had allegedly taken some of those funds. And what about citizens who are funding the university through their taxes (and students, via their fees)? Didn’t they deserve to know at least a little bit more about why the president had been let go?
But what on earth made UBC announce so publicly that they were suspending and investigating their creative writing prof? I can only guess it was an over-reaction to their ham-fisted handling of the other issues. But it’s blatantly unfair to the professor who has the right to confidentiality until charged and the presumption of innocence until (and if) he’s convicted. (I’m also suspicious about this case because the university has said it’s not involving the police and is performing its own “internal investigation.” If the issue is so serious, why aren’t police in on it?)
UBC has a “news” department and, the last time I did a story on the school, I heard they use the PR firm Kirk and Company. I presume they also have a host of high-priced lawyers able to help them. They have no shortage of advice for dealing with problems at UBC.
Here’s the biggest problem, though: UBC doesn’t know when to talk about issues and when it needs to shut up and be discreet.