Dear community,
I have wrestled with what kind of message to send following the recent publication of an article in The Walrus focusing on the experiences of some individuals at the law school. It is difficult to respond to someone else’s description of the story of the law school. It is difficult to address the many reactions that this article has created. And it is difficult to read the negative experiences of valued faculty members as the article described.
It would not be useful to discuss The Walrus article point by point – I would undoubtedly miss the bigger issues confronting our institution in the midst of addressing and correcting many details and misstatements. The article describes in two or three sentences conversations that unfolded over weeks, months, or years. And these conversations involved many more voices than those represented in the article. Moreover, as dean and employer, I am not able to disclose many details of my colleagues’ experiences at the law school, including retention offers, workload supports, compensation levels, mentorship opportunities, course releases, and similar components of the faculty experience referenced in the article.
I do think it would be helpful, however, to correct the way in which the Southern Butler Price environmental scan in 2021 was described. It was just that – an environmental scan – and it stated: “We want to be clear that in this report, we are recording the feelings, experiences, perceptions and thoughts for improvements of the participants. This was not an investigation or adjudication and we have made no findings of fact.” This is information I provided to the reporter which she declined to include in the article. The scan did not reach any of the conclusions described in the article and instead reflected some of the comments of individual faculty members.
Yet in many ways the above commentary is not helpful. Not because of its nuance, but because what I read in the article was a critical perspective from racialized female faculty members in an institution that exists within the racist, colonial, ableist, gendered, and heteronormative background in Canada that we are all familiar with. What do we do with these perspectives and the perspectives of those not captured in the article? How do we work to build a community where all of our colleagues feel like they are supported?
We will continue to work on our faculty relationships, with the help of outside facilitators, not because they are irretrievably broken but because our divisions have contributed to this public conversation at the expense of our students.
We will continue to listen to the voices reflected in the article. At the same time, we will continue to surface the voices of those faculty who feel silenced in the midst of our current divisions in order to ensure that our community is one in which all individuals can thrive. We need to hear from other voices within our racialized faculty, our Indigenous faculty, our Jewish faculty, our female faculty and others who have not felt safe to fully share their experiences at the law school.
We will continue to focus on our students’ success. We are united as a faculty in our commitment to ensuring students’ success in law school and in their future legal careers. We have wisely considered a broad range of attributes for admissions, and we are committed to ensuring that each student we admit feels like they belong here and are supported.
We will continue to focus on inclusive excellence because it is a value that the entire faculty believes in. Inclusive excellence extends to the composition of our student body, our faculty and staff complement, and the idea that a diverse law school, and legal profession, best serves our local and national community.
Finally, we will continue to focus on our outstanding community of students, teachers, staff, and alumni. We are a stronger community because of our diversity, but this diversity forces all of us to be intentional about how to communicate and reconcile our differences. We must keep these communications respectful and free from bullying and harassment, and we also must find spaces to exchange uncomfortable differences of opinion with the hope of improving our academic community.
It is challenging, to say the least, to assume the leadership of the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia as its first Black dean. But I choose to be here to make this a better institution for those who are here now and those who will follow. My faculty, staff, and student colleagues have chosen to be here, and while we are here, we are in community with each other. It is our collective responsibility to build a better community here, together, and I commit to leading that effort.
Ngai Pindell
Dean, Peter A. Allard School of Law
