Faculty Association Calls for Resignation of UBC Chair

The UBC Facility Association (UBCFA) is calling for the resignation of University Chair following the situation that has unfolded regarding the resignation of the former school president.

Mark MacLean, President of UBCFA, issued the statement on Wednesday, calling on John Montalbano to immediately resign as the Chair of the Board of Governors. MacLean says the UBCFA became aware of allegations against Montalbano and the concerns that he may have compromised the academic freedom of a faculty member last week. Professor Jennifer Berdahl accused the school of using bullying tactics to force the resignation of former President Arvind Gupta. Academic administrators are also implicated in allegations surrounding the incident.

The UBCFA is calling for the resignation of John Montalbano (Photo Credit: UBC)

“Since these allegations came to our attention last Wednesday, we have been working hard to maintain the integrity of the normal labour relations processes we use at UBC to resolve our grievances,” said MacLean in a statement. “While these processes have been working well as we investigate the roles that various academic administrators have played in this case, established procedures have been compromised as they pertain to the alleged actions of the Chair.”

MacLean points to the fact that Montalbano decided to sidestep standard protocols for handling grievances by posting a formal University media release to the UBC website. By doing so, the UBCFA says Montalbano “confused personal interests with the University’s interests.” The media release has since been removed from the website.

“As a result of this communication, we had earlier in the day decided to call for Mr. Montalbano to step aside during an investigation of the allegations against him,” continued MacLean. “By late afternoon, we became aware Mr. Montalbano was giving a series of interviews on radio and television, entirely in contradiction to the August 17th press release signed by Provost pro tem Anji Redish and Interim President Martha Piper in which it was affirmed that: ‘it would entirely be inappropriate to comment further on the allegations until this process has been concluded.’”

Photo Credit: UBC

The UBCFA says that while the university had said the grievance could be handled under its usual process, Montalbano’s actions no longer make that possible.

“We have lost confidence that there can be an internal investigation process uninfluenced by Mr. Montalbano, either within our usual labour relations processes or through a Board-driven process,” added McLean. “Consequently, we are calling for Mr. Montalbano’s immediate resignation as Chair of the Board of Governors. He has shown an inability to allow proper procedures to proceed and has used his office as Chair of the Board to engage personally and publicly with the issues under investigation. This behaviour is ill judged and threatens the integrity of ongoing processes.”

MacLean says the decision to call for the resignation was not "taken lightly” and Montalbano’s handling of Gupta’s resignation and the subsequent events that have followed are being considered a breach of standard protocol.