U of O Watch mission, in the words of Foucault...

"One knows … that the university and in a general way, all teaching systems, which appear simply to disseminate knowledge, are made to maintain a certain social class in power; and to exclude the instruments of power of another social class. … It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticise the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticise and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them." -- Foucault, debating Chomsky, 1971.

U of O Watch mission, in the words of Socrates...

"An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all." -- Socrates

video of president allan rock at work

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Allan Rock on Ann Coulter - New access to information report released

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A new report based on 138 emails via University of Ottawa president Allan Rock's office about Ann Coulter has been released HERE.

The report suggests that former Liberal heavyweight Loyd Axworthy may have played a significant role in the U of O Rock-Coulter affair.

The text of the second letter that Allan Rock wanted to send to Coulter is revealed in the report and it is shown that Rock was motivated to write the second letter by a desire to minimize his legal liability following an email from associate professor of law Amir Attaran.

The preamble of the report states:
This blow by blow account provides an incisive picture of the executive crew of a modern Canadian university which will be of interest to all stakeholders that must deal with these institutions of "higher learning."

A student reviewer of the report said:
"The prez is more concerned with covering his ass and controlling his playground than he is about principles or education etc. It cuts Rock down to size from superstar to petty, mean-spirited, and panicking. It vaporizes his rhetoric. He looks totally out of place in academia. Profs have been sacked for the kind of academic fraud he's up to. The report contrasts what the University is meant to be to show how Rock doesn't have a clue."


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Certainly does make one wonder! Thanks for putting the time into digesting and sharing.

Denis Rancourt said...

Terry Madison said:

This article's main premise is built on a lie - That somehow Mr. Rock doesn't know much about Ann Coulter's own habitual lies simply because he did a web search. A web search is all one needs to see all the lies, hate and distortions instigated by Ann Coulter, in her own words. Any one who writes a book called "Godless" about millions of god-fearing liberals, not only uses sweeping generalizations, but hateful divisiveness as well. The there are the dozens of videos of Ann Coulter condemning the 9-11 wives, the wives of presidential candidates, ad naseum. It takes all of 15 minutes to see Ann Coulter for who she really is.

RESPONSE:
Hi Terry,

There is a difference between acquiring a personal opinion about someone based on a Google search and the president of a university vehemently defaming a public figure to all his contacts based on unverified character attributions and as part of a political campaign to manage "image" and that includes a violation of the principle of free expression, a foundational principle of the university. The article in not about Ann Coulter.

In my opinion, for a university executive to practice branding, propaganda, and image management (all elements of social engineering) is the opposite of its duty to defend and promote free expression, the free development of ideas and opinions.

-Denis Rancourt