This gameshow host gave cash to U of O. Who is Alex Trebek?

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek has building at the University of Ottawa named in his honour --Ottawa Citizen

• Mr. Rock deceived the student body and university community regarding donation ethics

In the fall of 2009 Allan Rock put on a series of show panels as a mock consultation to prepare an upcoming administrative policy for “donor recognition”. The policy was to be presented “within weeks” (LINK). It never materialized.

There was a tacit understanding that large donations would not be accepted until the new policy was developed and instituted.

On June 22, 2010, the University announced a 3.5 million dollar anonymous donation for a research chair in business management, anonymous no less (LINK).

It seems to us that anonymity would be an important discussion point in any “donor recognition” or donation ethics policy.

Since that time, Mr. Rock has always found a way to make these announcements after the academic year, when the students are gone and are in no position to express their views on the selling and buying of the U of O name.

It appears that the U of O doesn't mind not training brain surgeons (LINK), and wants to train more gameshow hosts.

U of O linked to a benefactor with neo-Nazi ties

In 2009, following a series of show panels personally organized and hosted by university president Allan Rock, there was to be a comprehensive "donor recognition" policy at the University of Ottawa. The President's promise went like this:

"Diane Davidson, our Vice-President, Governance, will be preparing a draft policy and sending it out for consultation and reactions in the weeks to come. We will be looking for your opinion and suggestions, so that we can develop and adopt a policy that is in the best interests of the University."(LINK)

To our knowledge, no such policy was ever brought to the university community for "consultation and reactions". Instead, the President's entire originally public web-site (http://www.president.uottawa.ca) is now locked and only accessible via a password.

Here it was, as reported on October 14, 2009, by the student newspaper The Fulcrum:

U of O President Allan Rock mentioned that a committee will be created to address the issue. It will be in charge of coming up with guidelines on how to deal with recognition and encouraging transparency through student and community involvement. [really?]

According to Rock, a donation needs to be extremely generous for the amount of time a name is kept on a building. [umm humm, and how generous does it need to be to be an anonymous donation...?]

In an email to the Fulcrum, Beaulière [elected graduate student executive member] reinforced his thoughts on donor recognition.

“One thing was clear at the end of the panel discussion: it is high time the University of Ottawa adopts a policy that will render the naming process transparent, truly collegial, as well as representative of the values of its community.” [Comments by UofOWatch]

Not only was a proper policy for donors and benefactors not transparently developed and adopted, but, instead, all this was followed, in 2010, by a "U of O anonymous research chair for ethical management", no less.

Now, recently, it has come to light in a CBC media report that the University of Ottawa, under President Allan Rock's watch, has a benefactor who allegedly had intimate ties with a large US neo-Nazi organization:

American neo-Nazi group to get part of Ottawa exhibit (link)
CBCNews, June 29, 2013

Indeed, the benefactor willed a $1 million collection housed in the University of Ottawa classical antiquity museum to the said neo-Nazi organization, which theorizes about creating an all-white society without Jews and non-whites.

Following the media disclosure, according to the CBC video, the University stated that "the collection can be packed up and removed whenever [the lawyer executing the will] wants".

President Rock had a good initiative back in 2009, to create a donor policy with ethical guidelines and transparency, then he suddenly abandoned this important consultation, and then his president's web site and his personal "Rock Talk" blog went into hiding, it would seem? (The contents of these sites can no longer be accessed by the public.)

The end result for U of O is no policy and no transparency. More and more it looks like any money will do, with any degree of secrecy wanted.

Would it not be time for a thorough independent and transparent review of donors, benefactors, and partners of the University of Ottawa? The public, alumni, staff, and students are entitled to know all the contracts, terms of reference, and deals that tie the publicly funded institution to outside money. No?

Along those lines, what is the "University of Ottawa Foundation" and what does it do? How is its mission linked to the University's statutory obligations? Where are its annual audit reports on the U of O web site?

Why did Mr. Rock decide in 2009 to change his course and instead to gamble with the institution's reputation by not transparently developing an ethical donor and benefactor policy, which the entire University community (including himself?) wanted? What's up with that?

RUMOR::: Minto Group Inc. concerned about U of O donor recognition

UofOWatch would like to report the rumor that Minto Group Inc. is considering a recognized donation to the University of Ottawa but that it is concerned about the University's "donor recognition policy".

U of O "donor recognition" is a Rock farce

Remember THIS October 27, 2009, promise from our president about the "donor recognition policy" that was to be?

Following a series of show panels personally organized and hosted by Allan Rock, there was to be... the promise went... :

"Diane Davidson, our Vice-President, Governance, will be preparing a draft policy and sending it out for consultation and reactions in the weeks to come. We will be looking for your opinion and suggestions, so that we can develop and adopt a policy that is in the best interests of the University."(LINK)

Well that never happened.

Instead, on October 28, 2009, in the student paper there was THIS.

And that seemed to kill Mr. Rock's enthusiasm for community consultation about donors because then what followed was administratum silence for a long long time...

It was so silent that everyone assumed that there was no administratum movement on the corporatization front. Indeed, an informal UofOWatch survey has revealed that 100% of respondents believe to this day that there is no U of O "donor recognition policy".

Well you're wrong.

Physics graduate student and member of university senate Joseph Hickey was informed today (by Allan Rock) after persistent inquiry that there actually is a policy of the president's promise, although Rock could not name it or say where it was on the internet.

And so we sifted through all the policies HERE and we found it!

It's not called "donor". It's called "Policy 100: Policy on naming of university assets". It was enacted in May 2010, just prior to the announcement of this little June 2010 anonymous donation HERE.

And that happened without any of the (see above) "a draft policy and sending it out for consultation and reactions in the weeks to come. We will be looking for your opinion and suggestions, so that we can develop and adopt a policy that is in the best interests of the University."

Does "sending it out" mean by letter to a few deans? Out where? Did it go "out" to the 40,000 students or to the 5,000 staff? Did it go to the alumni? Where was "out"? Where did the institution's first "donor policy" draft go?

So... when de boss man says he's gonna do sometin and dats why he's doin all dees public panels and den doesn't do it is dat a lie? But he does it kinda but like real quite like, no fuss, no press release, no Rock Talk blog post, no posting to the web front page, no adds, no mention in the campus papers, no nottin... just in time for a suspicious "anonymous" donation... is dat "transparent"?

See cause on his blog he said "How can the [donor policy] decision-making process be made transparent, so that the outcome is broadly supported?" like he wanted all this to be "transparent".

We'll we at UofOWatch are not experts but it seems to us that one way to make it "transparent" would be to make it transparent. Mr. Rock: Transparent does not mean having rules. It means being able to see how the rules are being followed. Think of it like a courtroom hearing... get it?

U of O community members will be surprised (!) to note that Policy 100 does not have a word about donation ethics, nor does it discuss any criteria for safeguarding the institution's publicly financed "academic freedom". It also says nothing about protecting the image and reputation of the institution by guarding against donations from donors whose activities have not been consistent with the statutory "Christian values" of the University of Ottawa Act, 1965.

Policy 100: A donor policy that is a Rock farce.

Related LINKS:
All UofOWatch articles about corporatization
John McMurtry on university corporatization

Is U of O a blood money U?

University of Ottawa's President Allan Rock promised (HERE!) a "donor recognition policy", following his orchestrated show panels on the topic of campus corporatization, and then never delivered (HERE) ...

Why?

Rock went on to accept an "anonymous donation" for the business school (for a research chair in "ethical management") and "generous support" for a targeted academic program with Israel.

This followed the university's multi-million-dollar courtships with the notorious Gorldcorp Inc. and with Paul Desmarais of Burmese fame.

Is the University of Ottawa in a race to become "blood money U"?

Does it aspire to surpass the London School of Economics?


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Students occupy the London School of Economics (LSE) in solidarity with Libyan revolt

by Siân Ruddick - Feb 22, 2011

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24022

Students at the London School of Economics (LSE) in central London have occupied the senior management dining suite.

They are protesting against the university's links with the Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Libya and in solidarity with the Libyan revolt.

The students are demanding that the university issues a statement condemning the brutality of the regime and of Saif Gaddafi, Colonel Gaddafi’s son, who is a graduate of LSE and a defender of the Libyan regime.

The students are also demanding that the university revokes Saif's alumni status and reject the annual instalments of £1.5 million from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation.

They also want management to pledge that they will not accept grants and donations from oppressive regimes in the future.

Niamh, a second year student in the occupation, told Socialist Worker, "No one can condone the actions of the Gaddafi regime. The university cannot just issue a statement trying to placate people.

“This money is blood money, it was never LSE’s money. It should be given back to the Libyan people."

The occupiers are calling on other students to join them. Students across Britain have another day of action planned to defend education this Thursday – Day X 4.

Students at other colleges plan to occupy this week.

Send messages of support to lselibyasolidarity@gmail.com

U of O anonymous research chair for ethical management

In response to student and community protests against selling out the curriculum to business interests, the University of Ottawa's Allan Rock promised (HERE!) a comprehensive "donor recognition policy", following a series of Rock-sponsored show panels last year.

The policy that last year was to be presented "within weeks" (see LINK) mysteriously never materialized and was never mentioned again by Rock or his administration (see update HERE).

Surely the policy would have had to grapple with the obvious problem of large anonymous donations for specific research and teaching development chairs (see update HERE).

Conveniently, before any policy was tabled and during mid-summer when all the students are away, the university has announced a 3.5 million dollar "anonymous gift" for the creation of a chaired professorship in the Telfer School of Management. (University press release HERE.)

Now that's transparency.

"By 2010, this governance model will have included new communication tools for ensuring greater transparency, a change that should cultivate the team spirit we need to carry out our mission."
-- Vision 2010 Strategic Plan, adoprted by University Senate January 2005

SHAME ON YOU MR. ROCK: There was a tacit understanding that no donations would be received until the new policy was in place. This donation is a betrayal of the community's trust. It is another illustration of the ethically challenged nature of the institution's president (LINK, LINK).

It needs to be fixed.

• Will the university make public the negotiated conditions that secured this "anonymous gift"?

• Will the university explain beyond the usual donor privacy superficialities why this multi-million dollar gift to a publicly funded university needs to be made anonymously?

• Will the administration explain why it would compromise the university's institutional integrity and reputation by accepting a multi-million dollar anonymous gift for a pre-determined targetted program development chair, without collegial and community input and before presenting its donor policy?

• Will the administration make public the names of the selection committee for the new chaired professorship and will this selection committee include undergraduate and graduate student representatives named by the student associations?

• Will the competition for the new research chair be transparent and public, with short-list candidates making public presentations, as has been the tradition for regular professorships?

• Will the candidates reject the anonymous funding of the chaired position and ask for transparency as a condition for acceptance?

• Will there be Telfer School student research projects on the ethics of such an anonymous donation to a publicly funded university?

• Will the donor come forward and apply transparency?
  

The anonymous gift, as it stands, is a disgrace.

It needs to be fixed by transparency.

It shows that the Rock administration cannot be trusted to unilaterally develop a "donor recognition policy" and that this policy will need collegial and community input, as soon as possible. (See confirmation of this and update HERE.)

Related posts:
Telfer School housed in Desmarais Building