U of T president David Naylor will serve for another three years, after Governing Council extended his term in a closed door meeting on Thursday, Jan. 21.
Outside Simcoe Hall, demonstrators protested the presidential review and other matters. Several students carried signs with slogans such as “Nay on Naylor,” while another group walked around King’s College Circle with an oversized report card for Naylor, recommending “expulsion.”
The U of T Students’ Union and the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students are unhappy with Naylor and the review process. Both have written letters to the Committee to Review the Office of the President.
UTSU criticized the Executive Committee for not inviting written submissions and “[choosing] to rely entirely on conducting interviews with select members of the community.” The letter also argued that the review presents a conflict of interest because GC chair John Petch has a close relationship with Naylor and his wife. It cites Petch’s donation to the MaRS Foundation (Treurnicht is founder and CEO of the MaRS Discovery District). “If this [review] process is to have any merit (and be taken as anything more than lip service), this issue must be addressed accordingly,” reads the letter.
“As President of U of T, Naylor has overseen one of the greatest investment losses in the history of this university, the arrest of 14 students for protesting fee hikes, an incredible increase in the corporatization of the campus, the introduction of flat fees for the Faculty of Arts and Science, and the expansion of Rotman at the expense of student space,” wrote Adam Awad, UTSU’s VP university affairs, in an email. “I would hardly call that working in the best interests of students at a public institution.”
In March 2008, around 30 protestors held a sit-in at Simcoe Hall to protest a number of issues, including abolishing tuition and ancillary fees and the university’s investment strategy. Police arrested 14 protestors based on allegations from university employees that the group forcibly confined them to their offices. The protestors say the charges were trumped up to discourage dissent. Charges against 12 protestors were withdrawn; the other two had the charges stayed.
APUS expressed similar concerns, citing student accessibility, academic freedom, and equity and access on campus as areas where Naylor has failed students.
Naylor and Petch both declined to comment on the review process or on student unions’ concerns. A GC representative wrote in an email, “In developing its report and recommendation to the Council, the Executive Committee considers all the views that it receives. The decision to renew a president’s term is then made by a vote of the full Governing Council, which includes representatives of the student populations and of other vital constituencies.”
Naylor has served as U of T’s president since April 2005. Prior to his appointment, he was the dean of medicine. He earned his MD at U of T and his PhD at Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Naylor will now serve as president until June 2013, with an option to extend that term another two years.
A previous version of this article reported that all 14 protestors from the March 2008 sit-in had their charges stayed. In fact, 12 protestors had their charges dropped and two had their charges stayed.
