{"id":10290,"date":"2015-09-03T07:31:07","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T15:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/?p=10290"},"modified":"2015-09-03T07:31:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T15:31:07","slug":"ubc-donor-sounds-off-on-presidents-resignation-caut-bced-highered-ubcnews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/2015\/09\/ubc-donor-sounds-off-on-presidents-resignation-caut-bced-highered-ubcnews\/","title":{"rendered":"#UBC donor sounds off on President’s resignation #caut #bced #highered #ubcnews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin McElroy, Global News<\/em><\/a>, August 28, 2015– \u00a0Allen Eaves is not one to cause a public fuss.<\/p>\n

The founder and CEO of STEMCELL, Canada\u2019s largest biotech company, and the founding Director of the Terry Fox Laboratory for Hematology, Eaves has long been an influential figure at\u00a0the intersection of private research and public universities that has fueled scientific innovation\u00a0in Canada.<\/p>\n

Like many high-level scientists affiliated with universities, he\u2019s generally content to do research, give donations, and create opportunities for young graduates.<\/p>\n

But now, in the wake of the continuing controversy at the University of British Columbia, Eaves is speaking out.<\/p>\n

He wants people to know that something is not quite right in the\u00a0sudden resignation of former President Arvind Gupta<\/a>, just one year into his five-year term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word resignation has many meanings, and I would say this is not your typical leaving. I got the impression he was surprised. Just by the way he talked [to me],\u201d said Eaves.<\/p>\n

The University of British Columbia has said a non-disclosure agreement signed by them and Gupta, prior to his resignation, prevents them from discussing the terms of his abrupt departure that was agreed upon at the end of July and made public three weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just getting going. He was coming out with this long-term plan and ready to take some actions, and disappointed that he can\u2019t,\u201d says Eaves, who was chair of Mitacs, the research organization Gupta led prior to becoming President, from 2001 to 2011.<\/p>\n

While Gupta\u2019s resignation was shocking, it created only a minor stir outside the university community.<\/p>\n

However, the crisis deepened after Jennifer Berdahl, a professor of Gender and Diversity at UBC\u2019s Sauder School of Business, claimed that university authorities, including Chair of the Board of Governors John Montalbano, tried to\u00a0intimidate and silence her<\/a>\u00a0for publicly suggesting Gupta\u00a0may have lost a \u201cmasculinity contest.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

That led to an attempted secret meeting of the Board of Governors discovered by media, Montalbano attempting to leave the meeting privately, a pushback by Montalbano he had done nothing wrong, an\u00a0escalation of the dispute between the Faculty Association and the Board of Governors<\/a>, and finally, the announcement this week that\u00a0Montalbano would temporarily step aside as Chair<\/a>\u00a0so the entire ordeal could be investigated.<\/p>\n

Read More: Global News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin McElroy, Global News, August 28, 2015– \u00a0Allen Eaves is not one to cause a public fuss. The founder and CEO of STEMCELL, Canada\u2019s largest biotech company, and the founding Director of the Terry Fox Laboratory for Hematology, Eaves has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1527,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[554,2249,287,406501,211,2275],"tags":[1288925,1288923,1288922,2674],"class_list":["post-10290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-freedom","category-accountability","category-administration","category-bc-education","category-faculty","category-unions","tag-academic-freedom","tag-administration","tag-faculty","tag-university-presidents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10291,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10290\/revisions\/10291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}