Denis G. Rancourt

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Letters of Support from Professors at the University of Ottawa

 

 

Letters stating an opinion on Denis Rancourt's case should be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with a cc to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

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Letters

 

  • Ralph Kretz, Professor (ret.), Department of Earth Sciences
However, my main concern lies with a more fundamental issue, namely the question of whether or not any justification or necessity exists for grading students in the first place. Although it is certainly appropriate and desirable to periodically carry out an evaluation of the progress made in a university course, the evaluation should be a four-way process. That is, the students should evaluate their own progress and the performance of the professor, while the professor should evaluate the progress of the students and he should, in addition, ask himself how the course can be planned and presented more effectively. I see no justification for what seems to be an archaic and somewhat arrogant one-way evaluation and classification of the students by the professor.
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Most professors would probably not go along with this proposal. Would it be possible at least to maintain a system that is sufficiently flexible to permit those professors who feel that it is wrong to grade students to refrain from doing so? ---- Letter from Professor Kretz to Committee on Academic Standing, 1 March 1973.
  • Kretz has sent a handwritten note to Professor Rancourt and President Rock explaining that he had fought for grading reform at the University of Ottawa back in the 1970s. The transcribed handwritten note and supporting memos from 1972 and 1973 are available here.

The Faculty of Sciences and the administration at the University of Ottawa have shown an appalling and unprecedented lack of respect for both academic freedom and due process in the recent actions that have been taken against Professor Rancourt. I urge you to drop all attempts to fire him, and to immediately restore his rights as a member of the faculty.

The current attack on Professor Rancourt and academic freedom at the University of Ottawa is extremely upsetting. I have followed the University of Ottawa’s unacceptable treatment of Professor Rancourt for some time, and though not surprised by the latest attack, I am appalled by it. Denis is well known to my department having addressed our assembly at a number of conferences that we have held over the past ten years. He is a noted scholar and has been celebrated by (his) students on numerous occasions. His work as a scientist and educator, have been of the highest order. If a colleague with such outstanding credentials can be treated in this fashion, then the academic freedom of all of us is threatened.
  • Claire Delisle, PhD Candidate and part-time instructor, Department of Criminology

In the first place, the university seems more and more part of the carceral continuum, exercising rigid control over the staff and the students. In the second place, I thought that tenure was established to protect the academic freedom of professors, so that they could not simply be removed for engaging in research that goes counter to prevailing mores. It is by guaranteeing this freedom that progress can be made. Moreover, one should applaud Denis Rancourt for introducing a social dimension to the sciences. He should also be commended for introducing new considerations in pedagogy and sparking a debate about the learning process, the role of universities, and the pertinence of rigid disciplinary barriers (between disciplines, departments).