By: Sofia Chassomeris, News Writer
On October 16, SFU’s Faculty for Palestine (F4P) sent a letter to SFU president Joy Johnson asking for transparency around a referendum breach this summer. Specifically, on May 17, voting by faculty to pass two motions around Palestinian liberation was reported to have been hacked. After the votes were later recast and the motions were passed, 13 faculty members opposed the motions and brought them to a BC court to argue for their nullification.
F4P is a “network of faculty who support the cause of Palestinian liberation.” In May, the group brought forward two motions for a vote among members of the Faculty Association of SFU (SFUFA): the motion on Israel/Palestine tells SFU administration to “condemn Israel’s destruction of the education system in the Gaza Strip and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an end to scholasticide in Palestine.” The second motion, the motion to divest from arms production, urges the university to divest from corporations that gain revenue from military equipment and other war-related products. SFU currently has shares in “BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, and CAE Inc.” According to SFU’s divestment policy, “the degree [to which the company] is involved in contributing to social injury and the severity of the injury” are considered by the university when the institution’s “social responsibility as an investor is questioned.”
After the hack occurred, “SFU’s IT department found that 305 identical votes were cast in a 30-minute period on the last day of voting,” according to independent publication The Maple. SFUFA members recast their votes using a different online voting platform. Both motions were passed by the union on June 7.
SFU provided The Peak with a statement regarding the incident: “There was no access to data within the system, so no personal information was compromised and identification of voters was not possible. The breach was not possible via the user interface, it required very specialized knowledge of software systems.” They also said that the WebSurvey application tool used for the referendum “was retired this summer as originally planned.”
SFU stated that since “the identity of the responsible individual(s) could not be confirmed, this incident is now considered closed.”
F4P’s recent letter stated the university failed to deal with “the grievous interference” and it is “entirely insufficient to argue [ . . . ] that the matter is closed because no personal information was compromised and the voting system has now been changed.” The letter asks the university for transparency around “whether the investigation identified the person(s) responsible for the interference” and if any disciplinary action was taken.
“It is now up to the SFU administration to do the right thing.” — SFU Faculty for Palestine
The Peak corresponded with F4P, who stated, “SFU has provided minimal information on what happened and who is responsible for the breach. Faculty are extremely disappointed that the university only acknowledged this breach recently while making it clear that the case file is closed.
“We expect more from our administration,” they continued.
13 faculty members who opposed the motions filed a petition challenging “the right of SFUFA to even put the motions to a vote.” In August, these faculty asked a BC court “to order the union to nullify the passing of the motions and reimburse them for their legal fees.” They also went to the “BC Supreme Court to declare what they call ‘impugned motions’ null and void,” and argued the union acted outside of its purpose under the BC Societies Act. The 13 faculty members included Rachel Altman, Shafik Bhalloo, Mark Collard, John Craig, Richard Frank, David Freeman, Paul Garfinkel, Steven Kates, Alexandra Lysova, Michael Silverman, Rochelle Tucker, Kay Wiese, and Rina Zazkis. The Peak reached out to these faculty members for comment, but didn’t receive a response by the publication deadline.
According to the Vancouver Sun, these faculty claimed the motions express “in a provocative manner a position on a deeply divisive political and geopolitical issue.”
“It is the right of any trade union to raise its collective voice on political issues of the day,” said F4P. “For professors, this means raising our voices against scholasticide — Israel’s destruction of all 12 universities and hundreds of UN schools in Gaza.
“SFU should have nothing to do with the arms industry or genocide [ . . . ] It is now up to the SFU administration to do the right thing,” they continued. “At this point, the administration has promised to review its so-called responsible investment policy.” They referenced SFU’s most recent October 28 statement on “responsible investments” as absurd, citing the university’s claim that “by divesting from fossil fuel companies, SFU no longer has a voice at the table to advocate for change.”
“Are they seriously suggesting that staying invested in oil and the arms industry is somehow the right ethical choice?” F4P stated.
This is a story The Peak will continue to cover.
