My Convocation speech is interrupted by a shout from the back of the audience: “Shame on you Saini! Listen to your students!”
Similar shouts have been heard at campus protests across the country since October 7, 2023, becoming louder with the appearance of encampments. They seek to coerce universities into taking a side, through institutional decisions and actions, in a geopolitical conflict half a world away, something well outside our missions.
Every time this call has been directed my way, I’ve privately wondered, “which students?” The handful who shouts loudest and most often, almost always hiding behind a mask? Or those who report being targeted by intimidatory tactics on campus, made fearful to the point of avoiding classes? Or those hurting deeply and looking for empathy and help? Or those who remind me this conflict has two sides and that the distinction between perpetrator and victim has been a matter of debate? Or the silent majority whose whispers about simply wanting to pursue their education are drowned out by incessant declamations?
I have the duty and privilege to work with and listen to all my students – 40,000 of them, with wonderfully and dramatically diverse identities, nationalities, beliefs, and political views.
On the crisis in the Middle East, I hear students express conflicting perspectives on a war that has devastated Israelis and Palestinians alike and has profound and intensely personal impacts for many members of our community. University leaders have a duty to recognize and demonstrate care in the face of the real and complex emotions evoked by this crisis. Carrying out this duty is a far more challenging task than the coercive forces seeking to bully universities into one-sided actions would have the world believe. Caving in to such pressures would not only have universities stray far beyond their academic mission, but also undermine it.
As a child of parents who survived gratuitous bloodletting during India’s Partition and having myself lived through three wars, I am fully aware of the devastation, divisions, and sectarianism violent conflicts unleash. While I long for Palestinians and Israelis to find enduring peace, this can only be achieved through a resolution that is just for both parties, and responsibility for reaching it resides first and foremost with them. It is not for universities to force a solution on one party or both, even if they could.
The role and value of universities – indeed, their duty – is to educate, ideate, and serve as forums for constructive dialogue. This role seems obvious, yet it is exceptionally complicated to execute. This is especially so in a moment like the present, where nuanced argument is far too often overtaken by absolutist ideologies that sequester themselves within echo chambers. When advocates demand universities align themselves uniquely with their rhetoric or take actions that essentially aim to decimate or denigrate another party, such a role becomes a non-starter. Too often, such advocates assert that their demands are unquestionably valid and must be met, failing which they will take any and all means to impose their will.
This is what universities are up against. It is daunting and dangerous, including and especially for society as a whole.
Our work, then, lies in creating opportunities and issuing invitations to resist polarized rhetoric, and instead lean into the grey, messy zone between “truths” that some perceive as categorical. It is here that learning, ideas, inquiry, and discovery become possible. Inviting students to step into this space is admittedly not easy at this time. But I have hope. In recent weeks, I have met with multiple groups of McGill students. They hold diverse identities and opposing views about the conflict. Throughout these conversations, students expressed anguish about the calamity abroad and related fears about the rise in hate at home. They also articulated their need for a university setting that sees their humanity, engages with empathy, acts with principle, and provides a climate where they can thrive academically and be proud of who they are.
These expectations are eminently reasonable. Their transversality demonstrates the possibility for exchange and discourse across differences. In this way, the university becomes a model for civil society.
So, of course I agree with the call: “Listen to your students!”
All my students.
Deep Saini is President and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University.
This opinion-editorial was originally published in The Gazette on August 8, 2024.
So, what has the University concretely done to address the demands resulting from the encampments. Listening is a great first step. Where are the actions? Thank you for your eventual response.
Finally! Thank you for taking the stand we wished you had taken months ago. But better late than never….
I would like to ask President Saini if McGill’s decision to divest from apartheid South in 1985, which happened as a result of extensive student pressure, was “Caving in to such pressures would not only have universities stray far beyond their academic mission, but also undermine it.” If so, I would rather be on the on the side of ‘caving.’
You make a good point but the conditions were different. As I recall, almost the entire Commonwealth cut ties with South Africa including the government of Canada. The UN ejected the apartheid government. There were very few South African students (black or white) studying in Canada. When the apartheid government fell, the transition was a model of peace, incorporation and coming to grips with the past. What is going on in Gaza, their government wants a blood bath that might far eclipse the millions murdered as both Pakistans and India separated in 1947 as described in President Deep’s op ed.… Read more »
Perhaps the decision for that divestment was not “caving in,” but rather the result of investigating the facts and choosing the ethical and wise action.
People can make requests, demand actions, propose solutions, but nobody, and especially masked people, has the right to invade the university campus, set illegal shop there, and interfere with university life in order to force their view upon a whole community. So, I welcome President Saini’s approach. I was a student at McGill during the Vietnam War when protests on campus were a daily occurrence, and yet nobody felt intimidated or threatened and no one installed encampments and destroyed private property. People who are so invested in the critical situations in the Middle East, especially Gaza, should volunteer their time… Read more »
President Saini is correct, and has been pursuing a wise course in evicting the foreign occupiers of the lower campus. He is a breath of fresh air after Fortier.
Thank you – I believe this was very balanced. The encampment at McGill, like all others was all about extortion, good for 5 years in prison in this country. Let us hope that the Palestinians and Israelis can come together for a lasting cease fire with an effective government in Gaza not controlled by the Shah of Iran and an Israel free of extremists.
When I think about the many conflicts throughout the world with the imbalance of power and history of hate, your sentence “ this can only be achieved through a resolution that is just for both parties, and responsibility for reaching it resides first and foremost with them” doesn’t make sense to me. We have international institutions because groups in conflict can’t come to a just resolution themselves, We live in a global world and we are responsible for others. I hope people will act but without hate and ideally with critical thinking skills learned as students at McGill.
These students are asking the Universiy to remove itself from a war an ocean away, why does McGill invest millions in military contractors, which have direct ties to the crisis in Gaza? If we truly believe that Universities should be neutral environements, then McGill shouldn’t have money in those same wars whih polarize our society.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Most thankful!
So beautifully understood and written.
Kudos to you Dr Saini.
( send this to Columbia University)
Henie Krishtalka
BA 1964
MLIS
Thank you Vice-Chancellor Saini for your reflective post/editorial. I too was a McGill student during the Viet Nam war protests. I also remember an editor of the McGill Daily who was a Communist, and openly expressed his views. In that era, there was certainly activism but no intimidation, bullying or openly disrespectful behaviour in McGill classes or outside on campus because of one’s political views. Furthermore, I found it shocking and not terribly constructive that professors participated in the recent campus chaos, whatever their beliefs. Rather than making demands while spouting ideologies and slogans, they should have encouraged “learning, peaceful… Read more »
My understanding is that the students in the encampment and others are trying to persuade McGill University to divest from any investment in military equipment, or equipment which could be used for military purposes against Palestinians, and to cut ties with Israeli universities because Israel is an apartheid state. Dissolving agreements with those universities is problematic because it could jeopardize some students’ academic careers or research, which should be avoided, of course. However a plan could be put forth to terminate those agreements in the future, if McGill decided that would be the right thing to do. I note that… Read more »
There was a VERY Troubling article in the National Post on August 31st. “ Jews at McGill: We feel alone “. I am sure you have read it.
” All your students “ and presumably all
your professors….
WHY was there no disciplinary action taken against Mr. Al-Ghabkari, Dr Arij Soufi, and Dr Goodan Samoukovic???????