A year after UPEI launched review into former president, staff say information hard to come by

A year after the former president of the University of Prince Edward Island resigned amid allegations of workplace misconduct, faculty at the university say they've been kept in the dark regarding the status of an ongoing review.

"There's a concern on campus that the board of governors is looking to bury this," said Margot Rejskind, vice-president of the UPEI Faculty Association.

The university's board of governors announced last December that it had hired the Toronto-based firm Rubin ThomlinsonLLP to investigate allegations of workplace harassment against former president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, along with the university's handling of other harassment complaints and its use of non-disclosure agreements.

The review was announced the day after Abd-El-Aziz's December 2021 resignation, which itself came just days after a CBC News report on how the university had signed NDAs with two women who came forward with complaints of sexual harassment against himin 2012.

The last official communication to staff regarding the progress of the review was in April.

"We begin a new fiscal year in May, and it marks a time to reflect not only on our financial situation but also our procedures and policies from both an academic and administrative viewpoint," interim president Greg Keefe wrote in an email to university staff and students on April 8.

Keefe encouraged members of the university community to take part in a confidential survey administered by Rubin Thomlinson "as we endeavour to ensure that UPEI offers a safe, respectful, and positive learning and working environment."

A week later, staff were advised Rubin Thomlinson had extended the deadline for the survey, which included questions on "harassment, discrimination and sexual violence" on campus, until April 29.

Since then, Rejskind said there's been no communication, and staff and students who engaged in the process in good faith not just filling out the survey but participating in one-on-one interviews are losing faith.

"We did it because we took them at their word, because we thought that we had hope that this might be the time that things change," she said.

"And I think we're all experiencing that loss of hope now as we're seeing it drag on."

Declined to comment

When CBC News requested an update on the review process in September of this year, a university spokesperson advised contacting Rubin Thomlinson, which also declined to comment.

"The university is not involved in the process in order to maintain impartiality," the UPEI spokesperson said via email.

The review is being conducted as the UPEI Faculty Association and the university administration are trying to agree on the terms of a new collective agreement, after a two-year extension to the previous contract expired in June 2022.

This week the faculty association threatened legal action against the P.E.I. government, arguing it was interfering with collective bargaining by prolonging conciliation talks, preventing the union from being in a legal strike position.

'Status quo' on campus

Another faculty member reached out to CBC News last week to ask about the status of the review, saying there was no information to be obtained on campus. That personasked that their request for information remain off the record.

A year ago, some current and former staff described the university as a toxic workplace, and Rejskind said some remain reluctant to speak out.

Meanwhile, she said there's been no movement to address those concerns, something she said shouldn't have to depend on the review being completed.

"It is status quo. Not a single thing has changed," said Rejskind. "There has been no communication about how to engage with, for instance, the fair treatment policy more effectively."

Whenever the review is done, the board has not committed to making Rubin Thomlinson's full report public onlya "high-level summary" of the report after it's been submitted to the board's executive.

Rejskind said that lack of disclosure could leave important questions unanswered. For example, she'd like to know what weight the allegations against Abd-El-Aziz were given as the board continued to renewhis contract, despite concerns put forward in writing from groups like the P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

All CBC News requests for interviews with members of the board of governors on the topic have been denied.

UPEIseeks $5,160 for release of documents

In response to a freedom-of-information request from CBC News, UPEI's Access to Information and Privacy Officesaid it would cost the public broadcaster $5,160 to obtain electronic records related to the review, given how much work would be needed to prepare the documents. That would includeblacking out or redactinginformation the university doesn't think it should reveal for legal or privacy reasons.

CBC News had asked for correspondence, emails, memos, minutes, briefing notes, and interim/draft reports shared among the university's top executives and senior executives on the board from a nine-month time period.

We took them at their word ... we had hope that this might be the time that things change.Margot Rejskind

Rejskind suggested the fact that the board of governors has obtained legal representation through the review process would likely mean a large volume of documents has been produced.

She also questioned whether those documents would shed any light on the review itself, noting that a request from the faculty association for correspondence between the university and its former president came back with almost all the information redacted.

One of the redacted documents provided to the association, a letter sent to Abd-El-Aziz after he announced his sudden resignation last December, appears here.

The university told CBC Newsthere would be at least 4,000 pages of documents that met the parameters of its request. Much of the collection of those documents has already been completed as part of the university's own records management, according to the access to information office.

The biggest part of the $5,160 fee estimate $4,050 was to cover preparation and handling of the documents, including redactions.

The public broadcaster has made it clear it won't pay the fee, and asked the university to reduce theestimate, arguing it was in the public interest for the records to be released.