I too would like to add my voice as a professor, novelist, poet, and arts and education activist, to those who are urging the McGill University administration to inform Norman Cornett of the specific reasons for his teaching dismissal from the Faculty of Religious Studies.
I have known Cornett for over a year now, through his innovative Montreal dialogic programming events. It is evident to me that he is a dedicated and inspiring teacher, researcher, and speaker, with an avid following of respectful, intelligent, and socially engaged students, colleagues, and community citizens. A tireless supporter of the love of learning (through interactive multidisciplinarity), it is disgraceful and contrary to McGill’s policies that he should receive no feedback from your academic institution regarding the nature of his dismissal from his teaching post.
It is crucial that our academic institutions be held accountable for their decisions, especially as they affect instructors and students. Honesty, accountability, and transparency are the cornerstones of respectable institutions. Norman Cornett is entitled to an answer from McGill’s Faculty of Religious Studies.
Priscila Uppal
York University