Board of Governors' Faculty Election
seeking your support for re-election
When I arrived at UBC as a new faculty member I never envisioned myself sitting at the Board table. Over my time as a student and faculty member I have been more likely to be found on a solidarity picket line or standing outside the board doors protesting. I have observed that the more typical faculty member elected to the board has often played a role at some point as a Dept. Head, Associate Dean, Dean, or higher level administrator. Rare are those of us frontline faculty more known for dissenting and publicly calling out administrative leadership than for being administrators ourselves.
I see a role for all us in governance, not just those who fit in well with the appointed governors from private sector business and industry. If we are to take diversity and inclusion seriously it requires the presence of dissenting and divergent voices at the table of governance.
In 2015 UBC’s board went through a crisis that undermined faculty confidence in the board. The following year (2016) I ran on a campaign of open democratic practice. For a few years the Board started to open up its processes, become more transparent driven by widespread community pressure. But then the pandemic hit and many of the gains made disappeared under the guise of expediency and efficiency.
Elected again to the Board in 2023 I noted the retreat from open practices. This retreat is not just on the board; it was a society wide phenomena. At the same time we have been experiencing attacks (from government, business, and civil society groups) on what make a university a unique source of civic democracy. A core principle of university life -academic freedom- is being placed at risk.
Early in my last term a BC Minister of Post Secondary publicly intervened in a labour matter at a college. It’s fundamentally important that government leaders not interfere in the workings of faculty matters on campus. This same minister was allegedly behind directives that led to the removal of a notice I co-organized in my department supporting academic freedom. Along with many others I called on the Premier to dismiss the minister.
The minister was not alone in threatening academic freedom. Some among those calling out the minister’s attacks on academic freedom wanted restrict the academic freedom of other faculty. In the UBC-V senate I spoke against banning research and teaching.
But this is not the only direction of attacks on academic freedom. At least two political parties in BC’s Legislative Assembly would like to restrict the voice of academics and social commentators they disagree with on matters of First Nations reconciliation. These same politicians also question and dehumanize gender diverse people. In so doing, like their MAGA compatriots to the south, they wish to criminalize speech they disagree with.
The university needs to continue being a place that supports disagreement without hatred, dissent without violence, and focuses on our core mission of creative unfettered research and learning. And critically we need to do this with care.
Part of the emerging problem is the board is retreating from active engagement in decision making. Many core decisions have been delegated to the President’s office or are made by small groups of governors on limited membership committees. These committees then report via an omnibus consent agenda thus ensuring many important matters are never discussed by the full board. This is defended by reference to efficiency and practicality and is said to allow the board to discuss the ‘big issues’ of policy at a conceptual level. Board meetings have been reduced to a handful of publicly viewable hours held in a locked building in which observers are limited and pre-approved.
It’s time to bring back a more open board.
Election Statement
The following is my formal statement for re-election as submitted to UBC Elections.
I seek your support for re-election to UBC’s Board of Governance. During my past term I served as Chair of the Indigenous Engagement committee and as a member of the Governance and the Learning/Research committees.
I have been a faculty member at UBC since 1996. I’ve served four terms as Member-at-Large on the Faculty Association of UBC, 2001-2007, 2012-2014. As a resident of the university area, I served two terms as elected Director of the University Neighbourhoods Association, 2012-2016. I firmly believe in the importance of being an active participant in our communities of work, life, and play. To achieve this, I actively advocate for openness in governance and tolerance of diversity of perspective be that in my home department, my residential community, or within UBC’s governance bodies.
The past term of governance at UBC has seen significant local transition in leadership in the midst of global turmoil. This has been a moment where the core mission of the post-secondary sector -research and learning- has come under attack. As an elected faculty governor, I stand firmly in support of the need for, and continued defence of, academic freedom: without which the ability to conduct research and teaching is undermined.
My path for the future builds on these areas of concern: academic freedom, in support of research & learning; meeting the housing needs of the university community; and fulfilling our obligations to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.
Suplemental Materials
Degrees
PhD, MPhil, CUNY (USA)
MA, York (Canada)
BA, SFU (Canada)
Current Occupation
Professor
Current and past offices
Elected Governor, UBC, 2023-2026, 2017-2020
Joint Faculties Senator, UBC-V, 2020-2023, 2023-2026
Member Senior appointments, 2022-2024
Resident Director, University Neighourhoods Association, 2016-2020
UBC Faculty Association -Exec, member at large. 2001-2007, 2012-2014
Selected list of publications.
Books
2016 Charles R. Menzies. People of the Saltwater: An Ethnography of the Git lax m’oon. Lincoln, Nebraska. University of Nebraska Press.
2016 Charles R. Menzies. (Editor). Of One Heart: Gitxaała and Our Neighbours. Vancouver: New Proposals Publishing.
2011 Charles R. Menzies. Red Flags and Lace Coiffes: Identity and Survival in a Breton Village. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Journal Articles
2024 Charles R. Menzies. “Capitalism and Colonialism – Settler and First Nation: An Uneasy History.” Labour Le Travail, 93, 309–322. https://doi.org/10.52975/llt.2024v93.013
2024. Menzies, Charles (hagwil hayetsk). “ Seeing our world in 16:9 aspect ratio.” American Ethnologist 51: 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13250
2023. Menzies, C. Autoethnography, African studies, and whiteness: problems of cultural appropriation. Dialect Anthropology 47, 391–400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-023-09706-8
2021. Menzies, Charles R. and Caroline Butler. “Centering Community Knowledge in Resource Management Research.” BC Studies no. 209 (Spring 2021): 103-124.
2020. McCaffrey, K.T., Kovic, C. and Menzies, C.R., “On Strike: Student Activism, CUNY, and Engaged Anthropology.” Transforming Anthropology, 28: 170-183. https://doi.org/10.1111/traa.12183
2019. Charles Menzies and Andrew Martindale. “‘I Was Surprised:’ The UBC School and Hearsay -A Reply to David Henige.” Journal of Northwest Anthropology. Vol. 53(1):78-107.
2019. Charles R. Menzies. “Sea Legs: Learning to Labor on the Water.” Anthropology of Work Review. DOI: 10.1111/awr.12172.
2018 “All that old crap”: realizing our indigenous utopian potential—a response to Palmer.” June 2018. Dialectical Anthropology 42(2):1-9. DOI: 10.1007/s10624-018-9513-x
Chapters
2022 hagwil hayetsk (Charles R. Menzies). “Grief, Extinction, and Bilhaa (Abalone).” In Valérie Bienvenue and Nicholas Chare (Eds). Animals, Plants, and Afterimages: The Art and Science of Representing Extinction. New York / Oxford: Berghan Press.
2019 Charles R. Menzies & Caroline Butler. “Redefining the University-Community Research Enterprise: Partnership and Collaboration in Laxyuup Gitxaała.” In Jennifer Hays and Irene Bellier (Eds). Scales of Governance and Indigenous Peoples: New Rights or Same Old Wrongs? Pp. 266-281. London: Routledge.
2015. Charles R. Menzies. “In Our Grandmothers’ Garden: An Indigenous Approach to Collaborative Film.” In Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper, and Marty Otañez, (eds). Participatory Visual and Digital Research in Action. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Books.
2015. Charles R. Menzies. “At the End of the Road: Reflections on Finistère, Land’s End, France.” In Nieves Herrero Pérez and Sharon R. Roseman (eds). The Tourist Imaginary and Pilgrimages to the Edges of the World. Bristol: Channel View Publications Ltd. Pp. 47-61.
Virtual Publications
2023 – present. Menzies on the Board. https://menziesubcbog.substack.com/ A chronicle of perspective as an elected faculty governor.
2022 – present. A Campus Resident. https://charlesmenzies.substack.com/ A episodic local area online newsletter.