UPEI board chairman resigns after critical report as new leadership is needed
The chairman of the University of Prince Edward Island’s Board of Governors has resigned — a week after an independent report revealed major problems on campus over the past decade.
“I care deeply about the University of Prince Edward Island, the students, the faculty and the staff,” Pat Sinnott said in a letter distributed to the campus community on Wednesday.
“Having said that, it is clear to me that new leadership is needed at this time to address challenging issues.”
The letter, dated June 21, stated that Sinnott “stepped aside effective today.”
Sinnott had served as chairman of the body overseeing the university’s finances and administration since June 1, 2015. He has been a member of the board since October 2009.
UPEI sent a statement to faculty, staff and students just before 5 p.m. Wednesday, saying that the institution’s board is “committed to renewing membership as recommended in the Rubin Thomlinson report.”
That statement also said that Andrew Bartlett, another longtime member of the board of directors, had also “indicated that he would be stepping down as a member”.
With the departure of Bartlett and Sinnott, the 26-member board has seven vacancies. The university’s statement said that the rest of the board members “will elect a new chairman at a meeting in the coming days.”
It added: “UPEI’s Board of Directors will further conduct a governance review to ensure that members receive the appropriate information to make evidence-based decisions that are in the best interest of the University community and in line with with the university’s values: academic freedom and rigor, accountability and integrity, excellence, inclusion, justice and reconciliation.”
Late Wednesday afternoon, the university’s website still listed Sinnott, described as a retired Toronto executive, as chairman of the board. Sinnott’s LinkedIn profile states that he spent 19 years at Canadian Tire until December 2012 and before that 12 years at Ernst & Young.
On board at key time
Sinnott and Bartlett were the only two members of the current board to serve on the body between 2013 and 2015, a period mentioned in Rubin Thomlinson’s report.
Then two women accused former president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz of sexual harassment, sparking an investigation involving some members of the board of directors. The complaints were eventually resolved, with the women signing confidentiality agreements.
Sinnott told CBC News last week that the board members who participated in the investigation told the rest of the board there was no reason why the president’s contract should not be renewed in 2015.
The board also extended Abd-El-Aziz’s contract in 2018 and 2021.
He eventually resigned in December 2021 after another complaint about his behavior was filed. That prompted the university to commission an investigation by Rubin Thomlinson, a Toronto-based law firm that had previously conducted a workplace investigation at CBC News following the firing of radio host Jian Ghomeshi.
The UPEI investigation and report preparation took 18 months and is expected to cost the university $400,000.
Faculty union welcomes departure
The UPEI Faculty Association had called on Sinnott and Bartlett to resign.
Executive Director Margot Rejskind welcomed their resignations, but said it was “literally the least they could have done” in light of the contents of the Rubin Thomlinson report.
“That culture of bullying, harassment, racism, misogyny and retaliation and fear — it’s real, it’s ongoing, and you don’t make some little chess moves and make it go away,” she said late Wednesday.
“A lot more definitely needs to be done.”
Rejskind said the first step will be to “find a good credible chairman… who can get us on that path to change.”
Rejskind said she had known about the magnitude of the problems at UPEI for some time because of her union work, saying: “That report is appalling. It’s really terrible and yet there were no surprises for me.
