Kanchi Uttamchandani | Assistant News Editor
Featured image: The Senate is York’s academic decision-making body, made up of professors, students and senior administrators. | Michael Zusev
Victor Phillip Dahdaleh’s donation to York continues to provoke controversy, as a critical discussion of York’s due diligence policy for accepting gifts and recognizing donors took place at a York Senate meeting last week.
Economics professor Ricardo Grinspun put forward a motion disapproving of York’s decision to accept a donation, give an honorary doctorate and name an important building and research institute in Dahdaleh’s honour.
“Given York University’s formal commitment to academic integrity and service to social justice, the university should not be honouring a businessman whose financial dealings have made troubling headlines around the world,” says Grinspun.
York’s guidelines state that it grants honorary degrees to people whose achievements represent York’s values, whose contributions strengthened the community and whose public lives are deemed worthy of emulation.
Grinspun believes Dahdaleh is not well-positioned to receive this honour, given the pervasive and widely documented media reports about his business ethics.
“Let’s face it: York went ahead fully aware of all the relevant information—it chose money over York’s values and reputation,” he says.
Grinspun states that big donations are usually shrouded in secrecy and confidentiality agreements, which perverts academic planning.
“At York, the secret agreement with Seymour Schulich has allegedly influenced academic planning for decades, and we don’t know if secret agreements with other York benefactors are also secretly influencing decisions on, for example, the organization and ranking of disciplines, the distribution of full-time faculty hiring among different faculties or research priorities,” explains Grinspun.
LA&PS Dean Ananya Mukherjee-Reed responded, saying that as a dean, she cannot accept even the slightest suggestion of secret deals interfering in academic affairs. She also emphasized that she does not wish any senator, especially student senators, to leave the chamber with such a thought.
Grinspun sees such donations as massive legal tax avoidance mechanisms, and that much of the donor money comes from citizens and students’ parents, not from the donor himself.
“The matters here are consequential. York is currently searching for a new president and the terms of reference speak directly to her/his ability to bring big money for York’s recently announced major fundraising campaign,” he concludes.
York President Mamdouh Shoukri publicly acknowledged Grinspun’s concerns, referring to them as valid and welcome.
“Mr. Dahdaleh was introduced to me by the Canadian High Commissioner in London, on the occasion that he funded and supported the creation of an art gallery in the new Canada House. [This] important part of Canada House displays that Canadian power [and] carries his name,” says Shoukri.
Shoukri highlights Dahdaleh’s public involvement with educational and charitable institutions: Dahdaleh is an honorary fellow of the London School of Economics, a leading donor of the school and many hospitals in London, a board member of the McGill University Trust, president of the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce and was honoured by St. Francis Xavier University.
“This is a successful Canadian, where the Canadian government also acknowledges his contributions, and he has never been convicted of wrongdoing,” says Shoukri.
Shoukri defends the university’s decision to have accepted a donation from Dahdaleh, despite media scrutiny. “The media was interested in him because he was obviously charged of something, and those charges were dropped and legal fees were paid. These are facts,” states Shoukri.
“I can’t assume he is guilty because it is unfair. Both the chair and members of the Board of Governors have reviewed the situation and, in accepting the donation, I assure you we did due diligence,” he adds.
The next Senate meeting is scheduled for October 27.
