University of Ottawa - Save Professor Rancourt

*GRADES HURT, END THE PAIN, TOMORROW, TUESDAY MARCH 17, 8:30AM-12PM, TABARET HALL*

This email is an urgent mass call-out delivered to 10 153 students, sent by a coalition of 552 students.

Not all students could be reached due the University of Ottawa recently implementing increased email control.

Many Professors have stepped up to defend education and will be announcing the March 17 event in their classes today.

Spread the word quickly.

*GRADES HURT, END THE PAIN, TOMORROW, TUESDAY MARCH 17, 8:30AM-12PM, TABARET HALL*
. . .

This email is a compilation of six call-outs from student and community organizations deeply affected by the University of Ottawa's attack on alternative teaching and grading. Students have mobilized to stop the university, and will gather between 8:30AM and 12PM this Tuesday in Tabaret Hall for a participatory town hall style discussion. The event will open with a statement by President Allan Rock, and free food and beverages will be provided.

Please come out to speak out. Please join in to watch and listen. The discussion will focus on the pains of the grading system.

The Grades Hurt event will be held in the name of Full Tenured Professor Doctor of Physics Denis Rancourt, who will be permanently fired by the Dean on Tuesday, in the basement of Tabaret, because he gave his students all A+'s on the first day of the semester. Students can help save his job, because the Dean is clearly disciplining him too strong.

* Watch Full Colour TV Interviews of Denis Rancourt Here: www.denisrancourt.tv *
. . .

1. THE ANTI-GRADING LIBERATION FRONT SAYS DOWN WITH EXAMINATIONS!

Grades hurt the soul. Bad grades cause karmic pain, and good grades tempt sacrilegious sacrifice. We believe education must be built upon nothing else but the virtues of kindness and love. Abolishing grades is the rightful path towards liberation and it will transform education to release the full potential of human creativity.

Paulo Freire is our Saviour. His Pedagogy for Liberation will bring forth the New Revolution and take us towards the Enlightenment. We say: No more evaluations! No more examinations! Come out on Tuesday. Help save Denis Rancourt from religious persecution. It'll be a groovy party.

====== WATCH THE VIDEO OF TRUTH ======
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t14xBXunsJA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t14xBXunsJA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t14xBXunsJA
====== WATCH THE VIDEO OF TRUTH ======

2. AN UPDATE FROM THE COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENSE OF EDUCATION: DISSIDENT PROFESSOR WILL GRADE FOR FOOD

*All up-to-date media links and documents are archived at: www.academicfreedom.ca*

Recent media coverage: Macleans Magazine, "In this class, everyone gets A+".
http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2009/03/13/in-this-class-everyone-...

Press Release: Dissident Professor Will Grade for Food. The last step in the University of Ottawa’s planned political firing of dissident physics professor Denis Rancourt will be a required closed-door settlement-attempt meeting to be held on March 17, 2009, at 9am. Following this meeting, the university can send the dismissal to the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors for final approval.

Rally: Student actions are planned. A rally will gather in the Tabaret Hall lobby on March 17th at 8:30am, and will last all day, as part of the Ottawa Free Speech Movement.

Proposal: Professor Rancourt has made his proposal for reconciliation for the March 17th meeting public. The 3-page document is entitled “Will grade for food” and is posted at:


http://www.academicfreedom.ca/Documents/OfferOfSettlement-17March2009.pdf

Press Conference: The confidential March 17th 9am meeting is scheduled for one hour and Professor Rancourt and supporters will hold a press conference after the meeting, in the Tabaret Hall lobby.

3. THE STUDENT APPEAL CENTRE NEWS: STUDENTS VERSUS THE GRADING SYSTEM

The following are excerpts from the full article blogged here:
http://www.uofoappeals.blogspot.com/

You are a number, and that number is your GPA.

"Every time you reveal that number, judgment is passed upon you. With a simple calculation, you are categorized as good or bad, studious or stupid, valuable or disposable."

Grades hurt you, and the Student Appeal Centre is here to help you.

"Grades are harmful, destroy creativity and take power away from students. Grades are a mechanism of control, not a mechanism for learning. Many students agree, but do not know what to do."

Freedom is necessary for education. Action is necessary for liberation.

"How do we get an enjoyable education when we don't function within the system of grading? Do we forget about university and go somewhere else, or do we fight back and take control of the classroom? Can a grade-free system coexist within our university, or is this just hopeless dreaming?"

"Our anti-grade position is radical. A debate about grading is necessary. "

"Students are organizing a town hall meeting this Tuesday. Come share your thoughts and stories. If you've been failed, or if you hate your GPA, we especially want to hear what you have to say."

March 17
Tabaret Hall Lobby
8:30 am - 12:00 pm

4. THE OTTAWA FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT CONTINUES!

-On Nov 21, the Dean of the Faculty of Science Dr. Andre Lalonde and the Department Chair Dr. Bela Joos infiltrated the laboratory of Prof. Rancourt with several Protection Officers and a number of unidentified University employees. They ejected all the students, replaced the door lock with a high-security lock, installed an alarm/surveillance system, and began dismantling his equipment.

-On Dec 10, Prof. Rancourt was called to a meeting by Vice President Major where he met a team of Protection Officers who then escorted him off campus and barred him from attending his weekly campus radio show and his weekly documentary film and discussion series.

-On Jan 23, Prof. Rancourt was arrested, cuffed, and charged under the Trespass to Property Act of Ontario, by Ottawa Police under instructions of the upper administration while giving a public presentation about corruption in the upper administration to a classroom of students, professors, and community members.

-On February 24, two of Prof. Rancourt's graduate students and his research associate filed a legal claim against the university, and personally hand delivered the claim to Allan Rock.

===== Video of Allan Rock Evading Justice =====
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0CDgtVMMSo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0CDgtVMMSo
========================================

Now, on March 17, Prof. Rancourt will be fired for practicing an alternative pedagogy.

The Allan Rock administration is suppressing free speech and academic freedom on campus. Students and Professors need to mobilize and stop the administration from taking over our university. Come out on Tuesday March 17 to defend the future of education!

5. A LETTER OF SUPPORT FROM THE GRADUATE STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION

Dear Mr. Rock:

The Graduate Students' Association Étudiant(e)s Diplômé(e)s (GSAÉD), the collective voice for the University of Ottawa graduate students, is writing to protest the University's actions against physics professor Denis Rancourt.

It is our view that the suspension and planned dismissal of Professor Rancourt are political in nature and threaten academic freedom in this institution. As such, the University's actions harm the campus intellectual environment for all graduate students, negatively affect the image of the University, and diminish the value of the school's graduate and professional degrees.

CONTINUED HERE: http://www.academicfreedom.ca/Documents/GSAEDLetter.pdf

6. A MESSAGE FROM THE RADICAL CAMPUS ANARCHISTS

Grades are the drug that facilitate the molding of your minds. The syllabus is the doctrine that you have been brainwashed to believe in. Examinations are the filters that select for the most faithful servants.

The institution is ours, and we will fight to regain power.
==== LISTEN TO THE UNINDOCTRINATOR ===
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iKLGNVyPM0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iKLGNVyPM0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iKLGNVyPM0
==== LISTEN TO THE UNINDOCTRINATOR ===

7. ANTI-GRADING ARTICLES WRITTEN BY UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA STUDENTS

Heckles: Your pedagogy sucks
http://www.thefulcrum.ca/?q=oped/heckles%3A-your-pedagogy-sucks

Free your mind from grades, and start questioning the learning processes imposed on you
http://www.thefulcrum.ca/node/1255

Who holds power at the U of O?
http://www.thefulcrum.ca/node/2415

Scrap letter grades
http://www.thefulcrum.ca/node/2357

Give me more A+s
http://www.thefulcrum.ca/?q=oped/heckles%3A-give-me-more-+s