The reasons for James Tooley’s suspension are shrouded in legal confidentiality but allies suspect reported allegations from his wife are a cover to silence him, reports the Times. Here’s an extract:
Allies of the vice-chancellor are furious at his suspension. They question whether the university authorities have become uncomfortable with Tooley’s public anti-woke stance and used his wife’s allegations to silence him.
The situation has plunged the university into crisis. Renowned for its commitment to academic freedom, Buckingham is keeping comment to a minimum and staff have been asked not to speak to the media.
The chain of events shredding Buckingham’s reputation began on Friday, October 11th, when Tooley, 65, was summoned to a meeting with Mark Qualter, the chairman of the university council.
The vice-chancellor, who has been in post for four years, was told he was being suspended at once and had to leave his grace and favour residence, Ondaatje Hall, that evening.
Just after 2pm the same day, Thames Valley Police had responded to a call which included “reports of a suspicious object” at the Tooleys’ residence. Officers visited the property and, according to a police spokesman, “it was deemed no crime had been committed”.
Tooley’s friends say “vexatious” allegations about a “toy gun” brought police to his door. The object was a junior air rifle which did not require a firearms licence but was removed from the property by police.
At about 9pm that same evening, the university informed more than 3,000 staff and students by email that Tooley had been suspended after “a number of serious allegations”.
The suspension was ratified by the full governing council the following Monday and has been reviewed and upheld at a more recent meeting. Tooley has since instructed a law firm which promises “tenacious legal advice” to represent him in employment and matrimonial matters.
The idea has taken root among the vice-chancellor’s supporters that the university is shutting down a prominent critic of woke orthodoxies who welcomed “exiles and refugees” frozen out by cancel culture elsewhere in the sector. He established the Centre of Heterodox Social Science to study “progressive illiberalism, also known as ‘wokeism’.”
Friends believe Tooley, described by colleagues as “bookish, gentle and kindly”, especially upset members of the university council with the plan to appoint Hirsi Ali, a passionate advocate of free speech and an outspoken critic of Islam, as the inaugural Margaret Thatcher professor at the University of Buckingham. (Margaret Thatcher championed Britain’s first private university, and became its chancellor after leaving Downing Street).
Toby Young of the Free Speech Union (FSU) has complained to the Office for Students (OfS) alleging: “The reason Tooley has been humiliated and publicly shamed in this way is because some members of the council disapprove of the various public interventions he has made in defence of free speech and the history and heritage of Great Britain which, in their eyes, are ‘right wing’ points of view and therefore beyond the pale.”
Anthony Glees, emeritus professor at Buckingham, said that he was worried about the damage to the university’s standing.
“It’s very important there is a university like Buckingham which has a total commitment to academic freedom, will support those who challenge orthodox viewpoints, whilst being independent of the state system in a formal sense,” he said.
“The damage caused by publicising the suspension of James Tooley, to the university’s reputation and to his own, whilst the claims against him are still being examined, is nothing short of a tragedy. And it will be Shakespearian in the sense there will be blood on the floor at the end. Either Tooley will be sacked or those who tried to get rid of him will have to go.”
Worth reading in full.
The FSU has lodged a formal complaint with the Office for Students (OfS) following the decision by Buckingham’s governing body to suspend Prof Tooley, who is well-known in academic circles for his fierce opposition to “cancel culture” and his defence of free speech (Telegraph).
In a letter to the university regulator, we point out that Prof Tooley’s suspension was prompted by a series of claims which appear to be vexatious in nature and should have been dismissed as ‘tittle-tattle’.
Instead, Buckingham’s governing body immediately suspended Prof Tooley, placed him under investigation, kicked him out of his grace and favour accommodation, and set about destroying his reputation by telling Buckingham’s 3,000 students, as well as its staff, that he had been suspended and was under investigation following ‘a number of serious allegations’.
The letter goes on to express our concern that Prof Tooley has been humiliated in this way “because some members of the council [Buckingham University’s Council] disapprove of the various public interventions he has made in defence of free speech and the history and heritage of Great Britain, which, in their eyes, are ‘right-wing’ points of view and therefore beyond the pale”.
In a separate letter to all the members of Buckingham University’s Council, a group of 37 peers say that Prof Tooley’s suspension was decided “seemingly on the basis of unproven allegations” and “appears entirely disproportionate”.
They go on to say: “What is more, we are concerned that the principles of a presumption of innocence and natural justice are being undermined by an ill-conceived disciplinary process, risking not only the reputation of Professor Tooley, but also the university itself.”
Speaking to the Telegraph, a source close to Prof Tooley said that the FSU is right to demand an investigation into the “shocking, disproportionate and outrageous behaviour of a handful of woke extremists trying to mount an unwarranted coup against the vice-chancellor at Buckingham”.
