Tuesday, January 13, 2009

"We're Tired Of Byers"

A student newspaper demonstrates judgement (unlike this online one):

Check And Mate

UBC professor Michael Byers, who gets invited onto damn near every media panel on Afghanistan in this country and often falsely identified as an expert on the issue, and who refused an invitation to participate in the Manley Panel report but never misses a chance to follow up on rape and war crimes allegations against our soldiers, gets absolutely destroyed in an editorial by the UBC student paper, the Ubyssey.

We're Tired Of Byers
Our View

Last week, UBC political science professor, failed NDP Candidate, and media gadfly Michael Byers went on a hunger strike as part of the 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay. When we heard the news, virtually every member of The Ubyssey editorial staff winced. And not just because it was a self-serving media stunt that reeked of martyrdom and did little to serve the actual cause of homelessness. Since he arrived on campus in 2004, we’ve seen, heard, and written more about Byers than is merited given his accomplishments—how ever impressive they might be. He’s written many a book, comes off as incredibly thoughtful in interviews, and people who take his classes generally have nice things to say. That’s the case with a lot of academics though—and we don’t see many thrusting themselves into the public spotlight with the gusto Byers does.

But Byers isn’t an academic at this point; he’s a politician. He ran for the NDP last election, he plans to run again for them in the next election and he’s ready to criticize the Harper government about anything at the drop of a dime. Except he—and reporters who use him for his good quotes and pretty face—still refer to him as an “in ternational law expert,” even when he’s talking about the Olympics, the economic crisis, or any other subject that has nothing to do with international law. An academic imparts his learned knowledge on an issue, and a politicians promotes himself and his particular views. With Byers, the line is certainly blurred. At this point, whenever he publicly promotes a cause, it’s difficult to tell: is he promoting an important issue, or is he promoting Michael Byers and the NDP?

We know that even though his actual job is a UBC professor, UBC students aren’t exactly his first priority. After all, this past semester plenty of graduate students signed up for his class on global politics, but when they got to their first class, he told them that due to the upcoming election the class would be cancelled. He then proceeded to tell them why he was running, why students should vote for him, and, by the way, if anyone wanted to volunteer for him, that would be super awesome. Not exactly a humble display from the socially conscious professor.

All of which has led us to conclude the following: we’re tired of Byers; tired of talking about him, tired of hearing about him, and tired of his pseudo-self promotion. Michael Byers, we’re taking a cue from Stephen Colbert: you’re on notice.
Marvellous. Incredible. As The Torch would say, Bravo Zulu Ubyssey editors.
A sample of my own Byers hurls here and here.

Via Brian Platt, a good man.

5 Comments:

Blogger Dave in Pa. said...

"...We know that even though his actual job is a UBC professor, UBC students aren’t exactly his first priority. After all, this past semester plenty of graduate students signed up for his class on global politics, but when they got to their first class, he told them that due to the upcoming election the class would be cancelled. He then proceeded to tell them why he was running, why students should vote for him, and, by the way, if anyone wanted to volunteer for him, that would be super awesome."

This guy is a public employee, right? He is paid from taxes and tuition paid by BC people, right? And he is supposed to perform the duties for which he's getting his paycheck, right?

So, what the hell are the taxpayers and students getting for their money? Byers gets away with cancelling a class because of his desire to use his time for which he's being paid to teach UBC students in order to pursue his political activities? Then he has the chutzpah to ask the students he just left in the lurch to work as volunteers on his campaign? Shameless.

This has nothing to do with academic freedom, it's to do with non-performance of duties by a public employee. How the hell does this pontificating poseur get away with this?

And the Deans and other administrative officials running UBC...Are they OK with this standard of academic performance and behavior? By allowing this, they also have hard, serious questions to answer.

11:37 p.m., January 13, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Byers is a legend in his own mind.

He pervades media in Vancouver - why they put him on all the time is a mystery.

He can "self-identify" himself as an expert in just about everything.

He's a waste of space & oxygen.

8:21 a.m., January 14, 2009  
Blogger VW said...

This, from my old alma mater?

I'm amazed and delighted that common sense still prevails there.

11:26 p.m., January 14, 2009  
Blogger deaner said...

VW - even more astounding, this is from The Ubyssey: this is the first time that "common sense" has ever held sway at that bastion of angst and incoherent adolescent rage.

11:24 p.m., January 16, 2009  
Blogger arctic_front said...

HA HA!

Love this post, and the comments so far, equally great. Good stuff all around. You go, folk, go.

Great stuff indeed.

6:57 p.m., January 22, 2009  

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