According to a letter from a subset of the President’s Academic Advisory Committee (PAAC), in which the members speak as individual faculty members, this was not a resignation they saw coming.
"Mainly the letter says that we are as unsure about what actually happened with Gupta’s resignation as anybody and that we were conveying how really an interesting and positive process the president academic advisory committee was," said Sarah Otto, UBC zoology professor and member of PAAC.
The letter reads:
"Having worked directly with Dr. Gupta we can attest to his sincere and driven commitment to make the university a better place for learning and research. It also makes his announced resignation all the more perplexing. Given that the Aug 7 announcement is a serious step back for UBC, we all need to learn how such setbacks can be avoided in the future. The current lack of information does make this more difficult."
To sum up, the very committee the President formed shortly after taking office to advise him on issues and to increase communication between faculties and the president, knows nothing about why Gupta is suddenly out.
Not only do they not know why, but they really couldn't have expected this at all.
"As a matter of fact there were plans for things, meetings and things in the fall ... for the committee to continue to work and meet," said Otto. "I had no indication of this coming nor do I have a sense that anybody else did too. So that’s part of why we thought it might help just to kind of add to the number of voices that are saying we’re perplexed, this is a university, it’s really important that we understand where we’re going into the future and how we’re gonna get there."
When asked whether she knows if the committee will continue into the fall, given that this was a key instrument of Gupta's vision and it is currently difficult to tell whether that vision was one of the problems prompting Gupta's resignation, Otto said she was unsure.
"It’s very possible that Martha Piper will continue that committee or at least, continue some form of that because so many people have found it a positive way of contributing … to increase communication between the president and the faculties," she said.
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