Queen’s University Rector Nick Day, has resigned.
The news follows a March vote in which 72 per cent of undergraduate students recommended impeachment. Day had angered many when he wrote a letter on behalf of students to former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who had denounced Israeli Apartheid Week as a “dangerous cocktail of ignorance and intolerance.”
In the letter, Day blasted Ignatieff for allegedly supporting a “genocide” against Palestinians.
He was never impeached, in part because the Society of Graduate and Professional students, who are also represented by the rector, had chosen not to participate in Alma Mater Society vote and instead moved to “Support Academic Freedom and Queen’s University Rector Nick Day.”
They were forced to hold their own referendum when more than 10 per cent of graduate and professional students signed a petition in favour of one. Among those voted, 44 per cent wanted Day removed and 56 did not.*
Day said that he regretted signing the letter with his official title.
This post has been updated to add the results of the SGPS referendum.