Eva Kushner, Emerita, University of Toronto, response to Dean Gertler

Dear Dean Gertler,

thank you for answering my letter of July 12 to President Naylor. Your letter rightly draws my attention to the Academic Plan in its entirety and to the forthcoming discussions. These matters have been fully covered in much many-sided recent correspondence in which I have also taken part.

Today I wish once more to draw your attention to the particular case of the Centre for Comparative Literature, for a very specific reason. At this very moment the Executive Council of the International Comparative Literature Association is meeting near Seoul, South Korea, in preparation for the congress of the Association which will begin, in Seoul, in a few days. The International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures, of which the I.C.L.A is a member in what I like to call the "UNESCO pyramid" of international learned societies, is also holding a meeting there. Many of the colleagues participating in these meetings are aware of the situation of the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto because of a multiplicity of reciprocal ties. If the pressure on the Centre continues, the image of the University of Toronto is bound to be affected in the eyes of the international Comparative Literature community, for two reasons mainly: the dismantling of the doctoral program, and the implication that Comparative Literature in its integrity is not an essential discipline at an excellent University. Please believe that I am not dramatizing. I sincerely hope that this particular case  (among all the others with which I realize the Faculty is faced) can be creatively and constructively handled in direct consultation with those affected by the proposed plan.

With apologies for disturbing you at this time, and many thanks for your attention

Eva Kushner, O.C., F.R.S.C.