IN
MEMORIAM
Harvey
Shulman
1945-2005
Dr. Clive Seligman, SAFS
President
Harvey
Shulman died in December, 2005 one month shy of his 61st
birthday. Harvey joined the SAFS board in 1995 and was always
a
diligent, caring, and intelligent colleague.
We will all miss his wisdom and carefully expressed advice. Harvey was an extraordinary human being who meant a
lot to
many people, as is evident from the three eulogies that follow:
Dr. Martin Singer, Provost
and Vice-President,
Academic Affairs, Concordia University
Dear Colleagues
and Friends,
I am deeply
saddened to report the death of Harvey Shulman, who has been my
colleague and
friend for over 30 years.
Harvey was an undergraduate at Sir George Williams University and did his graduate work at Carleton University in Ottawa. He was a full-time faculty member beginning
in 1971
and had a remarkable teaching career, both in the Department
of
Political Science and at the Liberal Arts College.
Harvey Shulman was
the co-founder and the first Vice-Principal of the Liberal Arts College
from
1978-1984, and its second principal, from 1985 to 1991. He was a
Permanent
Fellow of the College. His colleagues celebrate his dedication,
selflessness
and sheer hard work in making the College the great success it has
become. Harvey made a major contribution to University
governance and the Concordia
University Faculty Association (CUFA).
He served on a
number of major committees and on University Councils. He was a member
of
Senate in the 1970s, 1980s 1990s and into the 21st century. He was
previously
Vice-President of CUFA and co-chief of the
team that
negotiated the most recent collective agreement.
Harvey was an inspiring teacher in part because he
was both
thoughtful and well read, not only in the literature of political
thought, but
more broadly in the history of Western civilization. His publications
and scholarship
are on the Bible and the manner in which it was read by early modern
political
thinkers, such as Spinoza and Hobbes, and contemporary scholars, such
as Daniel
Elazar and Emil Fackenheim.
Harvey remained a committed and active teacher and
participant
in the Political Science Department, where he also pursued his teaching
and
research interests in American politics, American political thought,
and
academic freedom and civil rights.
Those of us who
knew Harvey were fortunate to have him as a friend,
colleague and
teacher. His contribution to Concordia University was without equal and he will be missed by
all of us.
On a personal level, I feel a great sense of loss.
A funeral service
for Harvey will be held on Wednesday, December 14th at 11:45 at Paperman and Son (3880 Jean Talon, West -
corner
of Cote des Neiges). He is survived by his wife
Celia and
sister, Barbara Shulman.
Claude
Lajeunesse, President, Concordia University
Dear Colleagues
and Friends,
I met Harvey
Shulman through his work on the Presidential Search Committee this past
year. I
did not take a long time to appreciate the exceptional human being he
was and
how much he contributed to Concordia University.
Harvey was not only a gifted, committed and
generous
teacher, but he was a concerned Concordian. Harvey Shulman kept us on
our toes
and never hesitated to share his observations and his views. I will
always
cherish the memory
of
Harvey welcoming me
at the Liberal Arts College and explaining in detail the
accomplishments of
“his” students. Harvey truly cared about Concordia and he truly
cared about
the welfare and the academic development of students.
Nicole and I and
the whole community will miss him dearly.
My sincere
condolences to his family and his many friends at Concordia.
John J. Furedy and Christine
P. Furedy
On Harvey Shulman’s passing:
The ‘democracy of intellect’ loses a
courageous voice.
Harvey
Shulman’s poor health unfortunately limited him in traveling to
meetings so we
met him only once or twice after getting to know him from his
involvement with
the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship. But
he more than made up for being homebound
by a virtual presence through email, a presence that was always vivid.
Harvey was that rarest of
administrators, a man of
unshakeable principle with great sensitivity and tact, who could
thereby hold
the respect and confidence of his peers in an important university post.
When SAFS and
Harvey’s university, Concordia, came into direct conflict in 2004 over
the
university’s cancellation of an invitation for Ehud Barak to speak at
the
university, a cancellation that appeared to be yielding to
threats of
violence
by a
pro-
Paliestinian pressure group (see http://www.safs.ca/concordiaumain.html),
Harvey handled the difficult task of balancing his membership on SAFS’
board of
directors with his loyalty to Concordia with both tact and courage When Concordia’s president later delivered a
keynote address on “Defending academic freedom in a politicized
university” to
an 2003 SAFS meeting (for a summary, see http://www.safs.ca/sept2003/defending.html),
he explicitly thanked Harvey for drawing his attention to the academic
freedom
issues that arose during this emotional and complex affair.
Harvey never hesitated to speak out on politically
charged
and delicate issues. Two examples
from his contributions to SAFS were his
thoughts on spousal hirings by universities (see
http://www.safs.ca/jan2001/hiring.html)
and teaching evaluations. His views on
that latter issue were particularly trenchant, as we see in the
unedited
version of a letter The Chronicle of Higher Education published,
but
omitted the last paragraph that was apparently judged
too uncomfortable for the Chronicle’s
readers (see http://www.safs.ca/sept2000/teaching.html).
We
were inspired by Harvey’s intellectual courage and steadfastness,
especially
in recent years, as his health seriously deteriorated.
There are not many of us who would persist in
the life of the mind when in such poor health.
Harvey was truly SAFS’ primary font of information, providing the board
and individual members with
many accounts of developments at both Canadian and US universities of
relevant
academic freedom and scholarship issues. He could be relied upon to
come up
with insightful comment and relevant information in response to email
enquiries. A particularly salient example of this is his report on the
case of Jeffrey Asher
vs. Dawson college (see http://www.safs.ca/issuescases/dc2.html).
Harvey had eclectic interests and he remembered the
scholarly concerns of others. He, more
than most of our colleagues, would often send us items relevant to our
specialties (e.g., the polygraph and environmental debates). We believe he regarded himself as part of a
community of scholars, prepared to discuss topics that fall far outside
one’s
own special interests. He was a
disinterested intellectual, supporting what Jacob Bronowski called ‘the
democracy of the intellect.’
We
will miss being able to call on Harvey for advice, information and wise and witty
insight.
……………
At the time that Harvey joined the
SAFS board of directors, John was president of SAFS and Chris the
editor of our
newsletter.
SAFS
will make an
appropriate donation in Harvey’s
name.
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