St Andrews University has announced it is discharging its Rector, Ms Stella Maris, from her role as President of Court and as a Charity trustee.
This follows a complaint made by UKLFI Charitable Trust (UKLFI CT) regarding a divisive email sent by the Rector to all students of the University expressing her opinion about the Hamas/Israel War in Gaza, and an independent investigation commissioned by the University.
The University has said in a public statement that Ms Maris "repeatedly declined" to accept the conclusion of an independent investigation, which found that she had made some St Andrews students fear for their safety and that by her actions and activities she had breached her responsibilities and legal obligations as a Court member and charity trustee.
Ms Maris retains her title as Rector but can no longer carry out the duties of a Rector, chairing the University's Court, which is its supreme governing body.
The University said that its decision to discharge Ms Maris concludes a lengthy process which began in November 2023 when Ms Maris issued a message to all 10,000 students of St Andrews, offering her personal opinions on the Gaza conflict.
Her message described actions in Gaza as "weeks of genocidal attacks by the Israeli government against Gaza". She asked students to condemn "practices such as apartheid, siege, illegal occupation and collective punishment observed in the treatment of Palestinians." The email did not acknowledge that Hamas had done anything wrong.
Responding to a request by students to do something about this, UKLFI CT wrote to the University, providing a rebuttal to the points made by Ms Maris and requesting the University send it out to students.
The University's Principal replied to UKLFI CT, informing it that the Court had agreed to commission an independent external investigation as a matter of urgency.
The University's recent public statement says that following her "Gaza" email, the Rector published a series of posts on social media, which the independent investigation found "discourteous and disrespectful" in the way they dismissed fears raised by students who had contacted her seeking reassurance.
The Court's determination to discharge Ms Maris was made, according to the statement, after she repeatedly declined to accept the conclusion of the investigation. The Court concluded that it had no option but to discharge her under the Charities Act and its own Code of Governance.
According to The Guardian newspaper, Ms Maris intends to appeal the decision, and says: "It is clear that I have been removed from university court because I called for an end to Israel's war crimes against Palestinians, and I will not apologise for doing so."
Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI commented: "The University of St Andrews can be commended for insisting that the Rector must accept the conclusions of the independent inquiry and recognise that her disrespectful posts were unacceptable for a member of the Court."
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