ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Supporters of a hearing-impaired history major who says he wasn’t accommodated at Memorial University of Newfoundland will rally to demand change Wednesday.

They say an apology from university president Gary Kachanoski and a promised review of the school’s admitted mishandling of the headline-making case aren’t enough.

Leah Robertson, the student union’s director of advocacy, said the university bungled a case that highlights accessibility gaps.

“There’s a lot of support amongst the student body to definitely pressure the university to help make concrete commitments to ensure that there are more resources and the services are grown for students with disabilities.”

An invitation to the lunch-hour rally on the St. John’s campus posted by the university’s students’ union urges supporters: “Show your support. Show your outrage.”

The event was planned as Kachanoski also expressed concern that the professor at the centre of the controversy “has been publicly vilified and even threatened with harm.”

Third-year student William Sears has filed a complaint with the Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Commission over a history professor’s refusal earlier this month to wear an assistive hearing device, citing religious beliefs.

The FM transmitter helps Sears hear class instruction. But he alleges that when he approached Ranee Panjabi before other students arrived for a lecture, the professor would not wear it.

Panjabi did not answer requests for comment and cancelled her classes Tuesday.

The professor has spoken to NTV, telling the television station that her classes involve discussions and videos so the device would have been of little benefit because it would only capture her voice. Panjabi said other technologies are available that could have been used to avoid the dispute.

Kachanoski apologized to Sears for what he described as a breakdown in procedures that accommodated almost 400 students with special needs last winter alone.

As the review continues, he urged “respectful discourse.”

“We regret that the professor has been harassed and I am concerned about the impact this matter has had on her. Dr. Panjabi is being publicly vilified and even threatened with harm,” Kachanoski said in a statement released late Monday.

Panjabi has been the subject of similar complaints before, including in 1996 when Memorial University reached an agreement meant to balance competing rights. It did so after the professor filed her own human rights complaint over the university’s decision at the time that she should have worn a microphone as requested by another student.

“To be clear, the 1996 agreement did not mean that students would not be accommodated,” Kachanoski said in his statement.

“Rather, it allowed for other forms of accommodation.”

Those included providing a stand to hold the microphone portion of the “phonic ear” to pick up Panjabi’s voice as she spoke.

Former student Nancy McDonald provided a letter to local radio station VOCM that she received from the university back in 1996. It quotes Panjabi as telling the dean of arts her religious objections weren’t based on a particular tradition, but were part of her “personal spirituality and commitments.”

The agreement reached by the school with Panjabi further states: “The university will inform any hearing-impaired student registered in any of Dr. Panjabi’s courses that the instant settlement accord is binding … and that the university cannot entertain an objection or complaint that Dr. Panjabi will not wear a microphone or other technological device on her person.”

Kachanoski said that deal is also under review.

“Since 20 years have passed, we have begun our own examination of that agreement to see if it is still suitable in today’s environment.”

The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association has asked the university to reassess if the deal is legal.

“For nearly 20 years, MUN has fostered an environment whereby Dr. Panjabi’s religious rights have trumped the disability rights of students with hearing loss,” it said in a statement.

Bill Sears said Tuesday his son William was “floored” by Panjabi’s unexpected reaction and has since dropped the course.

He welcomed news of the rally.

“I think the students at MUN need to make sure that this never happens again, for any student with any disability,” he said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

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