On Dec. 24, 2017, Lindsay Shepherd tweeted a photo of a syllabus from CS101B: Canadian Communication in Context taught by Judith Nicholson. Nicholson allegedly confronted Shepherd citing she breached intellectual property.
I wonder how indigenous people feel about the holier-than-thou “SJWs” who use land acknowledgments to virtue signal. This land acknowledgment is on a course syllabus. I see them in email signatures too. (If you don’t know what these are, look here https://t.co/heCa5yfWv3) pic.twitter.com/TV1pQWWcGs
— Lindsay Shepherd (@NewWorldHominin) December 24, 2017
The photo contains the title of the course, semester and year, land acknowledgment as well as the Wilfrid Laurier University header.
In a statement which Shepherd provided The Cord, she explained that Nicholson confronted her asking her to take the tweet down.
“In a meeting with my fellow six TA’s on Jan. 9, Dr. Nicholson said something along the lines of: ‘Lindsay, I don’t do the whole social media thing, but I heard you posted my syllabus on your Twitter’ … She ordered me to delete it because it is her intellectual property and in violation of the non-academic code of conduct,” Shepherd said in the email.
“I, politely, objected to this suggestion.”
“She then said I will get a note of breach of non-academic code of conduct on my file, and the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies would be notified,” the statement read.
On Jan. 9 2018 Shepherd sent out a series of tweets on her account claiming that she was confronted and asked to take the tweet down.
I was just told that this tweet breaches WLU non-academic code of conduct becuz I took a cut-out of a course syllabus, which apparently constitutes intellectual property. I was told to delete it, and if I don’t, I will get a note of breach on my file & Dean will be notified. https://t.co/t5xCBsTzK2
— Lindsay Shepherd (@NewWorldHominin) January 9, 2018
In a later tweet, Shepherd explains that an unspecified dean allegedly told her that her photo of the syllabus is not violating any rules or regulations in question.
Shepherd Tweeted: Just received an email from the Dean that the cut-out from the syllabus is NOT the intellectual property of the instructor, and there is NO breach in copyright or non-academic code of conduct. Communication Studies faculty keeps making up their own rules! Hilarious!
BrittainyB123 tweeted on Jan. 10
anyone else out there think there is a good possibility that @NewWorldHominin faked the “someone told me” to hold on to her 15min of fame? it isn’t like her not to name her “oppressors” …#LindsayShepherd #Delusions #FreeSpeech https://t.co/Mv20MXqDav
— brittb (@BrittainyB123) January 10, 2018
On Jan. 11 Shepherd revealed that the person who confronted her was allegedly Dr. Judith Nicholson.
In a statement Shepherd gave The Cord, she claimed that, via the aforementioned incident, the communication studies department is allegedly pushing their agenda by misusing policies.
“Although this was just a small kerfuffle, it shows that Communication Studies faculty are still misinterpreting and misapplying policy in order to push their agenda,” Shepherd said in the email.
The Cord has requested a comment from both Dr. Judith Nicholson and Wilfrid Laurier University but did not receive response at the time of publishing.