BY SILKE-MARIA WEINECK The following is reposted with permission from the Michigan Daily. A few months ago, University [of Michigan] Provost Laurie McCauley banned diversity statements in hiring. Diversity statements, the argument went, imposed inappropriate ideological litmus tests. And a few days ago, University President Santa Ono told the audience at an event hosted by the…
BY EMMAIA GELMAN Yesterday, campus communities watched in horror as news unfolded that Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia University who bravely acted as negotiator between the Palestine solidarity encampment and Columbia administrators, had been snatched from university housing by ICE agents on orders from the White House. It is the cataclysm that has…
BY HANK REICHMAN As an alum of Columbia University (CC ’69) I received an email yesterday from the university’s interim president Katrina Armstrong responding to the Trump Administration’s decision to arbitrarily cancel some $400 million in federal grants “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The email…
BY MICHAEL ANTHONY LEWIS It’s been over a year since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel; we’re still witnessing Israel’s response. All this has made the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians front page (or front screen) news. We’re constantly hearing debates about the perennial issues that make up this conflict. I’m a CUNY faculty…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following public response was addressed to the administration and regents of the University of Washington. We write as Jewish faculty, staff, alumni, and students of the University of Washington to voice our concerns with the Antisemitism Task Force’s Report, titled “Climate Assessment and Reports from the Antisemitism and Islamophobia Task…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Former AAUP President Cary Nelson’s latest book is Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles (Academic Studies Press, 2024). John K. Wilson interviewed him by email about the book in Part I of this discussion. Here in Part II, Nelson examines issues raised since the manuscript was completed last…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On Wednesday, April 17 when faculty members nationwide will be observing a National Day of Action for Higher Education, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is scheduled to testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee. On December 5, that committee heard testimony from the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Former AAUP President Cary Nelson has just published his latest book, Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles (Academic Studies Press, 2024). John K. Wilson interviewed him by email about the book. John K. Wilson: You and I disagreed about the Steven Salaita firing at UIUC. You argue…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On March 27, 2024, Texas governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order compelling “all Texas higher education institutions” to “update free speech policies to address the sharp rise in antisemitic speech and acts on university campuses and establish appropriate punishments, including expulsion from the institution,” ensure that “groups such as the…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT testified on Capitol Hill on December 5, 2023, at a hearing on “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism,” and the bipartisan political backlash with demands for their resignations is unprecedented in the history of higher education, including the forced resignation of Penn president…