BY MARJORIE HEINS The disastrous December 5 congressional hearing in which three university presidents were lambasted for allegedly not dealing with antisemitism on campus was a political ambush from the start, and the presidents, instead of blandly acquiescing in some outrageously inappropriate questioning, needed to respond with righteous indignation. The tone was set early on…
BY THE MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA The following statement by the president of the Middle East Studies Association and the chair of that association’s Committee on Academic Freedom was published online on December 18. Open Letter to US and Canadian College and University Presidents We write on behalf of the Middle East…
BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY AAUP CHAPTER The following statement was issued on December 18, 2023. Since October 7th, our university community has experienced extraordinary challenges to academic freedom. These challenges emerge in a global climate of restrictions on Palestine- related speech, along with a national climate of attacks against the…
BY ALAN SINGER An earlier version of this blog post appeared on the Daily Kos. We are reposting it here with permission of the author. Many of us have seen the congressional sound bites. MAGA superstar Elise Stefanik made mincemeat out of Ivy League college presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard, Liz Magill of the University of…
BY JOHN K. WILSON It’s always distressing during contentious times when neutral statements for free speech are twisted beyond recognition with false smears of bias and bigotry. In a November 27 essay in The Hill, Northwestern law professor Steven Lubet denounced the American Association of University Professors for a November 15 statement, “Polarizing Times Demand…
BY KEVIN HOWLEY In recent weeks, college students across the country have raised their voices in support of the Palestinian people, whose collective punishment at the hands of the Israeli government and their enablers in the United States and across Western Europe is both shameful and horrific. For conservative culture warriors, pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college…
BY CORY JAMES YOUNG I was having a conversation with a graduate student in my department about a possible collaboration when we noticed the television. One of our colleagues was on the Iowa City news providing historical context about the ongoing crisis in Palestine and Israel. Then, even more unexpectedly, a student from my previous…
BY JENNIFER RUTH The situation in the Middle East demands the best of all of us. Yet so many capitalize on the moment to harness the conflict to their own domestic “culture wars” agenda. Typical are op-eds like this one, arguing that contextualization, when in support of Palestinian refugees, amounts to little more than illiberal…
BY ELLEN SCHRECKER As the tragic conflict unfolds in Israel and Gaza, the AAUP may now face attempts to fire pro-Palestinian professors that could make earlier academic purges look like a tea party. I know whereof I speak. I have studied academic freedom and higher education for over forty years and traced the AAUP’s failure…