NOTE: This letter posted in response to the recent Faculty Letter which opposed Vassar's President rejection of the ASA Boycott.
The “Open Letter in Defense of Academic Freedom in Palestine/Israel and the United States” signed by 39 Vassar professors is a disturbing document, although not in the way intended. To many alumnae/i, it is a jarring signal that Vassar is no longer the open, innovative institution that transformed our lives, a college which stimulated—indeed compelled—independent and critical thinking. Rather, faculty and student supporters of the BDS movement against Israel have hijacked campus discourse and imposed an anti-intellectual atmosphere in which professors are ranting activists, not scholars, and students who disagree with the prevailing “progressive” ideology are intimidated into a deafening silence.
This letter is submitted on behalf of Fairness to Israel, a growing group of Vassar alumnae/i, parents of Vassar students, and others who are deeply concerned with this sorry state of affairs. We will vigorously support Vassar’s president in her efforts to restore sanity, tolerance and civil dialogue to campus.
In their letter (manifesto, actually), the 39 professors assert that Vassar’s condemnation of a resolution by the ASA to boycott Israeli academic institutions has a “chilling effect on the free exchange of ideas and opinions.” As they see it, the “real threat to academic freedom” is the “frenzied” campaign launched against the ASA in response to its boycott resolution. This Orwellian view of who is being silenced would be laughable if the matter were less serious. CLICK THIS TO KEEP READING
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