October 23, 2023
Dear President Pollack, Provost Kotlikoff, and Deputy Provost August,
We write to express our profound concern over the threat to academic freedom on campus currently. The University’s failure to forthrightly stand behind its commitment to academic freedom and free speech has contributed to a climate of intimidation, harassment, and censorship. We urge the administration to rectify the situation by issuing a statement that defends free speech and condemns harassment and violent threats (the statement by Syracuse University in September 2021 is a good example).
In the last week, the situation has deteriorated considerably, and now extends well beyond the threats, professional and physical, against Professor Russell Rickford. Students and faculty are reluctant to go to classrooms and offices for fear of being photographed and being made the targets of international harassment campaigns. We have heard from faculty and students who have stopped engaging politically out of fear of retaliation, who are afraid to speak up in defense of a professor they love because they believe doing so publicly will lead to harassment and threats against their future employment. We have heard from faculty who have considered changing their lectures or discussion seminar topics, or replacing important but difficult readings with more muted, safe, and ‘uncontroversial’ texts. Others have considered canceling educational seminars out of fear of harassment or interference in its content. Some have begun to shy away from topics our students want to know and think more about, topics about which these colleagues are acknowledged experts.
Currently this is about Israel/Palestine. But the issue is much larger. The teaching and study of China, of Russia and Ukraine, of democracy and authoritarianism, of race and racism, and countless other subjects will all be diminished if the faculty and students who teach and want to learn about these topics believe the University will not defend those rights.
Academic freedom and free speech are the lifeblood of the university, the “indispensable condition” for learning. It cannot be sustained in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Departmental statements in defense of academic freedom and free speech are important but insufficient. The University made a mistake when it condemned Professor Rickford and announced an investigation into his conduct. It should have instead declared forthrightly that free speech for all people, on any issue, within “the limits of the law and the University’s anti-harassment policy,” is a core value that the University will defend. But mistakes can be corrected. What is needed is for the University to begin rectifying this mistake and to announce to the community that it will adhere to its stated principles. Academic freedom and free speech are not only to be defended when it is easy to do so. We urge the administration to publicly, positively, and unambiguously defend the academic freedom and free speech rights of all members of the Cornell community – faculty, students, staff – and their right to work and learn without fear of harassment.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Risa Lieberwitz, AAUP Chapter President
David Bateman, AAUP Chapter Vice President
Ian Greer, AAUP Chapter Secretary-Treasurer
Darlene Evans, AAUP Executive Committee member
Suman Seth, AAUP Executive Committee member
Cornell Chapter of the AAUP 