The Chronicle of Higher Education has this (presumably an ad) in their Feburary 15 issue. "In recent years, universities across the country have been targeted by outside groups seeking to influence what is taught and who can teach. To achieve their political agendas, these groups have defamed scholars, pressured administrators, and tried to bypass or subvert established procedures of academic governance. As a consequence, faculty have been denied jobs or tenure, and scholars have been denied public platforms from which to share their viewpoints. This violates an important principle of scholarship, the free exchange of ideas, subjecting them to ideological and political tests. These attacks threaten academic freedom and the core mission of institutions of higher education in a democratic society. "Unfortunately and ironically, many of the most vociferous campaigns targeting universities and their faculty have been launched by groups portraying themselves as defenders of Israel. These groups have targeted scholars who have expressed perspectives on Israeli policies and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with which they disagree. To silence those they consider their political enemies, they have used a range of tactics such as:*unfounded insinuations and allegations, in the media and on websites, of anti-Semitism orsympathy for terrorism or un-Americanism;*efforts to broaden definitions of anti-Semitism to include scholarship and teaching that is critical of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and of Israel;*pressures on university administrations by threatening to withhold donations if faculty they have targeted are hired or awarded tenure;*campaigns to deny scholars the opportunity to present their views to the wider public;*the promotion of efforts to restrict federal funding for area studies programs and the teaching of critical languages on political grounds;*lawsuits in the name of the right of individual students not to hear ideas that may challenge or contradict their beliefs;*and demands in the name of balance and diversity that those with whom they disagree be prevented from speaking unless paired with someone whose viewpoint they approve of...."Read the rest here along with the current list of signatories: http://defend.university.googlepages.com/home

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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