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Eva Cherniavsky and Amit R. Baishya
Technology Review
Excerpt: We write as former members of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities (CAFPRR). Both of us resigned from CAFPRR after the refusal of the MLA Executive Council to advance Resolution 2025-1 to the organization’s delegate assembly.
Responding to the genocide in Gaza and citing the revised position of the AAUP on the legitimacy of academic boycotts, the resolution called on MLA members to embrace boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) actions against Israel. We recount some of the events that led to our decision and present three major concerns that arise from disallowing the debate.
Samuel J. Abrams
American Enterprise Institute
Excerpt: Well over a decade ago, when I started teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, I realized that many of my faculty colleagues were anti-Semitic. Because I am visibly Jewish and refuse to denounce Israel, I have been hazed; I have been called a “white skinned Taliban” by a senior professor. I was told that I was part of a colonial, genocidal Jewish people. I have had swastikas drawn on my office door. Somehow, I was expected to do more work than other colleagues to earn their support for promotion. It became clear that my Jewish faith and heritage was a problem for large numbers of professors on campus.
Santiago A. Saldivar
Harvard Crimson
Excerpt: In the face of brazen governmental recommendations, Harvard must uphold the value of diversity.
About two weeks ago, the Department of Education released a Dear Colleague letter declaring all race-based decision-making by federally funded institutions illegal under the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision outlawing race-conscious admissions. Last year, after the long-overdue release of the class of 2028 admissions data revealed a four percent drop in Black enrollment, I called on Harvard to lay out its plans for increasing racial diversity in admissions. In light of the Trump administration’s attacks on race-conscious practices, that call to action remains more important than ever.
Kyle Cheney
Politico
Excerpt: A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to deprive federal funding from programs that incorporate “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives.
U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson ruled that Trump’s policy likely violates the First Amendment because it penalizes private organizations based on their viewpoints. And the judge said the policy is written so vaguely that it chills the free speech of federal contractors concerned they will be punished if they don’t eliminate programs meant to encourage a diverse workforce.
Jerry Coyne
Why Evolution is True
Excerpt: In less than a year, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has completely abandoned its mission.
As U. Chicago law professor Tom Ginsburg points out in a Chronicle of Higher Education piece, however, the AAUP, however, has taken several positions within the last year that are either inimical or orthogonal to academic freedom. To put it frankly, the AAUP has become authoritarian, adhering to “progressive” politics and abandoning those precepts that it once adopted to further academic freedom.
John Warner
Inside Higher Ed
Excerpt: Together, we should be clear on what President Donald Trump is trying to do to higher education.
Destroy it. Whatever public rationales he or his administration release, the intent of his actions is clear, so if we’re going to discuss responses to those actions, we must remember, always, that Donald Trump is trying to destroy higher education.
