To the Editor:
Re: “Administrators Discuss Disciplining Protestors, Monitoring Faculty in Private Hillel Parents Meeting” (news, 10/2)
In his talk with over 200 Jewish parents of Cornell, as reported in the Cornell Daily Sun on Oct. 2, Vice President of University Relations Joel Malina specifically targeted “pro-Palestinian activists,” singling out the speech of two faculty members as potentially sanctionable.In making examples of these two, Malina violated the core principles of academic freedom. And he also demonstrated that he has no understanding of these principles, though in a follow-up “Letter to the Editor,” he claimed, contradictorily enough, his “intent was to reference” them. As promulgated in the American Association of University Professors standards, which Cornell has publicly endorsed, academic freedom stipulates a wide latitude in faculty speech, both in the community at large and in the classroom. The speech of the two faculty that Malina referenced as potentially actionable falls well within the AAUP parameters of academic freedom, and this singling out of faculty not only violates these principles but also the principles of basic ethics and collegiality. In effect, Malina, unintentionally perhaps, engaged in the pernicious practice of doxing, which the university condemns.
In addition, Malina’s focus on pro-Palestinian protests by Cornell students, faculty and staff against the Israeli genocide in Gaza contradicts the Cornell administration’s claims that its expressive activity policy is content-neutral. This in itself is reason enough for this policy to be rejected.
In his comments at Hillel, Joel Malina appears entirely confused about the scope and meaning of academic freedom. In his focusing on the case of pro-Palestinian activists, Malina suggests that the administration’s expressive activity policy is not content-neutral but is motivated by pro-Israel parents and donors.
— Eric Cheyfitz, Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters