LETTER TO THE EDITOR | To President Kotlikoff: Stop “Scrutinizing” Your Faculty

After more than 20 years in the classroom, from graduate school through my time at Cornell, I have learned that if students feel that their teachers are scrutinizing what they say, the result is silence. If students feel trusted to explore ideas, the result is education. And when professors — as we surely will after this morning’s Sun story — teach from a place of fear rather than trust, the result is generalized apathy at best, widespread paranoia at worst. 

TAAL | A Public Appeal

I am a scholar, and I am under threat here in America because I am defending the basic human rights of the people of Palestine while participating in peaceful protests on a university campus. I have a valid visa. I have a right to be at Cornell and I have a right to express myself.