The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/aaup/)
The suspended students are the best of us. They have chosen to come to Cornell because, as one student put it, “I believed it was the best place for me to learn how I could most effectively use my voice to fight for justice.”
As faculty, students and staff, we must come together to ensure that Cornell stands up against this pressure and protects the university as a free space for thinking, learning and expression.
There are many areas of social, economic and political controversies that faculty may address in exercising their academic freedom, but perhaps none so controversial as those dealing with Israel and Palestine. The University administration should stand up for faculty who exercise their academic freedom, even in the face of pressure from legislators, trustees, donors, students or alumni to sanction faculty for their speech.
The two authors point out that despite the concerns Rawlings explained in his statement, shared governance and organized labor can work together well.