Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
___________________________________________________
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Academic Freedom Being Debated;
Denial of Tenure Sparks Student Unrest
Inside Higher Education reports that
Professor Norman Finkelstein's tenure bid, while
"backed by his department and a collegewide
faculty committee," was denied by the president of DePaul University.
Professor Finkelstein, whose parents survived
the Holocaust, has been a critic of Israeli
policies and what he dubbed the "Holocaust
industry." Inside Higher Education notes that
"while most tenure processes are layered, several
people at DePaul said it was unusual for tenure
candidates there to advance several steps in the
review process - only to be rejected."
ZACHARY LOCKMAN, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lockman is a professor in the Department of
Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York
University. He is former president of the Middle
East Studies Association. Last April he wrote a
letter to the president of DePaul University in
which he stated: "We fear that the generally
accepted academic procedures which should have
been used to evaluate Professor Finkelstein's
scholarship, and thus his qualifications for
promotion to tenure, may have been unduly politicized."
Lockman added: "According to a Chronicle of
Higher Education story dated 5 April 2007,
[Harvard] Professor [Alan] Dershowitz has
admitted to sending a dossier critical of
Professor Finkelstein to members of DePaul's Law
School and of its political science department.
We regard this blatant and entirely unsolicited
intervention in a tenure case by a very
well-known faculty member from a different
university as unacceptable. ... This intervention
is particularly distressing because it comes at a
time when we have witnessed other instances of
efforts by individuals or organizations to
influence hiring, tenure or promotion decisions,
based not on the candidate's scholarship but
rather on his or her political views, real or imputed."
VICTOR LANG, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lang, a student at DePaul University, said
today: "We have been here since Monday morning.
... We have set up an office here so that DePaul
students can come in and write letters to the president."
"After a meeting between 30 student leaders
and DePaul President Fr. Dennis Holtschneider at
his office, we have taken action to defend
academic freedom which is under attack at the
nation's largest Catholic institution. After an
unsuccessful meeting where our demands were
ignored by the administration, DePaul students
are continuing their sit-in ... through this week
at the president's office and plan to escalate action among the student body."
ROBERT JENSEN, [EMAIL PROTECTED],
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/25/1446/
Jensen is an associate professor at the
University of Texas at Austin. He said today:
"DePauls craven decision to deny a top scholar
tenure is not simply a personal blow for Norman
Finkelstein, but for all of higher education. It
signals once again that concerns about 'negative
publicity' that could adversely affect
fundraising can easily trump first-rate research and teaching.
"Particularly troubling is the claim from
DePauls president, the Rev. Dennis H.
Holtschneider, that Finkelstein does not 'respect
and defend the free inquiry of associates.'
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Finkelstein respects such inquiry more than the
vast majority of academics, evidenced by his
willingness to defend his work in public despite
the abuse heaped on him. Finkelsteins real
'crime' was to be a passionate advocate for truth."
For more information, contact the Institute for
Public Accuracy at (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan at (541) 484-9167.
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see also:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=43&ItemID=13047
http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/06/2007061204n.htm
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