December 2013

I previously sent an email to President of Princeton regarding academic boycott of Israel and specifically inquired as to whether Princeton would drop its Institutional Membership in the American Studies Association so long as ASA imposes an academic boycott on Israeli academic institutions and scholars.  Both Penn State Harrisburg and Brandeis have dropped their Institutional Memberships.  The Association of American Universities has come out with a strongly worded denunciation of the academic boycott oof Israel. I just received the following statement from Princeton's press spokesman on behalf of President Christopher L. Eisgruber:

Thanks for your email to President Eisgruber about the American Studies Association’s boycott of Israel. In correspondence with Princeton alumni who have asked about the boycott, President Eisgruber has said,

I share your dismay at the American Studies Association's misguided boycott. Academic boycotts are almost always bad policy--scholarly engagement helps to sustain and build liberal democratic values. For that reason, among others, I believe that Princeton should continue to work constructively with scholars and institutions throughout the world, whether one admires or dislikes the government under which they operate. And, whatever one thinks of boycotts in general, to single out Israel alone is indefensible.

Robert A. Brown, President of Boston University, will be issing a formal statement rejecting the Amercian Studies Association's anti-Israeli academic boycott.  The statement is not yet posted on BU's website, but was obtained by Legal Insurrection and confirmed with the President's office. President Brown, however, is deferring the decision on withdrawal of Institutional Membership to the American and New England Studies Department on grounds of the academic freedom of that department. Here is an email from President Brown to a Legal Insurrection reader announcing the statement and the membership deferral.  We confirmed with the President's office the authenticity of the email:

Thank you for your email expressing your concern about the recent vote of the American Studies Association (ASA) to boycott Israeli universities. Please see below my formal statement about this unfortunate action by the ASA.

I am disappointed and concerned that the American Studies Association, invoking the principle of academic freedom, would vote to boycott Israeli academic institutions. Research, teaching, and scholarship flourish through robust exchange of ideas, across borders and among institutions in different parts of the world. Universities and their faculties can often transcend even profound political differences. It is ill-advised to make academic institutions the instrument with which to promote a political agenda by attempting to isolate students and scholars. Boston University cannot support this boycott.

I hope that there will be a serious discussion within our American and New England Studies Program which has an institutional membership in the ASA which, obviously, is funded by the University. This institutional membership does not come with a vote that is exercised by either the program or the University. The poll taken by the ASA represents the votes of individual members of the organization. We are not prepared to suggest (implicitly or explicitly) to faculty members who hold individual memberships (some of which are funded out of professional funds allocated to individual faculty members) how they should vote. That would lead us onto a slippery slope. I do hope the faculty in the American and New England Studies Program will consider whether or not continuing membership in the ASA will create the opportunity for a temperate and thoughtful reconsideration of the wisdom of the boycott.

Readers have been very good at posting contact information in the comment section at the Reader crowdsourcing project to fight American Studies Assoc anti-Israel boycott You also need to start sending emails to Presidents, Trustees and others who have a stake when a university lends its name and funds to an organization engaged in an academic boycott which would include boycotting the university's own joint programs and scholars. Even though membership decisions typically are made at the department level, where many of the Israel-haters rule, the decision has university-wide implications. The membership is in the university name and the boycott affects university programs and scholars beyond the American Studies department. Moreover, use of university funds to subsidize ASA is a university decision, and in the case of public universities, also involves the state. As of this writing, I still have not received a response to My email to President of UT-Austin regarding academic boycott of Israel. Here is the email I sent yesterday to the President of Princeton University, one of the Institutional Members of the American Studies Association and an institution that supports the ASA financially through covering costs of attending ASA meetings.

To: Christopher L. Eisgruber [[email protected]] CC: Martin A. Mbugna, Communications [[email protected]] Mary DeLorenzo, Asst. to the President [[email protected]] Dear President Eisgruber: Princeton University is an Institutional Member of the American Studies Association (ASA), contributing its good name and dues to the ASA, and also funding ASA indirectly through covering the cost of attending the ASA annual meeting. The ASA just adopted an academic boycott of Israel. The American Association of University Professors has rejected academic boycotts of Israel in general, and has rejected the ASA boycott specifically, on grounds of violation of academic freedom. The anti-Israel academic boycott also amounts to discrimination on the basis of national origin as Israeli academics will be subjected to verification procedures not applicable to academics from any other nation. The ASA boycott is pernicious because it includes boycott of programs run by Israeli academic institutions and encourages American academics to police compliance with the boycott. You can find an explantion in my prior post about the boycott.