The universities and colleges below are confirmed to reject the academic boycott of Israel passed by the American Studies Association.
This list is based on positions expressed by the Presidents of such Universities or others in a position to state a university’s position (e.g., communications staff). We are aware of no university in the U.S. endorsing the boycott. See University statements rejecting academic boycott of Israel. (Note added: For University Systems, we only list individual schools separately if there is a separate statement or some other individual agreement to the system statement, so this list significantly understates the number of universities rejecting the boycott.)
This is a list in progress and will be updated as more announcements/confirmations are made. If you have additions, please post in comments with source link or forward confirming emails to me.
Associations:
- American Council on Education (1700+ Higher Ed Institutions)
- Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (216 Universities and University Systems)
- Association of American Universities (62 Universities)
- American Association of University Professors (Approx. 48,000 members)
- American Psychiatric Association
- Middle East Studies Association (stands by 2005 rejection of academic boycotts)
- Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
- Maryland Independent College & University Association
- The Royal Society (Britain)
Universities Rejecting Boycott
- American University (D.C.)
- Amherst College
- Andrews University
- Arizona State University
- Auburn University
- Bard College
- Barnard College
- Bates College
- Birmingham Southern College
- Boston University
- Bowdoin College
- Brandeis University
- Brooklyn College, CUNY
- Brown University
- Bryn Mawr
- The California State University System
- California State University – Northridge
- Capitol College (MD)
- Carnegie-Mellon University
- Case Western Reserve University
- Catholic University
- City University of New York
- City University of New York – The Graduate Center
- Clark University
- Clemson University
- Cleveland State University
- Colby College
- Colgate University
- College of Charleston
- College of the Holy Cross
- College of Mount St. Joseph
- College of New Jersey
- College of William & Mary
- College of Staten Island
- Colorado College
- Colorado State University
- Columbia University
- Connecticut College
- Cornell University
- Dartmouth College
- DePaul University
- Dickinson College
- Drake University
- Drexel University
- Duke University
- Eckerd College
- Elon University
- Emory University
- Fairfield University
- Fairleigh Dickinson University
- Florida Atlantic University
- Florida International University
- Florida State University
- Fordham University
- Franklin & Marshall College
- George Mason University
- George Washington University
- Georgetown University
- Georgia Institute of Techology
- Gettysburg College
- Goucher College
- Gratz College
- Hamilton College
- Harvard University
- Haverford College
- Hobart and William Smith Colleges
- Hofstra University
- Hood College (MD)
- Hunter College
- Indiana University
- Iowa State University
- Ithaca College
- Johns Hopkins University
- Kansas State University
- Kean Universityof New Jersey
- Kenyon College
- Lafayette College
- Lawrence University
- Lehigh University
- Liberty University
- Louisiana State University System
- Los Angeles Community College District
- Louisiana Tech University
- Loyola University Maryland
- Maryland Institute College of Art
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- McDaniel College
- Miami University – Ohio
- Michigan State University
- Middlebury College
- Mississipi State University
- Missouri University of Science and Technology
- Montclair State University
- Mount St. Mary’s University
- Muhlenberg College
- Ner Israel Rabbinical College (MD)
- New Jersey City University
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- New York Medical College
- New York University
- North Carolina State
- Northern Arizona University
- Northeastern University
- Northeastern Illinois University
- Northern Illinois University
- Northwestern University
- Notre Dame of Maryland University
- Nova Southeastern University
- Oberlin College
- Occidental College
- Ohio State University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Philadelphia University
- Pomona College
- Portland State University
- Princeton University
- Purdue University
- Ramapo College
- Regent University
- Rhode Island College
- Rice University
- Richard Stockton College
- Rider University
- Rockefeller University
- Roger Williams University
- Rowan University of New Jersey
- Rutgers University
- St. John’s College (MD)
- St. Lawrence University
- St. Mary’s Seminary and University (MD)
- San Francisco State University
- Sarah Lawrence College
- Sewanee: The University of the South
- Seton Hall University
- Simmons College
- Skidmore College
- Smith College
- South Carolina State University
- Southern Methodist University
- Stanford University
- State University of New York (SUNY) System
- State University of New York – Buffalo
- Syracuse University
- Stevenson University
- Swarthmore College
- Temple University
- Thomas Edison State College (NJ)
- Touro College and University System
- Towson University
- Trinity College (CT)
- Tufts University
- Tulane University
- Union College
- University of Alabama System
- University of Akron
- University of Arizona
- University of California System
- University of California-Berkeley
- University of California-Davis
- University of California-Irvine
- University of California – Los Angeles
- University of New Hampsire
- University of California – Riverside
- University of California-San Diego
- University of California – San Francisco
- University of California – Santa Barbara
- University of California – Santa Cruz
- University of Central Florida
- University of Chicago
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Colorado System
- University of Colorado – Boulder
- University of Connecticut
- University of Delaware
- University of Denver
- University of Florida
- University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents
- University of Hartford
- University of Houston
- University of Hawaii – Mānoa
- University of Illinois System
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- University of Illinois at Springfield
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- University of Iowa
- University of Kansas
- University of Kentucky
- University of La Verne
- University of Louisville
- University of Maryland
- University of Maryland – Baltimore County
- University of Massachusetts – Amherst
- University of Massachusetts – Boston
- University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth
- University of Massachuetts – Lowell
- University of Massachusetts Medical School
- University of Miami
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota
- University of Mississippi
- University of Missouri System
- University of Missouri – Columbia
- University of Missouri – Kansas City
- University of Missouri – St. Louis
- University of Nebraska (all campuses)
- University of New Mexico
- University of Nevada – Las Vegas
- University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
- University of North Dakota
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Oregon
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Rhode Island
- University of Rochester
- University of South Carolina
- University of South Dakota
- University of South Florida
- University of Southern California
- University of Texas-Austin
- University of Texas-Dallas
- University of the Incarnate Word
- University of Tulsa
- University of Utah
- University of Vermont
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington
- University of Western Ontario
- University of Wisconsin – Madison
- Ursinus College
- Utah State University
- Vanderbilt University
- Vassar College
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Virginia Polytechnic University
- Wake Forest University
- Washington Adventist University
- Washington College (MD)
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Wayne State University
- Webster University
- Wellesley College
- Wesleyan University
- West Virginia University
- Western Kentucky University
- William Paterson University
- Willamette University
- Williams College
- Wright State University
- Xavier University
- Yale University
- Yeshiva University
Termination of memberships – Many if not most Universities are leaving the decision to terminate Institutional Membership up to individual American Studies Departments. We can confirm that the following have terminated or will not renew membership:
- Bard College (source)
- Brandeis University
- Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
- Indiana University
- Kenyon College
- Penn State Harrisburg
- University of Texas-Dallas
- University of Utah (source)(source)
Deny Membership – The following are listed by ASA as Institutional Members, but deny that they are in fact members (via email confirmations or external links):
- Brown University
- Carnegie-Mellon University
- Hamilton College
- Northwestern University
- Temple University
- Trinity College (CT)
- Tufts University
- University of Alabama (source)(source)
- University of Mississippi (source)
- University of Southern California
- Willamette University
Miscellaneous
- Trinity College Profs issue letter rejecting anti-Israel academic boycott
- ASA-Awarded Scholars Denounce Israeli Boycott, Call For Revote (Text of Letter here)
- An Open Letter to the American Studies Association from Middlebury American Studies Program
- 134 House Members sign letter against academic boycott of Israel
- Statement of Elon University American Studies Department
- CUNY Faculty Senate Executive Committee opposes ASA’s Israeli university boycott and legislative threats to academic freedom
- Philadelphia City Council condemns anti-Israel academic boycott
- California Chapter of ASA refuses to apply anti-Israel academic boycott
- Progressive Academics Establish Council to Combat Academic Boycotts and Defend Academic Freedom
Contact information for many ASA Institutional Members is located in the comments at Reader crowdsourcing project to fight American Studies Assoc anti-Israel boycott.
The American Studies Association TAG is the link for all of our posts on the current boycott.
Thanks to Avi Mayer as a source for some of this list.
(Featured Image – Jerusalem Shrine of the Book, home of Dead Sea Scrolls)
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Comments
Thanks for all the great work, Professor.
Can I ask why BU and Princeton are listed? The BU president only rejected the idea of the boycott and left the question of membership up to the New England and American Studies program. Last I heard from people in contact with her, Nina Silber, the program director, said their membership is up for renewal, and they have not made a decision about it yet.
And didn’t Eisgruber, the Princeton president, say he would not condemn the ASA? Did the American studies department at Princeton take a different stand?
Also, as an alumnus of a Duke graduate program, I am wondering about Duke’s mention on the list here. I thought that Duke does not have an American studies program and that it did not even have membership to the ASA. Did it condemn or reject the boycott anyways? That would be a welcome surprise given the administration’s sad response to anti-Zionsim and anti-Semitism during the ’04-’05 school year. Would be great to hear if they have improved.
Both Presidents rejected the boycott. Membership in ASA by the American Studies Departments is a different question. I think University Presidents should take the lead on that, but the reality of academic turf on many campuses is that University Presidents may be hesitant to prevent a department from joining an organization. But that doesn’t diminish that the university rejects the boycott.
Thanks. I don’t want to quibble about the meaning of “reject,” but since my family has connections to these schools I mentioned I have been following their responses in particular. It seems to me that the statement you posted from Princeton went out of its way to avoid rejecting the boycott, while only expressing personal disapproval of the notion of such a boycott. My Princeton alumni family members don’t consider that a rejection.
Hopefully, through your good work here, Princeton will change its stance and affirmatively reject or at least denounce the boycott without qualification, regardless of its ASA membership status.
A complimentary and more pointed response to this ill-conceived boycott is for ALL ALUMNI TO DIRECTLY CONTACT THEIR ALMA MATERS and mention the need for the Board of Trustees to understand that continued alumni support requires an assertion of academic integrity and courage by the administration. And what might in the future indirectly influence the ASA and other ‘boycotters’ to revisit their postures would be to include a message to our school Presidents along these lines:
“The only realistic way to influence the ASA and future associations considering such a policy is for academic institutions themselves to deny faculty funding for participation in programs sponsored by those organizations, who overstep their mission-focus and repudiate open channels of scholastic exchange . I explicitly wish to know what your official policy will be for providing travel money for faculty to the future ASA meetings:
• 2014: November 6-9: Westin Bonaventure- Los Angeles, CA
• 2015: October 8-11: Sheraton Centre- Toronto, Canada
• 2016: November 17-20: Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center.
Since all colleges and universities face budget constraints, I hope the appropriate deans and chairs at your school will consider very carefully any requests by members of the ASA to
attend future meetings of that organization, given the priorities of your limited funding. As we well know, it is crucially important for centers of higher learning to prioritize their spending. I and others do not think that sending faculty on junkets to Los Angeles and so forth for ASA meetings is appropriate— since their organization is obviously more interested in politics than academics.”
Harvard is on that list? — America’s leftist hate factory?
Must be a typo.
I suggest they “drop” their membership – unless they want to be known as being a part of the new KKK.
We need a list of the schools who have not actively renounced the ASA boycott of Israel so some friendly public taxpayer heat can be applied. It will soon be an election year.
Key thing is that this will be a long push. The boycott vote result was announced just last Monday, and many universities and administrators already were on the way out for Christmas/New Year’s break. I think this list is pretty good considering it’s been only a few days and the last week of the semester.
Israel should boycott all archeology !& theology & history departments from the offending institutions . Throw the cat amongst the pigeons & let them duke it out .
Isreal would have to be one of the safest modern archeology study destination . Nowe where staff& students can actually have some fun,
What is that picture at the top of the article?
(Featured Image – Jerusalem Shrine of the Book, home of Dead Sea Scrolls)
Are you sure about Cornell? They can talk a good game, but until I see proof that they’ve pulled their membership and stopped giving money to the ASA I would consider Cornell’s statement to be on par with a snake oil salesman.
A “statement” rejecting the boycott is not enough:
1. Universities make dishonest statements all the time.
2. What is needed is punishment of the boycotters. Cut off their funding, for starters.
A number of these institutions–Cornell, Harvard, Michigan State, UT Austin–are on both lists, as “institutional members” of the ASA (https://legalinsurrection.com/2013/12/how-can-these-u-s-universities-justify-membership-in-american-studies-association-after-israel-boycott/) and those who have “rejected” (whatever that means) the boycott. Are they trying to have it both ways–supporting both vilification of Israel AND academic freedom? I’m with “pst314,” statements are not enough. If they really object to the boycott, they must withdraw from the ASA, as Brandeis and Penn State Harrisburg have done. (I have written to my own alma mater, Stanford, on this subject.)
It might help to know that colleges and universities might be listed as “institutional members” simply because the American studies department pays for the journal ($170 per year) out of department funds. To say that this makes the institution itself an institutional member seems to me a stretch on the part of the ASA, a bid to enhance legitimacy where none actually exists. That might explains why some universities are rejecting the ASA claim that they are institutional members. I am proud that the Indiana University president, Michael McRobbie, affirmatively condemned the boycott and withdrew IU’s affiliation as of this morning. And I certainly hope that the MLA is sitting up and taking notice of the widespread condemnation that the ASA is receiving.
It’s not clear what ASA is doing. I delved into the process in connection with my communications with Willamette. A subscription alone, ordered through Johns Hopkins Press, should not result in an Institutional Membership, which is an entirely different category. You get the Journal with the membership, but you don’t need the membership to get the Journal.
Just reporting what a friend and colleague (and former chair of the Asmerican Studies Department at IU) told me.
You may want to list minimal requirements for these official statements to be considered genuine. If you look at the one issued by University of California San Diego, for example (see below), it is telling that neither the name of the ASA (except in the title of the press release) nor the name of Israel appear in their official declaration. Then compare it with the one issued by the University of Chicago (also below), where the ASA is oddly enough not mentioned at all, but at least it refers to opposing the boycott against “Israeli institutions”. To be listed as truly rejecting the boycott, such declarations of principles should include both components.
______________________
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/chancellors_statement_re_american_studies_association_resolution
UC San Diego Chancellor’s Statement re: American Studies Association Resolution
UC San Diego was founded by scholars dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge through collaboration, unfettered discussion and open inquiry. The collaborations forged with scholars around the world contribute to our prominence as an international leader in public higher education.
We affirm the right of the faculty to advance their scholarship and research through open dialogue with academic colleagues in all countries. UC San Diego faculty collaborations draw on richly diverse ideas and views around the globe, including in the Middle East. Excluding scholars limits discussion and conflicts with the University of California’s highest aspirations.
Pradeep K. Khosla
Chancellor
http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/12/22/university-statement-academic-boycotts
______________
University statement on academic boycotts
December 22, 2013
On December 22, 2013, the University of Chicago released the following statement on the subject of academic boycotts:
“The University of Chicago has from its founding held as its highest value the free and open pursuit of inquiry. Faculty and students must be free to pursue their research and education around the world and to form collaborations both inside and outside of the academy, encouraging engagement with the widest spectrum of views. For this reason, we oppose boycotts of academic institutions or scholars in any region of the world, and oppose recent actions by academic societies to boycott Israeli institutions.”
[…] List of Universities rejecting academic boycott of Israel is growing rapidly. These two announcements are significant because they involve withdrawals of […]
I see NYU. Where is CUNY?
I wonder if one could get all eight Israeli Universities to condemn it. It is an unfortunate fact that some of the most ardent proponents of the academic boycott are professors at Israeli Universities, and they have legal protection here in Israel.
PS – At least some of the statements – UM, for example – are not wishy-washy. A few of them mention three organizations that have done this thing – besides ASA and AAAS, what is the third one?
[…] schools or all-black fraternities — are inherently discriminatory, by this logic, which is how the American Studies Association justifies boycotting Israel, making the Jewish nature of the Israeli state analogous to […]
If there is any doubt that the ASA and the BDS movements’ claims are simply anti-Semitic canards read an Al-Monitor article contributed by Asmaa al-Ghoul a female journalist located in Gaza. Ms. al-Ghoul reports that academic censorship, capricious disciplinary action including imprisonment for anyone daring to criticize the PA, Hamas, or Fatah, and the use of student spies by the Palestinian University Security Administration and its clandestine services are rampant. here is the link to the article: (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/gaza-academics-universities-increasing-restrictions.html). The question to be answered is “What is the ASA position on Palestinian abuse of power, corruption and its nationalization of college campuses?” And, why is the ASA not focusing on the American values that are the foundation of the academic freedom they enjoy?
A complimentary and more pointed response to this ill-conceived boycott is for ALL ALUMNI TO DIRECTLY CONTACT THEIR ALMA MATERS and mention the need for the Board of Trustees to understand that continued alumni support requires an assertion of academic integrity and courage by the administration.
And what might in the future indirectly influence the ASA and other ‘boycotters’ to revisit their postures would be to include a message to our school Presidents along these lines:
“The only realistic way to influence the ASA and future associations considering such a policy is for academic institutions themselves to deny faculty funding for participation in programs sponsored by those organizations, who overstep their mission-focus and repudiate open channels of scholastic exchange . I explicitly wish to know what your official policy will be for providing travel money for faculty to the future ASA meetings: • 2014: November 6-9: Westin Bonaventure- Los Angeles, CA • 2015: October 8-11: Sheraton Centre- Toronto, Canada • 2016: November 17-20: Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center.
Since all colleges and universities face budget constraints, I hope the appropriate deans and chairs at your school will consider very carefully any requests by members of the ASA to attend future meetings of that organization, given the priorities of your limited funding. As we well know, it is crucially important for centers of higher learning to prioritize their spending. I and others do not think that sending faculty on junkets to Los Angeles and so forth for ASA meetings is appropriate— since their organization is obviously more interested in politics than academics.”
[…] had individually or on behalf of their institutions denounced the ASA boycott, according to an online count. The ASA stance has also come under withering assault in a slew of op-ed pieces and blog posts […]