Editor’s note: This petition by faculty and students at the University of Michigan was sent to University President Mark Schlissel, Provost Martin Philbert and interim LSA Dean Elizabeth Cole this morning.
We are writing as concerned members of the UM community in response to Dean Elizabeth Cole’s letter to Professor John Cheney-Lippold outlining disciplinary measures. We are also disturbed by the covert politicization of teaching and service evidenced in President Mark Schlissel’s and Provost Martin Philbert’s letter to the campus. Under the guise of separating political commitments from our role as educators, the university administration has taken a clear political stance against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Irrespective of faculty positions regarding BDS, the President, Provost and Dean’s disciplinary actions threaten academic freedom and have had a chilling effect on workplace morale. Rather than debating the merits of an important political issue of our time, the university has taken a side, and disparaged pro-BDS students, staff and faculty.
We stand in solidarity with others who have already expressed their disagreement with the administration. We agree with UM Professor Juan Cole, who wrote that it is not “the place of a university administration to coerce faculty or other instructors’ conscience on these issues, which are much more complex than they seem to realize.” We agree with Stanford University Professor David Palumbo-Liu, who wrote, “disciplining faculty who refuse to write letters opens up the possibility that universities will be turned into pawns of ideologically-driven organizations who target professors critical of their views.”
We stand with graduate students who have stated that such disciplinary measures set “an alarming, worrying and dangerous precedent for impinging on the protected political speech and action of employees of the University.”
We stand with signers of the Change.org petition who assert that such disciplinary actions promote the corporatization of education and thus trivialize our work as educators by “bypassing the educational mission of the university (…) and turning professors into simply service providers.”
The University of Michigan has always stood firm on the issues of academic freedom enshrined in the faculty handbook. We remain committed to this tradition and to educating thoughtful critical thinkers and citizens. We call on the administration to refrain from any disciplinary actions against graduate student Lucy Peterson and to drop the actions against Professor John Cheney-Lippold. We call on the University to include diverse voices in the new panel the provost has created to examine the intersection between political thought/ideology and faculty members’ responsibilities to students. We call on the University to affirm our shared institutional commitment to academic freedom.
Signed,
Samer Ali, Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies, UM-Ann Arbor
Evelyn Alsultany, American Culture, Ann Arbor
Sascha Crasnow, Residential College, Ann Arbor
Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, American Culture
Deirdre de la Cruz, Department of History, University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Victor Mendoza, Women’s Studies and English, UM Ann Arbor
Kate Jenckes, Romance Languages and Literatures, Ann Arbor
Anton Shammas, MES, UM Ann Arbor
Dr. Savithry Namboodiripad Linguistics/LS&A UMich Ann Arbor
Manan Desai, American Culture and Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies, UM Ann Arbor
Alan M. Wald, English and American Culture, U-M Collegiate Professor Emeritus (Ann Arbor Campus)
Karla Mallette, Global Islamic Studies Center, U-M Ann Arbor
Zoya Zalatimo, Middle Eastern Studies, Ann Arbor Campus
J Carlos de Los Santos/RLL, Ann Arbor
Evyn Kropf, University Library, Ann Arbor
Farah Kader, International Studies, UM Ann Arbor
Melissa Phruksachart, Dept. of Film, Television, and Media, Ann Arbor
Sergio Villalobos, RLL
Ian Watts, Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering
Silan Fadlallah, Student LS&A, Ann Arbor
Bushra Habbas-Nimer
Mar Freire Hermida, Romance Languages and Literatures, Ann Arbor
Howard Brick, Department of History, UM, Ann Arbor
Sally Howell, Center for Arab American Studies, UM-Dearborn
Joshua Akers, Social Science, UM-Dearborn
Angie Achkar, Undergraduate Student
Hani Bawardi, SSCI/HIST&AAST, UM-D
Kevin Kobelsky, College of Business, Dearborn
Dennis D. Pollard, Romance Languages, Ann Arbor
Antoine Traisnel, Departments of English and Comparative Literature, UM Ann Arbor
Michael Lempert, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, American Culture/Romance Languages, LSA, Ann Arbor
Pam Pennock, College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, UM-Dearborn
Clare Croft, Dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Kristin Poling, Social Science Department, UM-Dearborn
Jalal, LSA, Ann Arbor
Andrew Shryock, Anthropology/LSA, Ann Arbor
Daniel Andrew Birchok, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, University of Michigan-Flint
Elizabeth F.S. Roberts, Anthropology, LSA
Daniel Nemser, Romance Languages and Literatures, UM-Ann Arbor
Bruce Pietrykowski, Social Sciences/CASL, UM-Dearborn
Sara McClelland, Women’s Studies & Psychology, Central Campus
Nayli Ma, Asian Studies and Biology, Ann Arbor
Katherine L. French-History-UM Ann Arbor
Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Management Studies, UMD
Janice Molloy, Management Studies, Dearborn
Reem Khatib, LSA, UM Campus
David Skrbina, LPA/Philosophy, Dearborn
Maria Ulayyet, LSA, UM Ann Arbor
Mary Kelley, Departments of History and American Culture, UM, Ann Arbor
Faith Sparr/Communication Studies
Lisa Martin, College Wide Programs, UM-Dearborn
Fatma Müge Göçek, Sociology/LS&A, UM Ann Arbor
Suzanne Bergeron, University of Michigan Dearborn
Juan Cole, History, University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Anna Watkins Fisher, American Culture, UM Ann Arbor
H. Erdem Cipa, History & Middle East Studies, Ann Arbor
Paolo Squatriti/History, Ann Arbor
Osman Khan, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor
Roi Livne, Sociology, Ann Arbor
Nancy A. Khalil, American Culture/AMAS, Ann Arbor
Saquib Ali Usman, Anthropology, Ann Arbor
Will Glover, History, Ann Arbor
Rima Hassouneh/Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies & the Center for Southeast Asian Studies/UM-Ann Arbor
Muniba Saleem/Communication Studies
Holly Hughes, Professor, Stamps School of Art and Design, Theater and Drama and Women’s Studies
Rebekah Modrak, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor
Andrew Herscher, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, UM Ann Arbor
Javier Sanjines, Romance Languages and Literatures, UM Ann Arbor
Rifaat Dika, Department of Language, Culture, and Communication-Dearborn
Margaret K Willard-Traub, LCC, UM-Dearborn
Rashmi Luthra, Department of Language, Culture and Communication, College of Arts, Sciences and Letter, University of Michigan-Dearborn campus
Lara Rusch, Dept. of Social Sciences, UM-Dearborn
Rose Wellman, Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn Patrick Beauchesne, Behavioral Sciences/Anthropology, Dearborn
Brian McKenna, Behavioral Sciences, Anthropology
Dr. Maya Barak, Criminology and Criminal Justice, UM-Dearborn
Peggy McCracken, Romance Languages, Women’s Studies, and Comparative Literature, Ann Arbor
Stavroula Kyriazis, Ford School of Public Policy
Giorgio Bertellini, Film, Television, and Media
Holly Hughes, Professor, School of Art and Design
Ian Shin, History & American Culture, Ann Arbor
Maria Cotera, American Culture and Women’s Studies
Khaled Mattawa, English, Ann Arbor
Peggy Lee, American Culture, Ann Arbor
Charlotte Karem Albrecht, American Culture, Women’s Studies, Ann Arbor