PSCcuny/ Professional Staff Congress / City University of New York Visit our website at http://www.psc-cuny.org OFFICERS Barbara Bowen President Steven London First Vice President
Trang 1PSCcuny/ Professional Staff Congress / City University of New York
Visit our website at http://www.psc-cuny.org
OFFICERS
Barbara Bowen
President
Steven London
First Vice President
Arthurine DeSola
Secretary
Michael Fabricant
Treasurer
George Brandon
Jonathan Buchsbaum
Penny Lewis
Costas Panayotakis
Michael Spear
University-wide Officers
Robert Cermele
Vice President Senior Colleges
David Hatchett
Blanca Vazquez
Alex Vitale
Senior College Officers
Anne Friedman
Vice President
Community Colleges
Lorraine Cohen
Sharon Persinger
Felipe Pimentel
Community College Officers
Iris DeLutro
Vice President
Cross Campus Units
Alan Pearlman
Andrea Vasquez
Paul Washington
Cross Campus Officers
Marcia Newfield
Vice President
Part-Time Personnel
Michael Batson
Susan DiRaimo
Steven Weisblatt
Part-Time College Officers
Bill Friedheim
Eileen Moran
Retiree Officers
Irwin H Polishook
President Emeritus
Peter I Hoberman
Vice President Emeritus
Cross Campus Units
STAFF
Deborah E Bell
Executive Director
Naomi Zauderer
Associate Executive Director
Faye H Alladin
Coordinator,
Financial Services
Debra Bergen
Director, Contract Administration &
University-wide Grievance Counselor
Deirdre Brill
Director, Organizing
Ida Cheng
Assistant to the President
Fran Clark
Communications Coordinator
Barbara Gabriel
Coordinator, Office Services &
Human Resources
Brian Graf
Organizing Coordinator
Jared Herst
Coordinator, Pension & Health
Benefits
Peter Hogness
Editor, Clarion
Renee Lasher
Coordinator, Contract Administration
Albert Muñoz
Coordinator, Contract Administration
Kate Pfordresher
Director, Research & Public Policy
Arsenia Reilly
Coordinator, Contract Administration
and Outreach
Diana Rosato
Coordinator, Membership
Peter Zwiebach
Director, Legal Affairs
American Federation of Teachers Local 2334 New York State United Teachers New York State AFL-CIO American Association of University Professors New York City Central Labor Council
February 5, 2013 Congressman Jerrold Nadler Congresswoman Yvette Clarke Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez Congressman Hakeem Jeffries
NY City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
NY City Comptroller John Liu
NY City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz
NY State Senator Kevin Parker
NY State Senator Daniel Squadron
NY State Assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs
NY State Assemblyman Karim Camara
NY State Assemblyman James Brennan
NY State Assemblywoman Joan Millman
NY State Assemblyman Walter Mosley
NY City Councilman Brad Lander
NY City Councilman Stephen Levin
Mr William Thompson Dear Elected Officials:
I write as president of the union that represents the faculty and professional staff at the City University of New York—a union whose collective bargaining agreement begins with a commitment
to academic freedom On behalf of the 25,000 professors and staff in the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, I call on you to retract your call for the Brooklyn College Political Science Department to withdraw its co-sponsorship (which you mis-label “endorsement”) of the forum on Israel scheduled at the College for February 7
Your letter attempts to veil a direct challenge to academic freedom as a defense of academic freedom Academic freedom, as defined in the most influential statement of the principle, is “the
indispensablequality of institutions of higher education [It is] the free search for truth and its free exposition.” Academic freedom is not “balance”; it is not the requirement that departments support only forums that advocate equally strongly for two “sides,” as you misleadingly put it, of an issue; it is not a requirement that departments insist that student organizers accept “legitimate offers from prominent individuals willing to simultaneously present an alternative view.” Would you demand that a forum on evolution accept an offer from “a prominent individual” to argue for creationism?
Would you write a letter insisting that a forum organized by the NRA include an advocate for gun control?
Academic freedom is precisely the freedom to express a position even when that position is deeply unpopular By voting to co-sponsor a forum that is expected to advocate for policies that have engendered intense opposition (such as the proposal that Israeli universities be boycotted—a position the PSC is on record as opposing), the Political Science Department is exercising academic freedom and supporting free speech Neither the College nor the Department has done anything to prevent the organizing of forums expressing opposing points of view Most dangerous of your distortions is the demand that Brooklyn College “must stand firmly” against the decision of its Political Science Department It is not clear what is meant by that demand, but any action against the faculty for their
Trang 2exercise of academic freedom would be an assault on the University as a whole and a violation of the contract with the union The demand should be immediately retracted
The strategy of your letter is to conflate the views of individual speakers with the views of the
Department or the College You worry that by co-sponsoring the forum the Department sends “the message to the world that the divisive perspective offered by the organizing groups is Brooklyn College’s official view.” You suggest, outrageously, that by allowing the forum to be held the
College has decided to “take sides and [refused] to permit all voices to be heard.” The College has done nothing of the kind In her letter to the Brooklyn College community on January 28, 2013, President Karen L Gould explicitly refutes the conflation you make:
Unfortunately, some may believe that our steadfast commitment to free speech signals an institutional endorsement of a particular point of view Nothing could
be further from the truth Brooklyn College does not endorse the views of the speakers visiting our campus next week, just as it has not endorsed those of previous visitors to our campus with opposing views
A college president who stands up for academic freedom at CUNY—where academic freedom has come under repeated assault in recent years—should be applauded by “progressive” politicians, not bullied We appreciate that many of you have spoken up in the past for resources for CUNY, but the progressive position would be to defend academic freedom at the City University, and defend it fiercely Progressive elected officials would insist, as the PSC does, that CUNY students, no less than students at elite private universities, are entitled to a university where “the indispensable quality
of institutions of higher education”—academic freedom—is maintained We invite you to join us in that position; we call on you immediately to withdraw the demands of your letter and to communicate
to the Brooklyn College community your support for President Gould's position
Yours sincerely,
Dr Barbara Bowen
President, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY
cc: Dr Karen L Gould, President, Brooklyn College
Dr Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor, City University of New York
Dr Paisley Currah, Chairperson, Political Science Department, Brooklyn College
Dr Rudy Fichtenbaum, President, American Association of University Professors Professional Staff Congress/CUNY