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The Committee on Academic Freedom for the Middle East Studies Association of North America sent a letter Monday to Syracuse University leadership criticizing the university’s “failure to respond to a pattern of egregious threats.”

MESA’s letter — addressed to Chancellor Kent Syverud, Provost Gretchen Ritter and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Behzad Mortazavi — condemned SU administrators for failing to uphold their commitment to academic freedom and to defend faculty sharing their “scholarly expertise” on the Israel-Hamas war.

“The failure of Syracuse University’s leadership to speak out clearly and publicly against these threats is an abdication of professional and academic responsibility,” the letter reads. “Intentionally or not, your silence conveys the message that you countenance the harassment to which they have been subjected.”

The letter also called out the university’s decision to cancel a Middle Eastern studies scholar teach-in and to bar faculty members from using university communications channels to address the Israel-Hamas war.

MESA specified two instances in which SU faculty members were “specifically targeted for harassment and threat of physical harm.”

In an email statement to The Daily Orange, a university spokesperson said Syverud and Ritter addressed concerns related to the Israel-Hamas war during a Wednesday University Senate meeting.

“The University has received many communications from outside organizations and individuals with deeply held perspectives calling on the University to take any number of actions,” the spokesperson wrote.

MESA, a nonprofit association founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and education on the
Middle East and North Africa, advocates for academic freedom and opposes anti-Muslim racism, antisemitism and discrimination based on gender and sexuality, according to its website.

In March 2022, participating members of MESA voted in favor of a resolution calling for a boycott, divestment and sanction of Israel as a means of “holding the government accountable for ongoing human rights violations.”

Aslı Ü. Bâli, president of MESA and professor at Yale University, and Laurie Brand, chair of the committee and a professor emerita at the University of Southern California, wrote the open letter to SU administrators.

The MESA Committee on Academic Freedom has written similar letters to officials at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University and New York University since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, calling out academic freedom decisions.

MESA called on the university to denounce harassment experienced by faculty members and to reiterate SU’s commitment to protecting the university community and defending academic freedom and the right of free speech for university members.

At least one or more students recorded an unnamed faculty member’s remarks made in class without permission before circulating the video online, according to the letter. In the letter, MESA argues that distributing the video was “clearly” done with the intent of targeting the faculty member.

MESA also pointed out a change.org petition — which calls for the removal of Women’s and Gender Studies Department Chair Himika Bhattacharya — that came in response to the WGS department issuing a “statement of solidarity.”

In its statement, the WGS department denounced “escalating Israeli military attacks on Palestinians in Gaza” and affirmed its commitment to “Arab, Palestinian, Muslim, Jewish and allied students and organizations” whose views have been “silenced and erased” from classroom and academic spaces. The department also “unequivocally” condemned antisemitism.

The petition said the WGS statement demonstrated “an alarming level of antisemitism, inciting hate rather than promoting understanding about the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.”

In an email statement to The D.O., Bhattacharya wrote she was unfairly singled out by the petition, which she claimed “generated racist and anti-immigrant language, false accusations, defamatory remarks, hate mail, and violent threats against (her).”

The petition has over 7,400 signatures as of Wednesday at 11 p.m.

A week after the WGS released its statement at an Oct. 25 University Senate meeting, Ritter said that while faculty do have the right to share opinions on the Israel-Hamas war, discussing the topic over university channels “creates an unfair power dynamic” that could “make some students feel unwelcome, unsafe or unsupported.”

During Wednesday’s University Senate meeting, Syverud said the university is prioritizing student safety “over academic freedom and free speech,” while Ritter confirmed SU is still exercising academic freedom. SU plans to drop any bias complaints filed against faculty in classrooms, Ritter added.

The letter also criticized the decision by Ritter and Syverud to cancel a Middle Eastern studies scholar teach-in. Syverud and Ritter in an Oct. 31 campus-wide email cited “safety concerns” in SU’s decision to cancel the teach-in, which was scheduled on the same day. MESA claims the concerns with safety “have yet to be substantiated.”

As of 11 p.m. on Wednesday, MESA did not immediately respond to The D.O.’s request for comment on if the university had responded to its letter.

In Wednesday’s University Senate meeting, Ritter clarified administrators decided to cancel the teach-in because one of its organizers contacted the university about safety concerns, specifically saying they had received threatening messages.

The letter argued higher education institutions like SU are the place for ranging perspectives to be expressed and debated, especially in light of the war.

“We also note that your failure to speak out forcefully in defense of academic freedom emboldens various individuals and organizations with a political agenda to weaponize allegations of antisemitism in order to disparage and silence people with whom they disagree,” the letter reads.

Published on November 16, 2023 at 12:04 am

Contact Dominic: dcchiapp@syr.edu | @DominicChiappo2