2023-12-11 22:30:22
“The Ivy League mask is falling,” said a Wall Street Journal editorial on Sunday. “The Ivy League is failing,” was the title of a column in the New York Times. Since the questioning in the Republican-led Congressional Education Committee, the chairmen of the US elite universities have been accused of not having taken a decisive enough stand against anti-Semitism.
During the survey, all three presidents – Claudine Gay (Harvard), Liz Magill (University of Pennsylvania) and Sally Kornbluth (MIT) – admitted anti-Semitic incidents. When MP Elise Stefanik asked the presidents whether the “call for genocide against the Jews” at their universities violated policies on bullying and harassment, the widely criticized statements came.
APA/AFP/Kevin Dietsch Claudine Gay (Harvard), Lucy Magill (University of Pennsylvania) and Sally Kornbluth (MIT)
Call for genocide: fuss about “context” sayers
“That may be the case, depending on the context,” responded Harvard President Claudine Gay. Asked to respond “yes” or “no,” Gay again said it depends on the context. The other presidents made similar statements. The argument: Universities are committed to free expression.
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an association of eight universities: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Pennsylvania and Yale. They are among the most prestigious in the world and rank among the top 20 universities in the USA. MIT is not one of them, but it is equally respected.
This also applies to views that are offensive, insulting and hateful. “When speech turns into behavior, it can be harassment,” Magill said. She also added: “It is a contextual decision.”
The right to expression has a special status
Later, Magill – who has been under fire since September – released a video in which she said she had focused too much of the hearing on the principle that free speech alone is not a crime, as it is in the constitution. But it should have focused more on the irrefutable fact that the call for genocide against the Jewish people was a call for one of the most horrific acts of violence that a human being could possibly commit.
In the USA, the right to freedom of expression is regulated in the First Amendment of the Constitution and has a special status. Compared to Austria, this law is interpreted more broadly. For example, it is permitted to display a swastika flag. The way we deal with hate speech is also different.
Gay apologized for her statements in an interview with the university newspaper The Harvard Crimson on Friday. “In that moment, I should have had the presence of mind necessary to return to my truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats against our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard and will never go unchallenged,” she said.
USA: Hearing on anti-Semitism at universities
Representative Elise Stefanik asked the presidents whether the “call for genocide against the Jews” at their universities violated guidelines. “That may be the case, depending on the context,” responded Harvard President Claudine Gay. The other presidents made similar statements. The argument is that universities are committed to free expression, including views that are offensive, insulting and hateful.
University director quits after harsh criticism
The first consequences came at the weekend: Magill resigned from her position. The move was preceded by strong criticism from politicians and major donors: an important donor to the University of Pennsylvania withdrew a donation of around 100 million US dollars (around 93 million euros) and demanded his resignation. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called Magill’s comments unacceptable and shameful.
Criticism also came from the White House. On Friday, more than 70 members of Congress also called on the governing bodies of Harvard, Penn and MIT to fire the presidents. MIT President Kornbluth has since received support from her university’s board of trustees.
The situation of Harvard President Gay, who recently found herself repeatedly confronted with criticism from major donor and Harvard graduate Bill Ackman, is less clear. A petition in support of Gay is said to have been signed by hundreds of the approximately 2,300 faculty members, the New York Times reported. According to the US newspaper, faculty members also spoke out against political pressure.
Opinion: “Undermining basic American principles”
Commentators, however, are giving elite universities a devastating report: “The reality is that many universities today espouse views that undermine classical liberal values and basic American principles,” says an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal. “Tolerance for anti-Semitism is an ugly example, but the problem lies deeper and requires urgent attention,” the newspaper said.
Penn professor Claire Finkelstein wrote an editorial in The Washington Post calling for restricting free speech to protect students and urging university presidents to reconsider “the role that open expression and academic freedom play in the educational mission.” .
Criticism of influence by politicians and major donors
The ongoing debate in the USA is not just about how to deal with anti-Semitism and freedom of expression, but also about the influence of politicians and wealthy private individuals. “What you’re seeing now is a handful of super-ultra-wealthy individuals – plutocrats you might call philanthropists – having an incredible influence on higher education,” Isaac Kamola, a professor at Trinity College in Connecticut, wrote in the Financial Times ” quoted.
Anger at academic elite as a factor?
Observers also see calculations on the part of the Republicans: Elise Stefanik, questioner and supporter of former President Donald Trump, used the rhetoric of a “great exchange” during the 2021 election campaign, wrote “Spiegel”. “The right-wing hatred of the academic elite is huge,” it says.
“Why the university presidents didn’t simply answer ‘yes’ is probably due to the distinction between freedom of expression and the code of conduct at universities. “This means that anything can be said as long as it does not threaten individuals,” says “Spiegel”.
“It’s hard to take Stefanik’s side, given that she embodies the Republican Party’s grotesque transformation into an insane Trump cult, but she was right to nail the prevaricating presidents,” the NYT columnist commented Maureen Dowd.
Ministry of Education launched an investigation
The dispute over the conflict in the Middle East has also erupted at universities and schools in the USA in recent weeks. US media reported incidents of physical violence or threats thereof. Anti-Semitic and racist graffiti appeared on school grounds. Videos circulating online showed young people tearing down posters with photos of the Hamas hostages.
The US Department of Education had initiated investigations into anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents at US educational institutions – including Harvard, and the elite universities Columbia and Cornell.
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