Regarding Jill S. Schneiderman’s July 5 Sunday Opinion essay, “Standing up to a boycott of ideas”:
In stating that academic efforts to boycott Israel are harmful to students, Ms. Schneiderman misunderstood the motivations for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and the impact it has on her campus. BDS is a boycott of institutions complicit in 21st-century colonialism and human rights violations, not, as Ms. Schneiderman claimed, a boycott of ideas. Efforts to block her trip were not the result of political differences between Israel and the students involved but an acknowledgment of those crimes.
BDS efforts at Vassar College have stimulated discussion on a previously unexamined issue. Many of the students she claimed were pressured to drop her course attended meetings of Students for Justice in Palestine, listening and contributing to discussion of our organization, the trip and BDS. Ms. Schneiderman may fail to understand why BDS is necessary or she may ignore it. But BDS does not harm students; efforts to shut it down do.
Jesse Mills, Wells, Maine
The writer is a member of the Vassar College chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
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Vassar College professor Jill S. Schneiderman’s sad tale epitomized the extraordinarily deep crisis now afflicting U.S. colleges. Beyond bloated bureaucracies, eye-popping price tags and frivolous course offerings, a reign of intellectual tyranny has descended upon them, thrusting a veritable dagger at the very heart of their missions. The slightest deviation from politically correct attitudes can bring down the full force of the academy — activist students, radical faculty and craven administrators — upon any unfortunate dissenter.
Any sympathy for Israel is particularly suspect and punished. The caricatures of Israel and its actions are off the mark. So much for “nurtur[ing] intellectual diversity” and “respectful debate.”
Ms. Schneiderman is to be applauded for her courageous stand against such intellectual bullying. How fortunate, too, are her students. Unfortunately, far too many others are now having their minds not only shut but also securely bolted.
