University President Lee Bollinger said he opposes a recent boycott of Israeli universities by the American Studies Association in a statement released Friday.
“I reject the ASA’s position which would compromise an essential value of universities in an increasingly global society—and we look forward to continuing Columbia’s long history of engagement with our peers from Israel,” Bollinger said in a statement.
Bollinger added that he has made his opposition to such boycotts “emphatically clear over the years,” citing a letter he authored in 2007, which was signed by 400 other academics, in opposition to the British University and College Union’s call to boycott Israeli universities.
“To be sure, it is entirely appropriate for our campuses to provide a forum for discussion and debate about the policies of any government, including our own,” Bollinger said. “But the ASA’s vote runs counter to this essential academic and political freedom and, taken to its logical conclusion, would necessarily result in boycotts of fellow scholars and peer institutions from many nations around the world.”
The American Studies Association, an academic organization focusing on scholars of American culture and history, called for a boycott during a Dec. 15 annual meeting to protest “the illegal occupation of Palestine, the infringements of the right to education of Palestinian students, and the academic freedom of Palestinian scholars and students in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel,” according to the organization’s website.
Of the association’s approximately 5,000 members, 612 have signed a petition to support the boycott as of Friday. Columbia has a number of professors that are members of ASA—though it’s unclear how many support the organization’s boycott. Other Columbia professors have also supported similar resolutions in the past.
The Association for Asian American Studies first adopted the boycott in April. The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association also announced its support for the boycott on Dec. 15.
Bollinger’s statement follows other university presidents who have denounced the boycott.
A New York Times article published Thursday quoted Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust, who said, “Academic boycotts subvert the academic freedoms and values necessary to the free flow of ideas, which is the lifeblood of the worldwide community of scholars.”
The article also quoted Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth as saying that declaring “institutions off limits because of their national affiliations” is an affront to academic freedom.
Brandeis University and Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, dropped their memberships from the association earlier this month.
Seffi Kogen, GS/JTS ’14 and outgoing president of Columbia/Barnard Hillel, said he supports Bollinger’s opposition.
He said that the boycott is “absurd, especially when one takes into account the fact that the strongest critics of problematic Israeli policies are often precisely those scholars the ASA’s resolution seeks to censure.”
In the past, activism from Hillel, Students for Justice in Palestine, and LionPAC and calls for divestment from Israel have led to heated debates on campus.
SJP did not respond to requests for comment.
