The U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor was criticized for penalizing an instructor who refused to write a letter of recommendation for an Israel-bound student.
The battle over faculty members’ letters of recommendation and students’ rights at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has attracted two heavyweights.
On Monday the American Political Science Association wrote in defense of Lucy Peterson, the second instructor at Michigan known to have refused to write such a letter for a student applying to study in Israel.
On Tuesday the American Association of University Professors stepped in at the request of John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor of American culture, who preceded Peterson in doing so.
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U. of Michigan
The U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor was criticized for penalizing an instructor who refused to write a letter of recommendation for an Israel-bound student.
The battle over faculty members’ letters of recommendation and students’ rights at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has attracted two heavyweights.
On Monday the American Political Science Association wrote in defense of Lucy Peterson, the second instructor at Michigan known to have refused to write such a letter for a student applying to study in Israel.
On Tuesday the American Association of University Professors stepped in at the request of John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor of American culture, who preceded Peterson in doing so.
Michigan barred Cheney-Lippold from a merit raise this academic year and from sabbaticals for two years. The AAUP criticized those actions, which were outlined in a letter to Cheney-Lippold from Elizabeth R. Cole, interim dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
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Meanwhile, events in Israel reignited the broader controversy over the campaign to boycott Israeli universities. In early October, Israel detained an American graduate student who previously led the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-boycott organization. She entered Israel on a student visa to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Associated Press reported.
At Michigan, said the AAUP, Cole did not appear to follow AAUP standards in disciplining Cheney-Lippold. The standards recommend that a faculty committee make an informal inquiry before imposing “severe sanctions.”
Since the mid-2000s, the AAUP has generally opposed academic boycotts. But Michigan’s stance “appears to misrepresent AAUP-supported standards of academic freedom,” the organization wrote in a letter to the university’s president, Mark S. Schlissel.
“If the facts as we have recounted them are essentially accurate,” the letter continued, “we urge that the sanctions imposed on Professor Cheney-Lippold be rescinded” pending the recommended inquiry.
‘Questions of Procedural Fairness’
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The American Political Science Association argued in a letter that while professors have a reasonable obligation to support students, Michigan’s actions raise “serious concerns” as well as “questions of procedural fairness.”
The reprimands “also give at least the appearance of pressuring instructors to conform to the university’s position on what the university has itself termed not only an issue of university values but also a matter of political belief,” the association continued. “Imposition of an institution’s political beliefs on its instructors undermines the core principles of academic freedom.”
The group has not formally endorsed the academic boycott of Israel, as have some others, such as the American Studies Association, with which Cheney-Lippold has been affiliated.
“We will respond to the senders directly,” a Michigan spokesman said, referring The Chronicle to the university’s October 9 statement.
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Debates about the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, as the academic boycott’s umbrella effort is known, have been frequent at Michigan. Cheney-Lippold’s and Peterson’s decisions have drawn praise and criticism. A recent academic presentation drew accusations of anti-Semitism. Last year the university’s Board of Regents rejected students’ call to divest from Israel-affiliated companies.
Last week professors at other institutions told The Chronicle that they’re not aware of university policies concerning letters of recommendation or how political or moral positions may affect a faculty member’s obligations to a student.
Faculty members in general, as well as the political-science association, want more clarity from such policies. Michigan’s “vague, unspecified, and changing norms … were not adequately conveyed in advance,” wrote the association.
Michigan is assembling a group of academics to consider the “intersection” of politics and faculty members’ responsibilities to students. The association has commended the university for that effort, adding that it believes in the university’s commitment to academic freedom.
Steven Johnson is an Indiana-born journalist who’s reported stories about business, culture, and education for The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic.
