Trustees of the City University of New York have drafted a resolution condemning professors who criticized U.S. foreign policy at a teach-in this month. Matthew Goldstein, the chancellor, also issued a statement that professors had offered “lame excuses” to justify the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The professors denounced by the trustees had made their statements at an event organized by the faculty-and-staff union, the Professional Staff Congress. Neither the trustees nor the chancellor attended the teach-in, on the City College campus in upper Manhattan. They based their reactions on articles in the New York Post, which quoted Walter Daum, a mathematics lecturer at City College, as telling the 200 people who attended: “The ultimate responsibility lies with the rulers of this country, the capitalist ruling class of this country.”
The newspaper also quoted Bill Crain, a psychology professor at City College, as saying he wanted “peace, not war,” and adding, “Our diplomacy is horrible.”
Two trustees drafted a resolution to be considered at the board’s October 22 meeting. The draft, a copy of which the trustees made available to The Chronicle, calls the professors’ statements “outrageous” and says they have, “with their selfish, tasteless, and unjustified conduct, brought shame to the City University of New York.”
Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld, one of the trustees who drafted the resolution, said it was “self-indulgent” of the speakers to have expressed their sentiments so near the scene where thousands lost their lives in the destruction of the World Trade Center. Mr. Wiesenfeld said he feared that the professors had damaged the university’s reputation. He acknowledged that the trustees could not fire the professors, but declared, “They have the invitation to take a hike.”
Mr. Goldstein, the chancellor, said in his statement that it was important not to compromise “the free exchange of ideas.” But he said he had “no sympathy for the voices of those who seek to justify or make lame excuses for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with arguments based on ideological or historical circumstances.”
“There are no excuses for deliberate actions taken to kill innocent people,” he said.
Mr. Crain, the psychology professor, said in an interview that the newspaper had distorted some professors’ remarks, including his own. He said he had read a poem at the teach-in. “I said U.S. alliances have shifted. We support one person, and then another, but the constant is violence. We need to address that and work for peace.”
Mr. Daum said that he had been quoted accurately, but that he had been trying not to justify the attacks, but to explain what may have led to them. “In no way am I sympathetic to what was mass murder,” he said.
Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Congress, said there is a difference between studying the attacks and excusing them. She noted that the union itself had passed a resolution before the teach-in, condemning the attacks. The union’s resolution also called for CUNY to be “a safe harbor for people and ideas.”
http://chronicle.com Section: The Faculty Page: A11
