What’s New
Tufts University on Tuesday walked back a statement from the chair of its political-science department, who had vowed to stop facilitating students’ internships with a Democratic congressman over his recent comments on transgender athletes.
The Details
The conflict began on Thursday, when Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts criticized the Democratic Party’s stance that transgender students should be able to participate on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Moulton said he believed it contributed to the party’s decisive loss in last week’s election.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” he told The New York Times. “I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
Those comments sparked backlash on social media and a complaint from David Art, the political-science chair at Tufts. According to phone logs provided to The Chronicle by Moulton’s office, Art told one of Moulton’s interns on Friday that “he consulted with his colleagues and doesn’t want our office to contact Tufts about internships and they won’t facilitate internship opportunities for students with us.”
Art told a columnist for The Boston Globe that he “definitely said other things in addition to that” during the call. According to the columnist, Art was “evasive” about what exactly he told Moulton’s office, but said that “he emphasized the need for Moulton’s office to clarify its stance on Title IX.” (Art did not respond on Tuesday to The Chronicle’s phone calls requesting an interview or an emailed list of questions.)
Patrick Collins, a Tufts spokesperson, told The Chronicle in an emailed statement that “we have reached out to Congressman Moulton’s office to clarify that we have not limited — and will not limit — internship opportunities with his office.” He added that the university “will continue to provide students with a wide range of employment opportunities across the political and ideological spectrum.”
The Backdrop
The department’s attempt to cut ties with Moulton’s office on political grounds comes as scholars debate the use of academic boycotts to make collective moral statements. Recently, professors have grappled with whether to boycott partnerships with Israeli universities and scholars as Israel carries out strikes on Gaza that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Republican legislatures in states like Florida, Tennessee, and West Virginia have in recent years limited or banned participation by transgender athletes on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
The Biden administration finalized federal Title IX protections based on gender identity earlier this year, but the regulations have been blocked in over two-dozen states and at hundreds of colleges by court rulings. Separately, Biden’s Education Department proposed Title IX regulations that would prevent colleges from categorically banning transgender athletes from certain teams. The department said the athletics rule would be finalized in early 2025, but the incoming Trump administration is likely to nix it.
Trump has promised to roll back the Biden administration’s protections for transgender students “on day one” of his second term. He said last month that he will “absolutely stop” transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
The Stakes
Moulton said in an emailed statement that the backlash to his comments “has only served to reinforce my original point” that Democrats are “out of touch” with voters.
“They condemned not just my ideas, but denounced even having this debate,” Moulton said. “This is the wing of our party that pushes people away and makes them fearful to speak up, and it’s why the ‘surprising’ number of people that voted for Donald Trump should be no surprise at all.”
Asked about the Tufts department’s clash with Moulton, Robert L. Shibley, special counsel for campus advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said that colleges are not obligated to adopt “blanket refusals to interact with outside employers” as official policy.
“Cutting off students’ access to educational opportunities for political reasons, whether through boycotts or through refusing cooperation with employers, is incompatible with the open, liberal system on which academic freedom depends,” Shibley said.
