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Faculty and Staff Statement of Solidarity with Student Protestors

Faculty and Staff Statement of Solidarity with Students and Colleagues Across the Nation

The undersigned Faculty and Staff at Connecticut College stand in solidarity with our colleagues
and students across the nation who have been subjected to arrests, violence, and repression.
We echo the national Faculty for Justice in Palestine positions that state:

1. Institutions of higher education have never been apolitical spaces, and choosing to
remain neutral in the face of a genocide is, itself, a political position.

2. Criminalizing students for peaceful protest demonstrates these institutions’ deplorable
commitment to the repression of academic inquiry and the shackling of critical thought.

3. Student activism, and student protest in particular, is a time-honored social and political
tradition in the United States.

4. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent spate of arrests of peaceful
student activists, faculty, and staff at Columbia, Barnard, Emory, UTAustin, Princeton,
Northeastern, Emerson, USC, and many more. These students assembled on campus
property to voice their opposition to institutional study abroad programs in Israel that
violate college nondiscrimination policies; college and university investments in U.S.
companies that produce weapons for sale to Israel; and Israeli companies that develop
surveillance and policing technologies deployed to advance the ongoing genocide of
Palestinians.

5. The criminalization of nonviolent student protesters constitutes a willful and cynical
flouting of the mission of universities as speech havens, where the strong protections of
academic freedom must apply and be upheld. It also gravely impacts the criminalized
students’ careers and sustenance, contributes to the moral panic that conflates criticism
of Israel with antisemitism and terrorism, and reinforces the rise of the new McCarthyism
across society.

6. Policies for the future protection of speech, including and especially dissent are vital to
the functioning of educational institutions.

7. Divestment is a tried and true political strategy. Faculty play a crucial role in supporting
student demands for universities and colleges to divest from companies supporting
Israeli state violence, genocide, apartheid, and occupation.

We also stand in solidarity with Israeli organizations and activists who oppose Israeli apartheid
and Jewish supremacy such as Shoresh. At Connecticut College in particular, we are firmly
committed to combating any form of racism, including anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism,
Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-Blackness, and white supremacy. We are also firmly committed
to combating all forms of oppression, including caste hierarchies and those targeting sexuality,
trans and non-binary gender identification, and disabilities of any kind.
We strongly reject any claim by our administration that a critique of Zionism is antisemitic or that
Zionism is ”part of Jewish shared ancestry and religion” (email on “Public Inquiry and Freedom
of Expression Policy Interpretation Guidance”) rather than a historically constructed political
reality. We are firmly committed to support and encourage the free exploration of ideas without
fear of intimidation or censure, most especially for our students. We are also committed to
pursuing transparency in our own institution’s investments.

Faculty Statements of Support for Student Protestors and other relevant statements:
● UT Austin – Statement from Concerned Faculty
● UT Austin Faculty Response to Police Violence
● Columbia University AAUP Letter
● Columbia University Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine Call for Boycott of
Commencement
● Columbia University Apartheid Divest Divestment Proposal
● Letter to Boycott Columbia signed by thousands
● Columbia & Barnard AAUP condemnation of student suspensions and NYPD sweep
● AAUP Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students
● FJP Statement About Campus Repression
● AAUP Statement, Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom: Redefinitions of
Antisemitism and Racism
● AAUP Statement, Polarizing Times Demand Robust Academic Freedom
● CUNY Statement on the Arrests
● UPenn Statement on Suppression of Student and Faculty Dissent
● NYU Letter from Chairs and Directors
● University of California Support for Nonviolent Protest
● Washington University Faculty Response
● Vanderbilt University Faculty Letter to Administrators
● Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network Chapters

Afshan Jafar
Sheetal Chhabria
Caroleen Sayej
Chris Steiner
David Dorfman
Julia Flagg
Denise Pelletier
Mara Suttmann-Lea
Luis Gonzalez
Eileen Kane
Sufia Uddin
Mays Imad
Monika Lopez-Anuarbe
Tristan Borer
Manuel Lizarralde
Heidi Henderson
Marc Zimmer
Andrew Lopez
Kris Klein Hernandez
Bridget Pupillo
Tim McDowell
Daniel Moak
Paola Sica
Laura Little
Mark Stelzner
Cherise Harris
Jennifer Rudolph
Greg Bailey
Matt Swagler
Dean Accardi
Lisa Race
Ryan Persadie
Karen Pezzetti
Ari Rotramel
Marie Ostby
Ron Flores
Rashelle Litchmore
Rosemarie Roberts
E. Carla Parker-Athill
Ayako Takamori
Chris Barnard
Nadav Assor
Karen Buenavista Hanna
Virginia Anderson
Eric Fleury
Amanda Barnes
Andrea Lanoux
Shawn Hove
Jenifer Ishee
Maria Rosa
Sana Abdi
Rachel Gaubinger
Sabrina Notarfrancisco
Rachel Black
Claire Benedict
Hisae Kobayashi
Ruth Grahn
Joseph Alchermes
Leo Garofalo
Harper Shalloe
Kendell Coker
Petko Ivanov
Katherine Du
Jillian Marshall
Bailey Rodgers
Michelle Dunlap
Mohamed Diagne
Sunil Bhatia
Matteo Pace
Lina Wilder
Denis Ferhatovic
Laura Todorov
Megan Griffin
Jennifer Bennett
Alex Gianninas
Zach Street
Shani Collins
Dexter Willett
Joseph Schroeder
Suzuko Knott
Taylor Desloge
Michelle Neely
Michael Reder
Catherine Benoit
Andrea Wollensak
Steve Luber
Monica Henry-Seifert
Alexis Robbins
Kenneth Prestininzi
James Austin

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