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
Thank you so much for breaking the silence on campus. Solidarity with Palestine!
This is a disgraceful statement propagating antisemitic lies. That 90 Conn Coll faculty have signed a statement accusing Jews of “Jewish supremacy” is a dark day indeed; Goebbels would be proud to have his trope so widely adopted. I have written a response that I have submitted to the Voice to publish.
Respect !🫡
Blaming Jews for “Jewish supremacy” sounds dark, indeed, when you remember that the very phrase “Jewish supremacy” was used in the title of his book by the most famous US neo-Nazi, David Duke, in his “Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question.” It is telling that extremists on opposite sides of the political spectrum use exactly the same terms to describe Jews.
This.
Thank you for standing up to evil when so much of the country, especially in our formerly great institutions of higher learning, have been brainwashed into supporting vicious, barbaric terrorists. Anyone who says Israel is committing genocide is not only uneducated regarding the Palestinians and their explosive population growth but also ignorant to the history of Israel and the history of the Jews. Shame on these
Protesters who are nowhere near peaceful and deserve to be expelled, fired and/or deported for their constant encouragement of threat and violence against Jews. Shame on Connecticut College and their protection of everyone but the Jews!!
As a parent, I am horrified and saddened by this blatant display of antisemitism. This is not the hallmark of liberal arts college; it is the handiwork of bigots and extremists. Hoping the administration will not only discourage this kind of behavior, but take action.
[…] The following letter was written and submitted by Professor Andrew Pessin and is in response to the Faculty and Staff Statement of Solidarity with Student Protestors: […]
Apparently, None of the signatories understand that the students and faculty in question were arrested for breaking the law, Not for protesting. They also don’t understand that building illegal encampments and excluding other students is not only not peaceful. It precisely meets The United States definition of a violent crime. It’s crazy that any of these people are members and respected given their ignorance or perhaps mendacity.
It is regrettable when faculty members band together to promote falsehoods for political purposes. The use of the police to suppress speech or peaceful assembly is to be condemned, but recent events have shown that the police are the only way to assure the safety and well being of members of the campus community. Faculty and students have no requirement of neutrality, but their freedom of political expression must be protected by institutional neutrality. Students and faculty participating in nonviolent civil disobedience should expect to be arrested and should cooperate with police; police in turn should be courteous and nonviolent in carrying out arrests. The statement above repeatedly violates these principles. It also discounts Jewish history and religious tradition in trying to deny that Zionism has been part of Jewish identity since long before Israel was created as a modern Jewish state. The solidarity statement indulges in antisemitism
This letter, signed by so many faculty, is an embarrassment.
1. Institutions can’t be apolitical? The claim that they can be impartial institutions of learning is at the heart of the idea of academic freedom. If the federal and/or state governments were to intervene–and being a private nonprofit isn’t proof against this happening–and these same profs were to complain about the politicization of higher education, they would be mocked, and rightly so, by everyone other than their comrades.
2. The uncritical use of the term “genocide” as a synonym for “war with heavy civilian casualties–cheapens the term, as horrifying as those casualties are.
3. Student activism is a time-honored tradition? Could be, but student activism, beginning October 8 with a celebration of October 7th, is not a time honored tradition. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to this group of scholars that SJP’s celebration and justification of the October 7th massacre could just as easily be a celebration and justification of a massacre of people they love. The U.S. is, after all, on this analysis, a fascist state considerably more important than Israel in oppression and violence around the world.
4. “The criminalization of nonviolent protesters.” It’s surprising that so many people with Ph.D.s haven’t noticedt that there are numerous crimes that don’t entail violence. Moreover, it is not nonviolent protest if there is a caveat according to which “if the pigs come after us, we’ll fight back.”
Again, who could blame legislators who conclude that if “everything is political,” then the politics of colleges and universities should be theirs, rather than the politics of these people?
The fact that you promote the lie of genocide belies your ignorance and/or bias. Neither suggest you are qualified for a role in education wherein civil discourse and disagreement are important. Instead you use your voice to defend those who’ve violated the rules of society to promote hatred and terror. May history be honest about you all.
I stand with Israel. These protesters are horrible.
Despicable letter! I am sure Sinwar will be delighted to read it. Goebbels would be delighted too. The signatories are Hamas supporters and are proud of it. It doesn’t matter how many signatures you manage to collect, 1000 lemmings! The voice of sanity will prevail!
I believe you lost touch with reality. So many lies and misconceptions. It is so sad to see that coming from people who are educating students. Shame.
As an alum, I am disappointed to read this one-sided statement regarding a complex and long running situation. Where is your condemnation of Hamas? How is shaming and isolating Israel going to promote peace? How do your Jewish students perceive your claims of “Jewish supremacy?”
You say you are “firmly committed to support and encourage the free exploration of ideas without fear of intimidation or censure, most especially for our students.” However, this is a statement lacking nuance and promoting a very stark opinion by a significant portion of the faculty. If I was a student today, this letter wouldn’t invite me into conversation with any of the signatories. Please, do better; your students’ tuition dollars are worth more than this.
I’m stunned to see that members of the faculty and staff at Connecticut College saw fit to write and attach their names to this statement.
You have diminished the value of a Connecticut College degree by showing your ignorance and hypocrisy. If you are their teachers, it’s no wonder young people today are so lost.
Divestment is the way of thugs who seek not to communicate, persuade, or compromise and live in peace, but rather to shut down. A movement to destroy the world’s only Jewish state (and shrug off the lives of millions of Jews in it) is hateful. There is nothing “liberal” about this movement.
This letter is completely disappointing. I’m surprised and outraged.
You are in solidarity with terrorism and lawlessness; what type of lessons are you teaching? Please protect your community and your Jewish students from rash acts of discrimination being pursued by these “protestors” (aka criminals).
I am shocked and saddened that you, as “educators”, can support and spread lies and misinformation. What you are doing is shameful and dangerous!
Please keep standing up for our Jewish brothers and sisters. We are in an existential crisis where these protesters are not protesting, but rather calling for the murder of everyone of us. They want the repeat of a holocaust and we cannot standby and let this hatred continue. Please know that we appreciate everything you were doing.
We stand for Israel and truth and morality. It’s time you do too!
Be on the right side of this- for the sake of humanity and the future for mankind.
I stand with Professor Pessin for speaking truth to ignorance and trying to actually do his job as an educator which is to give students the ability to think critically as to combat the exact kind of mob think and indoctrination we’re seeing. It’s reprehensible and perverse that he is being targeted while those brainwashing students in a not so new take on the world’s oldest hate are hailed as social justice icons.
The college campus protests are anything but peaceful. Molotovs are being hurled as well as many horrifyingly hateful chants such as death to israel, death to Jews. The violence is criminal and defined by harassment and is inducing much fear for personal safety amongst the Jewish student on campus, nationwide . Free speech does not equal hate speech
I stand with Israel
As the child of Holocaust survivors it’s unthinkable that this horrific reality is upon us again
Thank you so much for this — you’ve no idea how much it means since, indeed, I am alone in the darkness surrounded by baying hyenas coming from every direction, and literally the only person willing to speak up. Already I have been attacked several times, last week by a student led defamatory campaign to get me fired and this weekend by chalkings saying “Fuck Pessin” (attached). My complaints to the administration have been met by inaction. There was a rally yesterday and the haters are making growing demands including for divestment. They claim the deans and the trustees are negotiating with them and sympathetic. An encampment is not far off.
Kudos to you for everything you are doing — this is an emergency and we need all hands on deck. If you were so inclined to leave comments (or ask people to leave comments) both on the repulsive faculty letter and my response to it (if you haven’t already) that would be helpful:
https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/05/02/faculty-statement-of-solidarity-with-student-protestors/
https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/05/04/professor-andrew-pessin-registers-objection-to-faculty-and-staff-solidarity-statement/
I don’t know what to do other than keep speaking up — I’m a minority, and only a handful of students have reached out to me so I’m rather at a loss.
glad to be in touch —
Andrew
Andrew Pessin
Professor of Philosophy, Connecticut College
Israel is the least apartheid country and is multicultural and not racist as stated. Arab countries have kicked the Jewish people out and have persecuted them for hundreds of years. Palestinians are allowed to work and thrive in Israel whereas no Israeli person is allowed to set foot in Palestine.
The terrorist organizations have taken foothold in our education system and the protests have not been peaceful if people are blocked from attending and feeling safe.
Know your history!
jewish people:
i want you to remember something.
all those times that we were in the minority,
while civilisations much larger and louder than
us tried to exterminate us:
we did not just survive.
we actually, sometimes much later down the
line, came to be understood as the victims of
hatred.
all those loud majorities, who each in their
own time had waves of support, went down in
history as the real oppressors.
every single one.
hold on to this.
goodness is undeniable, no matter the brush
they paint us with.
the truth will prevail, in time.
Am Israel Chai – Love you!
The ignorance is staggering. It is so difficult to continue to read about the Israeli “apartheid” state or genocide, because both designations are by definition false. Just ask Christian, Muslim, and Druze members of Israel’s government. Just visit Israel!!!! No one that I know claims the Israeli government to be beyond reproach, but the lies are insane. How many of these protestors have spent time in the Middle East? How many have firsthand knowledge (social media clips are not primary documents, friends)? How many would be accepted by Hamas, would be welcome to live their lives the way they currently do, under Hamas. Wake up!!! You are buying into lies hook, line, and sinker. And yes,, I have lived in Israel. Yes, I have Many Jewish and non-Jewish friends in Israel. Yes, I am a leftist, a Democrat.
This is a disgrace. These people will stand as bad examples instead of the role models that they are meant to be. The administration should be ashamed and take action.
Fully terrified that a so-called educated group of professors who teach our children choose to rewrite history to justify the hatred that is being spewed at Jewish students and staff on your campus and many others. We are completed f-ed if our education system is in your hands. Beyond irresponsible and atrocious.
This is a ignorant viewpoint of the current situation laced with inflammatory buzzwords. If you want to end the fighting call for the release of hostages and surrender of a terror group instead of doing their bidding. You claim to be so righteous in a fight for human rights by calling for the complete annihilation of a group that you find to be the oppressor. If you haven’t been then make the trip to Israel and the West Bank and see for yourself rather than shouting from your privileged positions in America. Stand up for American values.
It’s imperative that you stand up and put an end to Jew hatred and protect your students, faculty and Professors.
Thank you so much for this — you’ve no idea how much it means since, indeed, I am alone in the darkness surrounded by baying hyenas coming from every direction, and literally the only person willing to speak up. Already I have been attacked several times, last week by a student led defamatory campaign to get me fired and this weekend by chalkings saying “Fuck Pessin” (attached). My complaints to the administration have been met by inaction. There was a rally yesterday and the haters are making growing demands including for divestment. They claim the deans and the trustees are negotiating with them and sympathetic. An encampment is not far off.
Kudos to you for everything you are doing — this is an emergency and we need all hands on deck. If you were so inclined to leave comments (or ask people to leave comments) both on the repulsive faculty letter and my response to it (if you haven’t already) that would be helpful:
https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/05/02/faculty-statement-of-solidarity-with-student-protestors/
https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/05/04/professor-andrew-pessin-registers-objection-to-faculty-and-staff-solidarity-statement/
I don’t know what to do other than keep speaking up — I’m a minority, and only a handful of students have reached out to me so I’m rather at a loss.
glad to be in touch —
Andrew
Andrew Pessin
Professor of Philosophy, Connecticut College
Thank you for your support and your intelligent voice on your campus and beyond. I wish these so-called college students would wake up and realize where their funds are coming from for their tents flags, etc. Follow the funds to find these Anti-American terrorist organizations before it is too late for America. This is a disgrace to our college campuses.
It’s embarrassing for a group of educated people to lie outright about “peaceful protests” and “free speech.” If by peaceful you mean illegal and violent, and by free speech you mean hate speech and antisemitic rhetoric, maybe you’d be closer to the truth.
When your criticism of Israel is based on propaganda and lies then it is antisemitism.
It’s pathetic to see such an uneducated group of educators who are incapable of independent thought.
Shame on you all!!!
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
Christopher Colbath
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
[…] genocidal attack on Gaza, which is now advancing further south, into Rafah. University teachers are writing collectively signed letters and petitions to administrators, summoning them to respect students’ rights to assembly, expression and activism, insisting they […]
This is a principled and informed stance by a professor who is clearly surrounded by academic mediocrities, but it’s also worth noting that the solidarity statement was signed by Dexter Willett ’20, Assistant Director of Admission [sic]. How can Jewish applicants expect to be evaluated on their merits when the administrator reviewing their materials openly espouses antisemitic ideas about “Jewish supremacy,” a phrase with a long history in fascist and Soviet propaganda? It should be deeply troubling to alums and prospective students alike that an administrator with influence over the future of the college shows himself willing to act in bad faith towards a specific group of applicants based on their perceived ethnicity or cultural identity (and make no mistake: “Jewish supremacy” is code language for all kinds of antisemitic tropes: cunning, tribalism, global capitalism, racial and ethnic otherness, etc.).
In addition to Willett, Zach Street, Director of West Coast Admission, is also a signatory. This suggests that Jewish applicants to the college cannot expect to be evaluated on their merits–and of course that Jews are not welcome to apply in the first place. And, oh, the insolence of thinly-credentialed administrators and managers who, before Oct 7, couldn’t tell you the first thing about Zionism but who now throw around phrases like “Jewish supremacy” with an air of intellectual authority.
How do a group of mostly non-Jewish professors find the nerve to say what is and isn’t an integral part of the Jewish religion? Have they based on their years of Tomic scholarship?
*Talmudic
So happy my daughter chose to attend college next year elsewhere. Conn had been in her top three choices, but if she had ended up selecting this school, we might have had to withdraw. Very frightening. 90 professors- wow. What a disgrace.
Connecticut college should pay attention to Harvards new stance on neutrality. But alas, Connecticut College is no Harvard.
Unbelievable that they could stand in solidarity with only a subset of Jews, yet acknowledge every other minority group. I guess it’s a very selective diversity to which these professors aspire