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Edward Said’s Action Protected, Says Columbia
When a photographer captured Columbia University professor Edward Said in the act of hurling a rock from the Lebanese border into Israel last summer, some professors and students at Columbia, outraged by his behavior, called on the university to rebuke Said. They suggested that his action, if it had taken place on campus, would have violated university rules of conduct. Others defended Said’s right to free expression. Although Columbia officials initially kept silent on the matter, in October they answered a request for clarification from the Columbia College student government.
Clarification came in the form of a statement supporting Said’s right to express himself as he did. In it, Jonathan Cole, provost and dean of faculties, said that "there is nothing more fundamental to a university than the protection of the free discourse of individuals who should feel free to express their views without any fear of the chilling effect of a politically dominant ideology." Cole opined that more was at issue than the question of Said’s throwing a stone, since the debate would not have been as persistent or as heated were it not for Said’s "well-known political views." Said has been an outspoken critic of Western and Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
Cole denied that Said had received preferential consideration because he is a University Professor, the highest academic rank at Columbia. "Each of our faculty members has the same protections, no more, no less, than Professor Said," Cole said, adding that the recent controversy reaffirmed his belief that real value remains in the original purpose of academic tenure.
"Universities can face strong pressure when freedom of expression is attacked," says AAUP associate secretary Jonathan Knight. "Cole’s defense of a professor’s right to hold forth on issues outside the classroom and his affirmation of the importance of the university’s judging a professor’s speech and conduct according to its standards and not those of the external community are laudable." At its November meeting, the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure commended Cole’s action.
Cole said that he had not issued his statement sooner because Columbia’s position with regard to freedom of expression is well known. "We do not believe in a speech code at Columbia, nor shall we act as a speech police," Cole said in his statement.
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