Responses to September 11, 2001

Committee A Issues Statement

The Association's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, holding its autumn meeting close to two months after the despicable mass murders and destruction inflicted by terrorists on September 11, reviewed the reactions to the tragedy on college and university campuses. Committee A is aware of a few disturbing lapses in which the exercise of academic freedom encountered hostility that threatened to impede the free expression of ideas. Overall, however, the committee was pleased to observe that the quality of the discussion and debate, the commendable degree of interest, and the civility shown by members of the higher education community in the philosophical and moral issues of concern have boded well for academic freedom and thus the pursuit of the common good. Still, unsettling events in the aftermath of September 11, in this country and abroad, may well be with us for some time, putting continued respect for academic freedom to a severe test. Committee A, like all of us in higher education, will need to maintain a close watch on the situation. In the words of one university president, "It is incumbent upon universities and their leaders to protect the freedom to assemble and debate, explore questions, and test ideas. That can be difficult in a time of stress and pain, but it is never more important."

Teach-Ins Help Campuses Deal with Terror Attacks

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, news outlets carried reports of professors being disciplined for their responses to the tragedy and of Muslims (or those mistaken for Muslims) being harassed or assaulted on campuses and elsewhere. Less widely reported were the teach-ins held at many colleges and universities to help faculty, students, and administrators educate and learn from one another. A few such teach-ins led to conflicts, including one at the City University of New York and one at the University of Rhode Island.

At URI, disagreements between professors making presentations at a teach-in became hostile and spilled over into the local newspaper and onto a faculty senate e-mail list. Some professors charged that political conservatives were underrepresented at the teach-in, which they said had been dominated by antimilitary views; others disputed these charges and characterizations of their presentations as antimilitary.

But most campus teach-ins represented academia at its best, providing forums for campus community members to assemble, explore difficult questions, and debate ideas. At George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, about 150 students, faculty, and staff participated in a teach-in held shortly after the September attacks. Professors whose academic specialties run the gamut from civil liberties to the Central Intelligence Agency to Middle Eastern studies spoke for a few minutes each before opening the floor to questions, says Jon Gould, a speaker at the event.

"This was a time when people didn't know what to do or think," says Gould. "We tried to help people make sense of what had happened, and we also viewed it as a teaching moment, an opportunity to make real the abstract concepts we discuss in the classroom." Gould, a professor of public and inter-national affairs, spoke about the potential tradeoff between security and civil liberties following the attacks. "We often want to think that some 'other' will be the target of police searches," says Gould. "Now it's potentially all of us. Does that, or should that, change our view of privacy rights?"

At Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, academic departments offered responses informed by their unique strengths and perspectives. Members of the women's studies program, for example, assembled links on a Web site to statements by women and women's groups about the events of September, and the religion department sponsored a series of lectures on topics including religion and violence and the rise of radical Islam.
The English department held a teach-in that, like other such events, drew a crowd. "I think the turnout spoke to people's need to get together and talk about what is going on," says Kristie Allen, the event's moderator and a graduate student in the department.

One graduate student panelist talked about his father, who was killed in the World Trade Center. A professor gave a historical overview of Afghanistan and its role in Russian and American foreign policy. Another talked about the West's response to Islamic religion and culture and about her personal experience as a Lebanese American. Other panelists spoke about the media's role in presenting information to the public and about the public's desire for information and military action.

"Real disagreements between presenters and between audience members were discussed openly," says Anthony Lioi, assistant director of the department's writing program. "In times of crisis, people are tempted to suppress disagreement in the name of solidarity, but discussing differences is critical to the search for an ethical response to what happened on September 11."

City University Teach-in Draws Fire

A teach-in at the City University of New York triggered strong reactions from the university's chancellor and trustees after a New York Post article characterized it as a "peacefest" run by "blind, stupid, or intellectually dishonest" academics. Post writer Andrea Peyser complained that the forum was dominated by speakers who looked to the history of capitalism, colonialism, religious conflict, and class divisions for answers about why the terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, and that it included speakers who opposed U.S. military action in Afghanistan.

Several faculty members named in the article subsequently received hate mail, including death threats. But more disturbing to some was the lack of support from university officials. After reading the article, CUNY's chancellor, Matthew Goldstein, issued a statement on university letterhead denouncing "those who seek to justify or make lame excuses for the attacks . . . based on ideological or historical circumstances." Two members of the board of trustees also issued statements denouncing the teach-in, which neither they nor the chancellor had attended.

Faculty members involved with the teach-in objected strongly to the Post's characterization of it, which they said misquoted some speakers, took the remarks of others out of context, and virtually ignored the multiplicity of views represented.

"The teach-in was organized in order to give students an opportunity to learn about the crisis, both nationally and internationally," says Marina Fernando, a professor who moderated the event in her capacity as the director of the City College of New York's International Studies Program. "I wish the chancellor had checked to verify the accuracy of the Post's comments about it. A videotape was available, and members of the administration attended the teach-in."

"We felt strong pressure not to continue to hold teach-ins," says Gary Benenson, chair of the City College's Professional Staff Congress (PSC) chapter, which sponsored the event (PSC is affiliated with the AAUP). "The atmosphere can only be described as chilling to academic freedom and free speech."

Happily, most colleges and universities in the United States have risen admirably to the occasion, says Mary Burgan, the AAUP's general secretary. "We have heard of very few incidents wherein academic freedom may have been threatened, and many, many instances wherein faculty, administrators, and students joined together for meaningful discussions of what happened, why, and ways in which the U.S. government might respond." A view from the library of the City University of New York's Borough of Manhattan Community College, which is adjacent to the World Trade Center site. The library overlooks cranes loading twisted steel and pulverized matter from the wreckage of the trade center onto barges in the Hudson River.

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