Inquiry at Muhlenberg

An AAUP committee of inquiry report on Muhlenberg College, published online in April, deals with the administration’s action in winter 2024 to dismiss Maura Finkelstein, a tenured associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. The action was initially triggered by an equal opportunity investigation into a student complaint stemming from Finkelstein’s October 12, 2023, class discussion about the October 7 events in Israel and Gaza, in the context of ongoing class discussions of issues related to Palestine, as well as a January 17, 2024, social media repost related to Zionism.

The report concluded that the administration, in initially dismissing Professor Finkelstein from the faculty solely because of one anti-Zionist repost on Instagram, acted in violation of AAUP-supported principles and standards of academic freedom and due process. It further concluded that the administration’s hasty action, facilitated by the monitoring and dissemination of Finkelstein’s social media posts by administrators and staff of the campus chapter of Hillel International, a Jewish student organization, has severely impaired the climate for academic freedom at Muhlenberg College. The report also found that the college’s equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policies, developed by outside consultants, do not sufficiently protect academic freedom and due process, nor do they comport with widely accepted standards of academic governance.

A brief afterword discusses the national context in which Professor Finkelstein’s case occurred and its continued importance for the academic community. The afterword canvasses the proliferation of campus protests around the country against the US government’s support for Israeli government actions in response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, which resulted in escalated demands by donors, legislators, and well-funded political organizations that administrations crack down on what could be said or expressed on campus. It observes that disciplinary actions against faculty members for their speech or conduct related to the war in Gaza appeared to increase in the months following October 7. Noting that Finkelstein’s dismissal was an especially egregious case, the report cautions that it would be naive to assume that her case was unique or that it will be the last of its kind. The weight of a repressive academic environment, the report opines, is much more likely to be felt by contingent faculty members. The addendum also details some of the numerous faculty cases that made the news in 2024.

The report warns that faculty members are not the only ones at risk. President Trump’s January 2025 executive order “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism” calls for institutions to “monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff” and for “ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.”

Highlighting the rapid escalation in the uses and abuses of Title VI and equal opportunity policies on campuses, the report makes several important procedural recommendations. It closes by emphasizing the critical importance of sound policies and appropriate faculty oversight.