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More than 1,000 scientists sign petition against AAUP for supporting academic boycotts

An open letter against the American Association of University Professors' (AAU) new stance supporting academic boycotts quickly received over 1,000 signatures from academics and teachers angry about the recent decision.

“We believe the AAUP's new position is wrong and dangerous,” the petition states. “We cannot protect academic freedom by violating it. The normalization of academic boycotts poses a profound threat to academic freedom.”

The protest came after the AAUP, a left-leaning college union, announced on August 9 that it would support academic boycotts, despite maintaining its previous position since 2005 that “the search for truth and free expression suffer under a boycott.”

The long-held position also states that such boycotts “threaten the principles of free speech and communication on which we collectively depend.”

Anna Krylov, a chemistry professor and vice chair of natural sciences at the University of Southern California, wrote on her Substack that the American Association of University Professors was “once a venerable organization” but has “steadily moved toward a radical agenda and abandoned its noble mission of promoting academic freedom.”

She told The College Fix In academic boycotts, individuals are viewed “as representatives of particular groups rather than as free actors responsible for their own actions.”

They “represent an unacceptable interference of politics and partisanship in science. Beyond science, academic boycotts are divisive and contribute to increased polarization and intolerance,” Krylov said by email.

Academic boycotts are often linked to a larger movement called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, which organizes actions against Israel. BDS argued in an Aug. 12 statement that the AAUP's previous opposition to academic boycotts was “racist” and welcomed its reversal.

The faculty group's new statement says boycotts “can be viewed as legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education.” It goes on to say that the “position against academic boycotts has been controversial.”

“Academic boycotts do not in themselves constitute a violation of academic freedom,” it states.

The statement does not say whether recent pro-Palestinian encampments and BDS efforts on college campuses were the reason for the organization's change in stance.

AAUP President and Rutgers University Professor Todd Wolfson speaks openly about his support for the Palestinian cause.

On August 3, he tweeted that the university encampments were “peaceful protests.” He also retweeted a video of Netanyahu's speech to Congress with the words “WAR CRIMINALS.”

Wolfson did not respond to The College Fix Request for comment.

In the two weeks since the AAUP's decision, more than 1,000 professors and university staff have signed the open letter titled “Against Academic Boycotts.”

It states that academic boycotts “must be opposed” because they “deeply contradict the fundamental, animating spirit and values ​​of science” and because they “punish individual scientists for the alleged misconduct of their government and/or their academic institutions.”

“The AAUP does not speak for us. We call on our colleagues to join us in fighting against boycotts of colleagues wherever they live and work,” the letter said.

The Academic Engagement Network also reacted to the AAUP’s new statement with “deep dismay.”

“For nearly twenty years, the AAUP has rightly held that academic boycotts are inconsistent with its mission to protect the academy as a forum for free scientific inquiry,” the organization said. “Academic boycotts inevitably – and unfairly – harm scientists.”

Others, however, are satisfied with the way events unfolded, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group.

“Although the Israeli government is not mentioned in the statement, observers believe the policy change was partly triggered by the Israeli government's ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip,” CAIR said in a press release.

MORE: MIT union ignored Jewish members' objection to Israel boycott: Federal complaint

IMAGE: Screenshot of the website of Against Academic Boycotts

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