Statements on Professor Who Wouldn’t Write Recommendation [incl. the Middle East Studies Association]

The American Association of University Professors’ Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance sent a letter to the University of Michigan‘s president on Tuesday expressing concern that the university did not seem to have followed AAUP standards in punishing a tenured professor who refused to write a letter of recommendation for a student who wanted to study abroad in Israel. The professor, John Cheney-Lippold, cited his support for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions in declining to write the letter.

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The Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom also sent a letter to Cole expressing its concerns about Cheney-Lippold’s punishment. The letter said the committee regarded the “decision to punish Professor Cheney-Lippold for acting on the basis of his convictions and exercising his discretion as a faculty member as a distressing and dangerous violation of his academic freedom.”

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