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Doron Ben Atar's avatar

The MESAAS department has been a hotbed of antisemitism for decades. It has nothing to do with scientific research of course.

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Paul Miller-Melamed's avatar

Another great, and inestimably important, substack David, as was your piece in the Chronicle. Did you see this letter from the historian (and Yale PhD) Matt Connelly at Columbia to the president of Yale. He's an ally in the fight. All good wishes to you and your family, Paul

Dear President McInnis (and dear affiliates of the late, great International Security Studies program):

When I was lucky enough to be a Ph.D. student at Yale, I never considered the possibility that the U.S. government would threaten classmates with deportation simply because they opposed U.S. foreign policy. I never had to worry that a president would warn he would not "tolerate" a university that refused to help round up students, or threaten to cut all student financial aid at a university if professors did not stop teaching certain interpretations of American history. I know that there has been too much conformity and groupthink in academia. But even at its most extreme, the forces of "political correctness" never tried to send anyone to Gitmo, and did not vow to "destroy" non-conforming institutions.

At ISS, we learned to think strategically, in terms of ends and means. If our goal is to defend the independence and excellence of higher education in America, we cannot let Trump make an example of Columbia, to intimidate every other institution. Instead, we need to be forming alliances, and marshalling all our resources. So may I ask, with all due respect, when will Yale -- and other colleges and universities -- begin to support Columbia, and present a united front?

Sincerely,

Matt Connelly, Ph.D. '98

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matthew Connelly

Professor of History

Columbia University

www.matthewconnelly.net

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