arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

The following statement in defense of academic freedom is being circulated by concerned faculty members. If you would like to endorse the statement, please send your name, academic position and affiliation, and contact information
to academicfreedomnow@hotmail.com. Non-academic endorsers are also welcome.

We hope to publish the statement as a full page ad in the New York Times and possibly other media outlets with the names of hundreds or thousands of
endorsers. The cost will be many thousands of dollars. If you would like to make a contribution towards the cost of publishing the statement, please send a check to:

Center for Economic Research and Social Change
P.O. Box 258082
Chicago, IL 60625

Mark your check "Academic Freedom Ad".

Please contact the email address above if you have any questions or comments.

--------------------------------------------------
---------------------

To fellow teachers and staff members:

In the crisis precipitated by the terrible events
of September 11, members of academic communities
across the U.S. have participated in teach-ins,
colloquia, demonstrations, and other events aimed
at developing an informed critical understanding
of what happened and why. Now that the U.S. is
waging war in Afghanistan, such acitivites are
continuing.

Unfortunately, some participants in these events
have been threatened and attacked for speaking
out. Trustees of the City University of New York
are planning formal denunciations of faculty
members who criticized U.S. foreign policy at a
teach-in during the first week in October. There
have been similar efforts to silence criticism and
dissent at the University of Texas at Austin,
MIT, the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst,
and elsewhere. AAUP director of public policy Ruth
Flower told the Boston Globe on October 6, "We're
watching these developments with a lot of
concern."

Attacks on faculty who have questioned or
dissented from the Bush administration's current
war policy have coincided with other ominous
developments. Colleges and universities are being
pressured by agencies of the federal government to
hand over confidential information from
studentfiles. And there are moves in Congress to
limit visas for students from abroad.

We call on all members of the the academic
community to speak out strongly in defense of
academic freedom and civil liberties, not just as
an abstract principle but as a practical
necessity. At a moment such as this we must make
sure that all informed voices-especially those
that are critical and dissenting-are heard.

Anatole Anton
Professor of Philosophy, San Francisco State University

Dana Cloud
Associate Professor of Communication, University of Texas at Austin

Donna Flayhan
Assistant Professor of Communication & Media Studies, Goucher College

Phil Gasper
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Notre Dame de Namur University

Richard Gibson
Associate Professor of Social Studies, San Diego State University

William Keach
Professor of English, Brown University

Tom Lewis
Professor of Spanish, University of Iowa

Edward Said
University Professor, Columbia University
----------------------------------

Dr. John Drury
Lecturer in Social Psychology
Social Psychology Subject Group
University of Sussex,
Arts E Falmer BRIGHTON BN1 9SN

Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun
Professeur à l'Université Paris 7-Denis Diderot
tel/fax: 33(0)1 44 27 78 57

Blandine DESTREMAU - 55 bis rue Pierre Brossolette - 93360 NEUILLY PLAISANCE
Tél: 00 (33) 1 43 00 06 56 - 06 77 80 28 48 - Fax: (00 33) 1 43 09 96 24

Maria Karamessini
Assistant Professor,
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens