The authors of an open letter responding to President Laura Rosenbury’s October 26 email have invited members of the Barnard and Columbia communities to add their signatures.

Since at least yesterday, an open letter has been circulating the university community in response to President Rosenbury’s October 26 email, which announced a number of changes to Barnard’s security and hate speech policies. While the origin of the letter is unknown, the first sentence attributes it to “faculty of Barnard and Columbia,” and its authors invited Barnard and Columbia faculty, students, staff, and alumni to sign before its intended release time of 12 pm Monday. Rosenbury’s email was sent on Thursday, October 26 to Barnard students and faculty following the appearance of “doxing trucks” on campus.

The open letter, which amassed over 650 signatories, has since been published, but is still accepting new signatures. Among the existing signatories are a number of prominent scholars on Barnard and Columbia’s faculty, including Professor of Anthropology Nadia Abu El-Haj, whose own open letter to President Rosenbury was publicized by Students for Justice in Palestine on October 28. The full text of the October 30 letter can be found below.

Entitled “Academic Freedom Under Attack at Barnard College,” the letter states that faculty are “deeply troubled by Barnard College’s recent actions and communication, which undercut academic freedom and free speech.” The letter both offers critiques of Rosenbury’s email “A Call To Action” and lists specific demands and policy changes to “de-escalate the situation.” The letter has been circulating via Google Form to gather signatures. 

The letter states that academic freedom and protection of students and scholars are critical to university life, and that Rosenbury’s email “undercuts both core principles.” 

Specifically, the authors criticized Rosenbury’s “conflation” of anti-Zionism and anti-semitism, stating that the former is a “political ideology” and the latter is a “form of racism.” The letter states that Rosenbury’s condemnation of anti-Zionist speech “endangers Barnard students, faculty, staff and alumni who are demanding attention be paid to Palestinians being slaughtered in Gaza and subjected to escalating settler and IDF violence in the West Bank.” The message goes on to state that such conflation is “not sustainable on any serious, critical intellectual grounds” and rather serves as “an act of suppression of political perspectives.”

The authors also wrote that denouncing anti-Zionist speech on the University’s campus is a “serious infringement” on free speech and academic freedom. Additionally, they wrote that community members opposed to the “Zionist political project” have been subjected to the “increased security, surveillance, and policing” that the College has put in place.  

The letter also cites an “act of overt censorship” in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department (WGSS). On October 2023, WGSS faculty posted a statement on the department website in solidarity with Palestine and provided relevant resources to students. According to the letter, the Provost’s Office removed the statement within hours, citing College policy violations, “without any contact or discussion with the Department itself.” The College has not provided information on which policies were violated. 

Further, the authors wrote that on October 27,  the College changed policies around updating departmental websites, restricting editing access by the departments themselves and “curtailing departmental faculty autonomy over their own communications.” 

The letter concludes with a list of demands directed toward President Rosenbury and Barnard administrators to “ensure the safety of all students, faculty, and staff, regardless of their political beliefs.” The authors call for three actions: a statement explicitly protecting political expression on campus, a restoration of faculty self-governance, and the rolling back of policing and surveillance on campus. 

Faculty Letter in response to President Laura Rosenbury’s email, shared via Google Forms:

Academic Freedom Under Attack at Barnard College

Please consider signing the following letter, which we intend to make public by noon Monday, Oct 30.

We invite Barnard and Columbia faculty signatures, as well as signatures of students, staff, and alumni, and their organizations.

Response to Barnard President Laura Rosenbury’s 10/26 Email “A Time for Action”

As faculty of Barnard and Columbia we are deeply troubled by Barnard College’s recent actions and communication, which undercut academic freedom and free speech. Free speech is a building block of any democratic polity. And academic freedom is foundational to the production of knowledge and the life of learning. Academic freedom is necessary in order to protect humanistic and scientific inquiry from censorship, prejudice, and discrimination, and to ensure the safety of all scholars and students engaged in the pursuit of learning. President Laura Rosenbury’s public letter (“A Time for Action,” 10/26) undercuts both core principles.

The letter not only devalues the lives of Palestinians undergoing military siege in Gaza, noted by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese as “ethnic cleansing” and the Center for Constitutional Rights as an “unfolding genocide,” but by classifying anti-Zionist speech as hateful and discriminatory, it also endangers Barnard students, faculty, staff and alumni who are demanding attention be paid to Palestinians being slaughtered in Gaza and subjected to escalating settler and IDF violence in the West Bank. Rosenbury’s letter exacerbates serious harm to which Barnard and Columbia students of all backgrounds, but most especially Palestinian/Arab and Muslim students, have been subjected—notably, doxxing. Explicitly identifying some kinds of political speech, that is, anti-Zionist speech, as unacceptable on Barnard and Columbia campuses, constitutes a serious infringement on both free speech and academic freedom.

The Barnard administration’s deliberate conflation of anti-Zionism—a critical, political position against a state-building project and political ideology—and anti-semitism—a form of racism against a group based on religious or ethnic identity—is a fundamental category mistake that is not sustainable on any serious, critical intellectual grounds. It amounts to an act of suppression of political perspectives that do not align with what is emerging as a College-endorsed ideological commitment. The president’s letter and provost’s actions, reflective of an emerging College policy articulated in other public emails and in private ones sent to individual members of the faculty and student body, expresses a clear movement away from academic freedom and freedom of speech when it comes to the question of Palestine. It also subjects all faculty and students critical of the Zionist political project to the increased security, surveillance, and policing currently being implemented by the College. 

This move towards curbing academic freedom has already resulted in an act of overt censorship by the College. On October 23, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty posted a statement to the WGSS website expressing solidarity with students and support for the Palestinian people (while explicitly denouncing the killing of Israeli civilians). The statement drew on WGSS faculty areas of academic expertise and provided a list of educational resources for students. Citing College policy violations, the Provost’s Office removed the statement within hours, without any contact or discussion with the Department itself. Despite the WGSS Department’s request, the College has yet to explain which policies were violated. Subsequently, on October 27, the College changed its policy about the maintenance and updating of departmental websites, restricting editing access by all departments and centers, curtailing departmental faculty autonomy over their own communications.

As a faculty, we feel a responsibility to note publicly that President Laura Rosenbury’s letter demonstrates threats to the state of academic freedom and freedom of expression at Barnard, and escalates threats to student and faculty safety. We call on the College to ensure the safety of all students, faculty, and staff, regardless of their political beliefs. We call on President Laura Rosenbury to de-escalate the situation on our campus, by:

• Issuing a statement and instituting policy, including demonstrable acts, ensuring the defense of the academic freedom and free speech of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. This must include the freedom to debate and criticize Zionist ideologies and policies.
• Restoring faculty self-governance, and immediately sponsoring a faculty-organized forum on academic freedom.
• Rolling back surveillance and policing on campus, which ranges from the actual presence of security officers, to the use of anti-discrimination policy and resources to surveil and punish speech, to encouraging reporting for punitive purposes.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on Tuesday, October 31, to include additional information about the open letter.

Featured Image via Bwog Archives