Dear UMN students,
This summer, the former Interim President and Provost of the University of Minnesota, with the support of the Board of Regents, bowed to outside political pressure and stopped a professor from being hired at the University.
Yes, this was in blue-state Minnesota and not, say, Ron DeSantis’ Florida.
Late last semester, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) completed its search for a new faculty director. It was conducted by a committee of expert professors who followed all CLA search stipulations and solicited feedback from members of the public. Its final recommendations led CLA to offer the position to professor Raz Segal, a Jewish, American and Israeli scholar who is internationally respected for his work on the Holocaust.
Segal’s selection offended some faculty and members of the public because Segal, an expert in genocide, has characterized the ongoing atrocities in Gaza as genocidal, a conclusion shared by other experts in the field and more broadly.
Two faculty members of the CHGS Advisory Board resigned their seats because they declined to work with Segal. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), a non-academic organization that includes Israel advocacy in its mission, mobilized a campaign to pressure university leadership into aborting Segal’s hire.
Former Interim President Jeff Ettinger, supported by Provost Rachel Croson, the top administrator in charge of faculty affairs, gave in to that pressure and retracted Segal’s job offer. In doing so, they disregarded the expertise and wisdom of the hiring committee and overrode CLA and the University’s constitutional guidelines and regulations governing faculty hiring.
This “unhiring” of Segal was not grounded in any legitimate academic concerns, but in partisan politics. In effect, advocates of a specific public position on Israel and Palestine were able to block the hire of a prominent scholar who disagrees with that position.
Ettinger and Croson thus violated the principle of academic freedom. This principle is similar to free speech, but specific to educators and researchers in higher education and the sorts of freedoms they need protected for their work.
Academic freedom names the freedom of a professor to make knowledge claims, teach students and conduct university business (including work like running a center such as CHGS) related to their expertise, without interference from political, administrative or public actors. Academic freedom is what makes universities centers of learning and knowledge and not just centers for job training or political indoctrination.
At the University, many of your professors have radically different and opposed understandings of Israel and Palestine. This is normal. Professors often take positions that other professors, students or members of the public might find objectionable or uncomfortable. This is good for intellectual diversity, but it is a betrayal of higher education itself when such objections are weaponized to penalize faculty and exclude certain knowledges and viewpoints — as the administration did with Segal.
The CLA Assembly and the University Faculty Senate, the body of elected faculty representatives for CLA and for the entire University, respectively, thus passed no-confidence resolutions in Ettinger and Croson, specifically for their unhiring of Segal.
No-confidence votes are a big deal. They’re rare because they are how professors express their rejection of irresponsible university leadership. In effect, University professors affirmed that they no longer trust the administration to properly steward the University.
The fact that the no-confidence votes were successful shows that the faculty, through its elected representatives at the highest level of university governance, largely agrees on the unacceptability of Ettinger and Croson’s conduct.
The proper response of administrators who have lost the support of their own professors is to step aside. Ettinger’s term came to an end soon after the no-confidence vote anyway, but our new president, Rebecca Cunningham, has ignored the vote’s significance. Instead, she indicated she would not reverse the decision to unhire Segal, and has left Provost Croson in place. Worse, she has tasked Croson — whom professors clearly signaled they no longer trust — with overseeing a “review” of academic freedom policies and professor hiring.
As a student, you came to the University to expand your horizons through learning from and working with faculty experts and your peers. But the administration has signaled that it has limited respect for the expertise of your professors, and sees satisfying political criticisms as more important than ensuring you have the freedom and support to learn about complex subjects from multiple angles and perspectives.
The administration’s sacrifice of academic integrity and free inquiry to political pressure is, unfortunately, part of a pattern when it comes to Palestine and Israel. Our university includes students and employees who have lost loved ones during Israel’s assault on Gaza. There are also many students and employees without personal ties to Palestine and Israel who are deeply affected and outraged by events since October.
University leadership has never acknowledged the concerns of University members affected by Israel’s assault on Gaza in any substantive way. Cunningham’s recent announcement stating she would not comment on “global issues” (read: Israel/Palestine), and the Board of Regents’ recent refusal to pursue divestment from Israel were both made under the pretense of neutrality. But as the Segal sabotage shows, when it comes to criticisms of Israel or support for Palestine, the University’s leadership is “neutral” in name only.
Timothy Brennan, Tony C. Brown, Michael Gallope, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Keya Ganguly, Claire Halpert and Nathaniel Mills are professors in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota.
JG
Oct 6, 2024 at 6:51 pm
Segal (יִמַּח שְׁמוֹ) was not prevented from being hired at all (he was still offered a job as a history professor). Instead he was not hired as the director of a department. Mind you, Segal (יִמַּח שְׁמוֹ) when he was considered for the position wasn’t even a fully fledged professor, instead he was an associate professor. On top of that, he displayed complete incompetence in his field multiple times, by indicating that Hamas’s assault on 10/7 was not only justified but should be glorified (something the no confidence faculty have also repeatedly done), he also has made claims that there is no link to ancient Judeans and Judea and modern day Jews (something that is objectively false considering the swathes of genetic, archaeological, and historical evidence connecting the 2). Of course, as the article makes clear, they believe the right for Jews, and Jewish students to exist, and self-determine, and to be safe is “partisan politics.” Let’s also not forget that Ettinger (יִמַּח שְׁמוֹ) was also responsible for capitulating to the demands of the pro-terror mob that created an encampment where they: harassed, intimidated, assaulted, and prevented access to outwardly Jewish students, including recognition of terrorism. Of course, antisemites like this author seem to believe that Jews shouldn’t get to have a voice in anything, including the studies of the Holocaust, something we were affected by. So when we say we don’t want a korach like Segal (יִמַּח שְׁמוֹ) we mean it. Plus it doesn’t really matter seeing as CLA already teaches antisemitism as the greatest form of progressivism, and that terrorizing Jewish students is the duty of every “humanitarian.”
It’s reasons like these that myself and many other Jewish students are transferring out of, or not even applying to now-disgraced, antisemitic universities like this one.
KG
Oct 6, 2024 at 8:26 am
On another thread, Michael, my response to your comment was, unfortunately, not printed. I hope it was due to a technical glitch at the Minnesota Daily and not for some other reason.
Now, let’s remember: Israel has declared war on Hamas, not the Palestinian people. Hamas initiated this war on October 7, 2023, and has since been using Palestinian civilians as human shields to protect themselves, thereby increasing Palestinian casualties. As such, Hamas bears responsibility for all casualties. And yes Michael, despite your ideological commitment to support an extreme, Hamas-enabling viewpoint—as your membership in FLAGSSP demonstrates—I respect your right to disagree with me. That’s why we are having this conversation.
Moving to the matter at hand, the Raz Segal issue is not about academic freedom, and your characterization of opposition to his appointment as “political” trivializes the significant reasons for not hiring him.
Let the words of the advisory committee speak for themselves. Karen Painter wrote: “Dr. Segal has positioned himself on an extreme end of the political and ideological spectrum ….” And: “With Segal, [faculty would depart] leaving a shell of a center which would shift from being part of the nexus of the humanities and Jewish studies community to becoming part of the campus’s anti-Israel contingent.”
Bruno Chaouat, professor of French and Jewish studies, and former interim director of CHGS, stated: “… the core mission of the center is to educate locally and internationally on the specific history of the Holocaust and of genocides in order to raise awareness and prevent further dehumanization and violence. Professor Segal, by justifying Hamas’ atrocities five days after they occurred (via a perverse allegation that Israel was committing genocide), cannot fulfill the mission of the center.” Chaouat also wrote, “[Segal] has failed to recognize the genocidal intent of Hamas. He does not understand that a movement like Hamas is inherently fascist and represents precisely what CHGS stands against….” And: “… my experience as interim director and collaborator of the center for many years, as well as my experience as a scholar of the Holocaust and antisemitism, give me some authority to assertively deem him unfit for that position.”
Additionally, “We are witnessing a ‘tokenization’ of Jews and now Israelis. Imagine a center for the study of racism appointing a marginal voice in the African American community who opposes Black Lives Matter and who considers that the Minneapolis police are not guilty of the murder of George Floyd.”
Not hiring Raz Segal as CHGS director was the right decision. UMN must uphold its stature and reputation as a great institution of learning and stay true to its mission to educate its students.
Michael Gallope
Oct 5, 2024 at 9:58 am
KG, you have said, in other threads, that Israel bears no responsibility for the deaths of Palestinians Gaza since Oct 7. I strongly disagree with this perspective. But if you worked at the University, I would never seek to fire, un-hire, or otherwise punish you for expressing your views. That’s the essence of academic freedom, and yes, it is inherent to all academic activity at the University, regardless of who carries it out—that is particularly the case for Research Center directors who are hired because of their expertise. Once we start punishing each other for our opinions, the University’s mission collapses. Let’s disagree, but let’s not punish, un-hire, or fire. That’s the point.
KG
Oct 3, 2024 at 12:28 pm
NM, the AAUP link does not claim that academic freedom extends absolutely to “conducting university business,” as the OpEd signatories assert. The extent to which academic freedom applies to a specific position is determined in collaboration between faculty and university administration. The university administration, especially its President, plays a crucial role, representing the broader university interests, such as its reputation.
The CHGS director position is a case in point. A mere week after Hamas’ genocidal attack on Israel on October 7, Raz Segal accused Israel of committing genocide, turning a horrendous massacre upside down. He alienated the Jewish community, and his appointment would have severely limited the scope and effectiveness of CHGS rather than fostering the inclusivity that UMN CLA asserts. UMN’s Holocaust studies program would have become a laughingstock, and the university’s global reputation irreparably damaged. NM, do you not see this? Do you genuinely care about UMN’s reputation?
Dear students, it’s important to understand the underlying dynamics. Nathaniel Mills, one of the OpEd signatories, is also a member of Faculty, Librarians, Alumni, Grad Students, & Staff for Justice in Palestine (FLAGSSP), and he is not the only FLAGSSP signatory to the OpEd. Every OpEd signatory also signed the biased, knee-jerk CSCL Tenure-line Faculty Statement on Palestine issued on October 20, 2023, which clung to a false settler-colonialist narrative. That Statement was followed by the GWSS statements in October and November 2023, and the American Indian Studies statement in December 2023.
This determined anti-Israel group more or less dominates CLA, and their so-called concern for “academic freedom” is not a principled stance but rooted in a strident anti-Israel ideology. This clique of uncompromising, ideological professors strives to ensure that only pro-Hamas, extremist Palestinian views dominate UMN classrooms and lecture halls. In their eyes, only anti-Israel views deserve to be heard at UMN. This is why the appointment of Raz Segal is so important to them. His appointment would give this anti-Israel faction control over a high profile UMN position. To them, Segal is the ideal candidate: a Jewish, Israeli professor who is virulently anti-Israel and accuses Israel of genocide. They like the optics. That’s why they refuse to let go of this appointment.
Dear students, I believe that in the Israel-Palestine debate, you are smart enough to make your own judgments, if given the facts. You might determine that the truth lies on one side, or somewhere in between. That’s entirely up to you. But remember, this is your campus and your education. You are the one paying for it. You should insist on an open dialogue with unbiased professors. UMN is a great institution, and you can get a great education here. However, anti-Israel ideology should not be the required entry pass for any UMN appointment.
Name required
Oct 3, 2024 at 7:19 am
“University business” always has been and continues to be conducted based on KKK-adjacent beliefs. Hiring Raz Segal would’ve been a welcome change of tact. All of the original founders of this place were genocidal land and resource thieves who literally paved the way for people like Coffman, Nicholson and other anti-semites and racists. Those who intervened in the Segal case and those who celebrate that intervention clearly prefer the standard practice of “university business”. Their confident and utter ignorance is impressive. We can discuss any definition of academic freedom out there but it won’t change the fact that we don’t have much of it here.
NM
Oct 2, 2024 at 1:49 pm
Beyond the definition of academic freedom, a second issue is KG’s hypothetical counter-example: a candidate with pro-KKK views being hired to direct CHGS. Academic freedom is not free speech (though it is often mistaken for it). Academic freedom protects faculty who are writing, teaching, and working within the bounds of what AAUP terms “disciplinary competence.” The guarantor of academic freedom is not a constitutional “right” to write or say anything: it is the right to produce knowledge that one’s academic field recognizes as informed by and competent according to the standards and norms of one’s intellectual field. Genocide studies–indeed, no field in higher education–deems support for white supremacy to be an intellectually or academically competent position. The analysis and recognition of genocidal patterns in the conduct of all states, including Israel’s, is indeed part of Segal’s and others’ fields. This does not make his understanding of Israel or the Gaza conflict objectively “correct,” but it makes it a defensible position for a scholar like him to hold and posit.
NM
Oct 2, 2024 at 1:39 pm
KG cites several definitions of academic freedom to disprove the central argument of this piece, but none of those definitions are relevant. As the standards body for faculty affairs and academic practices, only the AAUP’s definition is pertinent here. That definition, as the link in the piece notes, includes “freedom from institutional censorship or discipline when speaking or writing as participants in the governance of an educational institution.” A professor’s academic freedom is not limited to their work as a teacher or researcher. In fact, the University of Minnesota’s own policy on academic freedom affirms that it protects the freedom to “speak or write on matters of public concern as well as on matters related to professional duties and the
functioning of the University.”
So yes, academic freedom does indeed extend to what KG terms “conducting university business,” especially when such business involves the extension of a scholar’s academic expertise into the community, such as directing CHGS. KG may instead prefer a more limited definition of academic freedom that confines it to a professor’s teaching and research, but that it is simply not what the concept means.
If KG wishes to argue that academic freedom, as a principle, should itself be abrogated or delimited if certain constituents of a faculty member’s work object to it, then that should be the argument they make, rather than arguing from a misrepresentation of the principle itself.
KG
Oct 1, 2024 at 3:59 am
Academic freedom does not extend to “conducting university business,” as some professors would have us believe. Academic freedom is defined as “a scholar’s freedom to express ideas without risk of official interference or professional disadvantage” (Oxford Dictionary); or “the right of a teacher to instruct and the right of a student to learn in an academic setting unhampered by outside interference” (Wikipedia, citing a 2024 scholarly article); or “the freedom of teachers and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations, or public pressure” (Britannica).
So again, academic freedom does not cover “conducting university business.” The CHGS director is not just another researcher. The director holds a public-facing position and must know how to engage with and inspire diverse communities. That is how the Center would grow. A week after a genocidal attack on Israel, Raz Segal accused Israel of committing genocide. In doing so, Segal demonstrated himself to be tactless, crude, and reckless, and it was fortunate that we found out in time. He would have been a poor leader. With Raz Segal at its helm, UMN’s Holocaust studies program would have become a mockery, and its reputation severely compromised. I’m surprised that these eminent professors don’t see this.
Now, let’s subject the definition of “academic freedom” to a little test. Imagine if, instead of Raz Segal, a candidate with extreme KKK views had been appointed CHGS director. Would you still be defending that appointment under the banner of academic freedom, fearing that community disagreement might hinder the ability to lead? Would such an appointment inspire African American students to study the genocides committed against Black communities? Or consider if a proponent of John Milton Chivington had been chosen. Would that enhance UMN’s reputation and encourage Indigenous students to engage with CHGS? Would that have been a sound choice for director? I think you get the point. In these cases, I suspect academic freedom would quickly take a back seat to more pressing concerns.
I suggest these professors stop beating a dead horse and focus on finding a credible candidate to lead CHGS.
OK
Sep 23, 2024 at 11:17 pm
Thank you professors for this important and educational article!