Free to Speak, Free to Write, Free to Think: Academic Freedom on College Campuses, Textor 101, Ithaca College

The Violence Must End: My Experience in Palestine
With IC Alumna Emily McNeill
Tuesday, April 21, noon
Park Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise, room 103

Academic Freedom Forum
With Emily McNeill and Cornell Professor Eric Cheyfitz
Tuesday, April 21, 7:00 pm
Textor 101

Emily McNeil, who graduated from IC in 2008 and author of the controversial IC View alumni magazine article, “The Violence Must End,” will speak about her experience in Palestine as part of the Christian Peacemaker Team at noon on Tuesday, April 21, in room 103 of the business school building. Emily will recount the situations that she witnessed while in the West Bank as well as respond to the comments made by IC President Tom Rochon about the appropriateness of her article appearing in IC View.

At 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21, there will be a discussion about the importance of maintaining academic freedom on college campuses. McNeill and Eric Cheyfitz, a professor of American studies and director of the American Indian program at Cornell, will be guest speakers. Professor Cheyfitz recently testified as an expert witness in defense of Professor Ward Churchill’s academic freedom. On April 2, a Denver jury ruled that Churchill had been “wrongfully” terminated. A New York Times editorial by Stanley Fish adds, “If the standards for dismissal adopted by the Churchill committee were generally in force, hardly any of us professors would have jobs.” Cheyfitz analyzes political efforts to squelch the critical voices of faculty as related to the corporatization of higher education and an attack on tenure, “which is the bulwark of academic freedom.”

These events, which are free and open to the public, are sponsored by the politics department, history department, Park School of Communications, the Park Center for Independent Media, and Buzzsaw.

For more information contact student organizers Danielle Adams at dadams2@ithaca.edu or Alice Pak at alicejpak@gmail.com.

For information about the controversy concerning publication of “The Violence must End,” please go to the IC SCAR website, and the Ithacan:

http://theithacan.org/am/publish/letters/200902_Faculty_react_to_Rochon_s_IC_View_response.shtml

http://theithacan.org/am/publish/news/200902_Article_sparks_community_response.shtml

http://theithacan.org/am/publish/opinioncommentary/200902_President_clarifies_his_reaction_to_IC_View_essay.shtml

http://theithacan.org/am/publish/opinioncommentary/200902_Writer_of_IC_View_article_reflects

http://theithacan.org/am/publish/opinioncolumn/200902_Heated_debate_good_for_campus.shtml
_on_debate.shtml

http://theithacan.org/am/publish/letters/200902_Alum_upset_by_Rochon_s_response.shtml