University of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty Senate debates’ controversy regarding involvement with foreign academic freedom issues were cause for concern at a meeting Monday.
Professor of Political Science Donald Downs presented a motion for Faculty Senate to reject a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, endorsed and encouraged by the American Studies Association.
The ASA serves as a means to distribute the history and study of American culture, according to its website. Due to its decision to “honor the call of Palestinian civil society,” the organization will not acknowledge business with Israel.
There has been strong recommendation from ASA to other U.S. scholarly institutions to join their organization in the boycott, according to the resolution.
Downs assured senators that by turning down the ASA’s recommendation to boycott, there is no larger statement being made about UW-Madison’s political viewpoints.
“The resolution takes no stance politically,” Downs said. “Were a similar resolution to be made against Palestinian institutions we would be here as well.”
District 18 Senator and Associate Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology Samer Alatout expressed concern with the prospect of the senate making a unified decision on the subject matter, urging fellow senators to vote against the resolution.
“At the same time that we protect the academic freedom of Israelis, we need to be, really, very aware of the academic freedoms of Palestinians,” Alatout said, citing the ongoing academic pressures of the country. “Academic freedom is political, and it always has been.”
The issue was moved to be tabled indefinitely, as the senators said they felt they needed to be better educated on the subject matter.
Associate Dean of Engineering and Chair of the Ad-hoc Tuition Policy Faculty Committee Steven Cramer also presented possible methods of changing the tuition structure to raise additional revenue for the university.
The committee developed four alternative policies for handling tuition, including eliminating reciprocity with Minnesota, increasing out-of-state residents’ tuition, implementing varying tuition depending on major and raising additional revenue independent from tuition. Cramer stressed that the body does not advocate one over the other.
Faculty Senate will continue discussion on these alternatives at future meetings.
