Canadian Jewish publication on tenure denial

Canadian Jewish publication on tenure denial
Academic Freedom for Some But Not for All

January/February 2008
| Canadian Jewish Outlook (Vancouver, BC)
By Judy Haiven

September 2007 was bright and beautiful. Classes were
just beginning for the university year. In the late summer
sunshine, my institution looked idyllic�a kind and
protected place for academics.

However, halfway across the U.S., things did not look so
pleasant. Professor Norman Finkelstein is a political
scientist with five critically acclaimed books already
published, the author of dozens of scholarly articles,
and one of the most popular professors at DePaul
University in Chicago.
He should have been a shoo-in for tenure.

However, Finkelstein�s academic career ended last
June when he was denied tenure at DePaul. Two
years previously, DePaul University President
Dennis Holtschneider had held up Finkelstein as
an example of DePaul�s commitment to freedom
of enquiry; in June, he fired him.

So what did Finkelstein do that was so objectionable
that he was denied a permanent position at DePaul
after all his achievements? Finkelstein summed it
up this way: he met the standards of tenure that
DePaul required, but it wasn�t enough to overcome
the political opposition to his speaking out in a forceful
and public way on the Israel- Palestine conflict.

Tenure is a process meant to protect academic
freedom. Academic freedom is very precarious
before tenure. Any professor who says or writes
something controversial is in a precarious position.
He or she can get put under a magnifying glass and
sometimes gets scorched. This is what happened to
Finkelstein.

For years Finkelstein has been a relentless, but
reasoned, critic of Israel�s policies and actions toward
the Palestinians. He says that the Holocaust has been
exploited by Israel to increase support for immoral
policies. Eminent scholars posttenure, such as Noam
Chomsky and historians Peter Novick and the late Raul
Hilberg, have said the same thing. Finkelstein took on
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz�s book The
Case for Israel and claimed that it was �a collection of
fraud, falsification, plagiarism and nonsense.�
Dershowitz tried to stop publication of Finkelstein�s book
Beyond Chutzpah, even going so far as pressuring California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to direct the
University of California Press not to publish the book.
When Dershowitz failed in this, he sent DePaul a
dossier of �Finkelstein�s most egregious sins� and
urged the university not to grant him tenure. Though
the university sent a letter to Harvard University
expressing consternation at Dershowitz�
interference in Finkelstein�s tenure and
promotion case, DePaul�s president insisted that the
interference had no impact on the process or the
outcome of the case. While it is customary for an
academic to be given one final year to teach and
find another position, Finkelstein was suddenly
removed from teaching his normal two courses this
fall; his office was taken away and he was told not to set
foot on campus, though he would be paid for the
2007-08 academic year.

The students were angry and planning protests.
In the first week of classes Finkelstein�s supporters
wore T-shirts reading, �We are all Professor Finkelstein.�
For his part, Finkelstein declined to go on academic
leave and insisted on his right to teach his classes
for his final terms.

Suddenly on September 5, Finkelstein resigned.
He reached a settlement with the university after
deciding the fight could no longer go on at DePaul.
In his words, the university had given in to �external
pressures climaxing in a national hysteria that tainted
the tenure process.�

What are we to make of this? How useful is academic
freedom when it only applies fully post-tenure?
Somehow, academics� Jews such as Finkelstein and
non-Jews alike � are often gagged and their work
invariably called �unscholarly� when it comes to even
mild criticism of Israel. Because of her support of
Finkelstein, another DePaul professor, Dr. Mehrene Larudee,
was also recently denied tenure. In addition,
Dr. Nadia Abu El-Haj, a respected anthropologist at
Barnard University, was recently denied tenure because
her book Facts on the Ground questioned
Israeli archaeologists� claims regarding ancient Jewish
presence in Israel.

The tenure process is supposed to weed out bad scholars,
not controversial scholars. Under a concerted attack
from the outside, �controversial� too often becomes
synonymous with �incompetent.� And those without
tenure who speak out on controversial issues are
very vulnerable to firing. Academic freedom is rarely
exercised. Most academics tend to shun controversy.
After getting a doctorate, an academic�s first few
years are usually his or her most innovative and
productive. Denying academic freedom to professors
who write or speak on contentious subjects such as
Israel and Palestine will limit research into the
Middle East.

JUDY HAIVEN is an Associate Professor at
Saint Mary�s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a Jew.