Dartmouth College was once a prestigious academic institution, a breeding ground for intellectual inquiry. But that all changed when Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon appointed a zealous anti-Israel activist as the head of the school’s new faculty. Taking on an official role as Dartmouth’s dean of faculty, Native American Studies Professor Bruce Duthu is a vocal proponent of the rabidly anti-Israel Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment movement (BDS).
The Washington Free Beacon reports that “the pro-Israel community at Dartmouth College is reeling” as a result of this controversial appointment. “Duthu’s vocal support for boycotts of Israeli academics and efforts to lead the charge in the BDS movement is dangerous, [pro-Israel advocates] argue, and anathema to academic freedom,” adds The Free Beacon.
Duthu’s views are as extreme as they come. The professor supports an economic boycott of Israel proper in addition to an academic boycott of Jewish scholars from Israel.
As the co-author of a widely circulated BDS document, Duthu pushed for a complete boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
Accordingly, pro-Israel student and staff spent weeks pleading with Dartmouth administration to reconsider Duthu’s appointment in light of the professor’s extremist views.
In an email sent to Dartmouth faculty last week, economics professor Alan Gustman suggested that Duthu’s appointment was especially disconcerting given the college’s long history of anti-Semitic abuses.
“In view of Dartmouth’s anti-Semitic history and Professor Duthu’s endorsement of the anti-Semitic BDS document, Dartmouth must not simply appoint Duthu to the position of Dean of the Faculty and ignore the implications of that appointment,” Gustman stated, adding:
Professor Duthu should either publicly disavow the full ramifications of the BDS positions he has publicly endorsed, or resign his position as Dean and return to his faculty position where expression of these views is sanctioned as academic freedom, but is not representative of Dartmouth College or its faculty.
[Duthu] cannot, without contradiction, 1) assure council signers of the NAISA document and holders of their position of his support for action to boycott Israeli academic institutions, and at the same time 2) administer his job as Dean of the Faculty, while assuring Dartmouth that he will not take such action. Given its history, Dartmouth cannot turn a blind eye to this contradiction. These issues must be directly and publicly addressed by the Dean, the President, and by the Board. Papering over hypocrisy and prejudice is no way to run an Ivy League College administration.
Ultimately, college President Hanlon refused to acknowledge the deep concerns of pro-Israel students and academic freedom advocates alike. As The Free Beacon points out, Hanlon’s silence about the threat against academic freedom posed by any sort of boycott or intimidation of Israeli scholars comes weeks after the college administration released a public statement strongly condemning President Trump’s immigration policies as slights against “international students and scholars.”
The glaring hypocrisy of Dartmouth and schools like it across the country have even caught the attention of lawmakers in Washington, who have begun to ask whether American universities are places of open academic inquiry or indoctrination camps for the Left.
Sad, very sad. Our universities are more & more becoming hotbeds for Leftist intolerance and anti-Israel hatred. https://t.co/Dwuwk2DXQV
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 8, 2017