Defend Academic Freedom: Demand the Removal of Jeffrey Wiesenfeld from the CUNY Board of Trustees

Dear Governor Cuomo:

 We, the undersigned, write to request the removal of Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld from CUNY's Board of Trustees. As noted in New York Education Article 125 6204 "Board of Trustees," Article (j), this falls within your power when the Board member is guilty of "official misconduct or neglect of official duties."  We submit that Mr. Wiesenfeld is guilty of misconduct and strongly encourage you to exercise that power to remove him.

We make this request in response to a troubling pattern we see in Mr. Wiesenfeld's behavior as regards those who hold political opinions that differ from his own.  The most recent incident refers to his actions at the May 2, 2011 meeting of the Board of Trustees. At that meeting, the Board of Trustees was set to make a pro forma vote to approve candidates for honorary degrees at John Jay College. Mr. Wiesenfeld spoke at length about the merits one of those candidates, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, on the basis of Mr. Kushner's alleged political beliefs. Mr. Wiesenfeld relied on brief quotations of Mr. Kushner's words, which he extracted and truncated from the fuller context. Moreover, the forum preempted any possibility for Mr. Kushner or a representative to respond to his allegations. Mr. Wiesenfeld's speech, which contained incendiary language, successfully convinced the Board to strike Mr. Kushner's name from the honorees selected by the faculty of John Jay.

By quoting Mr. Kushner's words out of context, Mr. Wiesenfeld distorted these views to an extent that is potentially libelous. But even more pointedly in this case, his actions are tantamount to falsifying quotations. This is an act of academic dishonesty. It is perverse to allow someone guilty of this sort of dishonesty to sit on the board of an educational institution.

The distorted and incendiary speech against Mr. Kushner, in a forum that denied the playwright the opportunity to respond to those accusations, either personally or through a representative, had the effect of stifling potential debate on this issue. Debate and discourse are at the heart of academic inquiry, and an unwillingness to allow for these is antithetical to the basic tenets of a university.  A Trustee who tries to dismiss those with whom he disagrees, instead of engaging in dialogue with them, should not sit on the Board of a university.

Most crucially, however, by encouraging the Board of Trustees to veto the decisions of John Jay's faculty, Mr. Wiesenfeld has attacked the very notion of academic freedom, a principle sustained within the Board's own bylaws. Academic freedom is the ability of students and faculty to express their ideas openly. The faculty's decision to award the degree to Mr. Kushner was an expression of this freedom. It is within the technical discretion of the Board to vote against the awarding of an honorary degree, but by leading them to do so through his speech in the absence of debate, Mr. Wiesenfeld encouraged the Board to suppress a statement made by the faculty of John Jay. While we find Mr. Wiesenfeld guilty of misconduct in this respect, we also find the lack of inquiry or debate from other Board members especially troubling. Indeed, Board of Trustees Chairperson Benno Schmidt has confirmed that he views the Board's action as a "mistake of principle" and "unfair." 

Through his actions Mr. Wiesenfeld has tarnished the name of CUNY in the academic community at large. We fear the pattern of Mr. Wiesenfeld's actions may impact academic freedom at CUNY in the future. Faculty may hesitate to express their own ideas, fearing retribution from the Trustees. Senior faculty whom CUNY is trying to hire may worry that their ideas could also be suppressed should they decide to teach at our university. This debacle will cause CUNY to lose credibility within the academic community as an institution of higher learning. The damage Mr. Wiesenfeld has caused CUNY through his suppression of academic freedom outweighs the good he may have done in his service as a Board member, or donations of time or money he has given in the past, or could give in the future.

We emphasize that our request for Mr. Wiesenfled's dismissal is not based on simple disagreement with his political views, but on the fact that Mr. Wiesenfeld has actively worked to silence political debate itself by deeming certain political views too "extreme" to merit discussion. We strongly disagree with and find problematic Mr. Wiesenfeld's crudely racist characterization (published in an article in the New York Times dated May 5) of the Palestinian people as "people who worship death for their children" and are thus "not human," despite the fact that we hold a variety of nuanced views on Israeli and Palestinian politics. We believe this complex situation is in dire need of more regular, substantive public debate. Indeed, because of actions like Mr. Wiesenfeld's, it is becoming increasingly difficult in the US public arena to engage in open dialogue about the conflicts in the Middle East that encompasses a diversity of legitimate viewpoints. This lack of dialogue speaks directly to the crucial importance of protecting academic freedom.   Opposing the intimidation of political viewpoints and fostering open discussion of ideas is part of our responsibility as a public university.

As we have noted, Mr. Wiesenfeld's actions at the May 2 Board meeting are unfortunately not an isolated incident. This is not the first time Mr. Wiesenfeld has attempted to censure and silence those with political viewpoints different from his own. At the beginning of this semester, Adjunct Lecturer Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton was temporarily fired from his position at Brooklyn College because of a mischaracterization of his political views and of the content of his syllabus (Mr. Petersen-Overton was later reinstated). In that case, Mr. Wiesenfeld had lobbied CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and New York State Assembly Member Dov Hikind to remove Petersen-Overton from his teaching position, specifically because of his political views. Mr. Wiesenfeld's actions at the May 2 Board meeting are part of a troubling pattern of activities that run directly counter to the principles of academic freedom. 

By committing academic dishonesty, suppressing debate, and attacking the very tenets of academic freedom, Mr. Wiesenfeld has betrayed the University and failed in his duties as a member of CUNY's Board of Trustees. For these reasons, we strongly urge you, as Governor of New York to exercise your power to remove Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld from CUNY's Board of Trustees.

Written by students, alumni, and faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center Ph.D. Program in Theatre.