DePaul: Harvard-2?

It is now twenty days since professors Norman Finkelstein and Mehrene Larudee were denied tenure by DePaul University in Chicago. Despite approval from faculty colleagues, Finkelstein's tenure bid was turned down by Dean Chuck Suchar on the sole grounds that Finkelstein's tone of writing somehow violates "some basic tenets of discourse within an academic community." After a few days the university President, Rev Holtschneider, issued the final ruling in support of the tenure denial.

Whatever imagined reasons one might try to wring out to justify the denial of tenure to Finkelstein, the accompanying tenure denial to Larudee should make it clear even to sceptics that this was as nearly a deliberate move to silence the likes of Finkelstein as it could be. Larudee, although an accomplished scholar in her field, is hardly the kind of controversial figure like Finkelstein.(*) The latter has had loud attacks directed against him from mainstream media and academia, mostly only in this country, for exposing utter falsehoods in the public debate on Israel's US-backed occupation of Palestinian territory. In Larudee's case, there seems no conceivable reason other than her open support of Finkelstein.

Even a quick browsing of Norman Finkelstein's website clearly shows the overwhelming and unambiguous support his work has earned him from scholars, students, and readers from all over the world. The torrent of letters of support is such that he has had to post the letters in batches on his website. Several of the letter writers have also taken the additional step of writing personally to Holtschneider.

Several actions have been taken by DePaul students, who have been protesting the tenure denials. Certainly Holtschneider has had his share of the students' ire directed against him. The students initially organized a sit-in to pressure the president to reverse his decision. At the recently held convocation ceremony, student protests came in a large poster that said "Tenure for Finkelstein and Larudee", chants of "tenure, tenure" during Holtschneider's speech, and letters to him from graduating students. Now they have begun a hunger strike, which they promise will last as long as it has to last.

I cannot help wondering whether things at DePaul will come to a head like they did at Harvard last year, in the case of university president Laurence Summers. Of course, faculty complaints against Summers were varied and comprehensive, and included heavyhandedness, arrogance, intimidation and shouting down of faculty who expressed dissenting views.(**) I certainly do not want to make a direct comparison between Holtschneider and Summers as individuals. And, admittedly, I know virtually nothing about Holtschneider, other than the fact that he ignored the faculty recommendations in favor of Finkelstein and Larudee at the department and college levels, and instead upheld Dean Suchar's rejection.

However, one doesn't necessarily need to look for similarities in the two cases to wonder whether DePaul will go the Harvard way. Following the Summers presidency debacle, there has been a series of ousters of university presidents. "Circumstances vary, but the overthrow of Dr. Summers may have been contagious", wrote the New York Times earlier this year. (***)

What are the chances that this will happen at DePaul? At Harvard, the faculty was more or less united in their censure of Summers on various grounds. As reported by the Harvard Crimson, however, Summers had considerable support from the student body. At DePaul, so far, students are not calling for the president's ouster. They are simply demanding that the two professors be granted tenure. And it is unclear how removing Holtschnieder will aid the case of tenure for the two. DePaul faculty have not publicly called for an ouster, either, although they have raised the possibility of a no-confidence motion.

I have titled this post 'DePaul: Harvard-2', although other Harvards (that is, ousters of university presidents following challenges by faculty and/or students) have happenend since Summers left. None of the others have been quite nearly as high profile and controversial as the Harvard story, though. If a Presidential ouster, although unlikely, happens at DePaul, it would be every bit as high profile, if not more.
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(*) As Finkelstein himself tirelessly points out, though, there is very little genuine controversy in his work. He mostly quotes undisputed facts recorded by mainstream sources. It is only in the United States that he is treated as controversial, because certain sectors have an interest in doing so.

(**) Incidentally, while he was President, Summers joined those who express purported fears of a new anti-Semitism, although he admittedly seems to have done it in a non-rabid and non-obsessive tone that comes rarely from the "new anti-Semitism" camp. "I spoke out in 2002 because I was concerned about a rising tide of anti-Israeli, and possibly even antisemitic, sentiment on university campuses around the world.", he says, in an interview for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, referring to a campuswide move by Harvard faculty urging the university to divest from companies that did business with Israel. Although admitting that he had never experienced any anti-Semitism firsthand, Summers said in the interview that he was particularly concerned, among other things, about "...the proposals taken seriously in many parts of British academia for academic boycotts of Israeli scholars, what was taking place in continental Europe...".

(***) The article is mainly about the crisis brewing at Pace University, with faculty and students listing objections about the president, including outrage about his large salary. Around the same time, the campus Hillel apparently complained that university officials forced them to cancel the screening of ''Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West'', a film featuring, among others, .... yes, you guessed it, Alan Dershowitz.