The recent exchange of letters between Stand Up DePaul and Profs. Moeller, Choplin, Klugman, and Gutiontov offers to DePaul University an excellent study in how academic freedom and freedom of expression should work at an institution such as DePaul.

As a signatory to the Stand Up DePaul letter, as well as a member of both the Academic Freedom Task Force and the Speech and Expression Advisory Committee, I have given a great deal of thought to questions of freedom of expression. There are unavoidable tensions that exist between a university’s commitment to the core value of academic freedom and the legitimate needs and desires of many university constituencies, including Jewish faculty, staff, and students, to know that they are safe and protected from harm by the university.

 I understand and respect the call on the part of many of our Jewish faculty and staff to take the commitment to protect their safety seriously. Incidents of threat and harassment should of course be investigated, and those responsible should be subject to discipline.

At the same time, the university must allow for a very wide latitude for freedom of speech and expression on campus, both in and outside of class. DePaul University’s Guiding Principles on Speech and Expression specifically allow for “the right of individuals to express their viewpoints, even at the risk of controversy.” This must include the right to criticize Israeli government treatment of Palestinians as well as the right to criticize Zionism as an ideology. 

Only through a vetting of legitimate differences on these issues can an academic community arrive at greater understanding of the causes and consequences of the ongoing conflict. My concern with the call to adopt the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of antisemitism as official university policy is that it forecloses, and threatens to punish, controversial speech in violation of the university’s speech and expression guidelines.

It is for this reason that I am very glad that the DePaulia has published both the Stand Up DePaul letter and the responses. It demonstrates precisely how such debates should take place and provides a model for the university community to carry on such debates in the future. I offer my thanks to my colleagues who have stepped forward to offer such an example.

Sincerely,
Scott Paeth
Professor of Religious Studies

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Scott Paeth is a Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University and chair of Faculty Council’s Academic Freedom Task Force.

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Guest Letters

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