The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

(ynetnews.com) The president of one of America’s best known African-American colleges has added her voice to the chorus of condemnations coming from the US of the academic boycott against Israel being waged by Britain’s main academic union, the University College Union (UCU).

In a letter sent this week to an American-Jewish leader, Marvalene Hughes said: “It has come to my attention that an effort is underway to boycott Israeli academics. We find such efforts antithetical to the values of academic freedom and civility. Dillard University is an historical Black University that unequivocally detests the effort to silence, isolate, discount and ignore academic values of free expression and open discourse.”

Hughes’s letter was addressed to Rabbi Marc Schneier, President of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, who responded by saying: “We are encouraged by President Hughes’ strong, principled position, similar to the one taken recently by Columbia University’s President. We are certain that the ideologues behind this effort in the UK will think twice about their totally unacceptable initiative when they see where mainstream America, represented by Dillard University and others, stand on this issue.” (more…)

Related article: “Boycott leader: I’m being vilified”

Schools should stay out of the boycott game and stick to teaching. The actions of this union sound very similar (minus the boycott) to the actions taken by Duke University professors who took out a full page ad condemning the Lacrosse team for a crime they did not commit.