Tony Kushner's Open Letter to CUNY Trustees

Playwright Tony Kushner has issued this open letter in response to the decision of the Trustees of the City University of New York to table a decision on awarding him an honorary degree after one Trustee accused Kushner of anti-Israel views.

According to the New York Times (here), Benno Schmidt, Chair of the CUNY board, has called for an executive committee meeting Monday to reconsider the decision.

“Freedom of thought and expression is the bedrock of any university worthy of the name,” Mr. Schmidt, a former president of Yale, said in a statement. “But it is not right for the board to consider politics in connection with the award of honorary degrees except in extreme cases not presented by the facts here.”

Too often, politics -- on the left and on the right -- are the basis on which honorary degrees are awarded (or opposed).  At the time of my undergraduate graduation, a group of students started to organize a boycott of the speech by then-President George H.W. Bush.  When the planned boycott lost traction, other students suggested a silent demonstration during which students would turn their backs to President Bush during the speech.

I stated publicly then and continue to believe that the graduating students had every right to take peaceful action if they chose, but that to boycott the speech or turn their backs to the President would be an outward manifestation of close-mindedness that was antithetical to the university's highest and best values.  Eventually students (myself included) wore white arm-bands (hey, it was the early 90's) to signal disagreement with President Bush's policies and the failure of the University Trustees to consult the students before making their selection.

The selection of commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients is indeed an emotionally-charged, symbolic, and (unfortunately, in my mind) political process.  But the move by CUNY Trustees to table the honorary degree for Kushner because of one Trustee's unsupported rant is close-minded and short-sighted.  Let's hope the executive committee does the right thing on Monday.

Comments

[David Bernstein]

The "rant," I take it, is largely accurate. That shouldn't stop the Trustees from awarding an honorary degree IF their general policy had been to award honorary degrees on a non-political/ideological basis. But if that has NOT been their policy, it's not clear to me on what basis one would say that other potential honorees' views are beyond the pale, but Kushner's are not.

[David Bernstein]

Actually, let me withdraw part of my statement above. I haven't looked at the back and forth closely enough to make a judgment on accuracy, though the general notion that Kushner is hostile to Israel is hard to gainsay.

I do know that, contrary to the moderate tone of his open letter, Kushner has said that "The biggest supporters of Israel are the most repulsive members of the Jewish community." Again, that shouldn't stop CUNY from giving him an award based on his professional accomplishments if CUNY awards such degrees on a non-political basis. If it does not do so, one shouldn't be surprised that a trustee who is a supporter of Israel would wonder why he should vote to award a degree to someone who thinks the trustee is "repulsive." And it's strange for someone who makes such remarks to expect civility in return.

[David Bernstein]

Sorry, I'll stop after this, but just so that there is no dispute over the authenticity of the relevant quote, it can be found here: http://books.google.com/books?id=ebC7ETTP-eQC&pg=PA83&dq=%E2%80%9CThe+biggest+supporters+of+Israel+are+the+most+repulsive+members+of+the+Jewish+community&hl=en&ei=rffFTf73JcXdgQeFpoTLBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

[rebecca bratspies]

update: the CUNY Executive Board unanimously approved the honorary degree. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/nyregion/in-reversal-cuny-votes-to-honor-tony-kushner.html the whole incident was deeply embarrassing.