Rutgers AAUP-AFT responds to US Senate letter claiming U. center promotes antisemitism
On February 20, the Rutgers American Association of University Professors and American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) sent a letter to the ten Republican members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in response to their February 6 letter about the Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR) at Rutgers—Newark.
The Rutgers AAUP-AFT's response said that the CSRR is valuable to the University's mission as an institution of higher education that values critical thought and discourse.
"We are aware that some political officials on national and state levels disagree with select viewpoints that have been expressed by certain speakers at the Center over the years, and to that we say: Welcome to university life," the letter read.
The letter referenced Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) view that freedom of speech is a foundational value in the U.S., in addition to Healy v. James, a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that determined that public universities are not exempt from the First Amendment.
The letter stated that prohibiting or policing freedom of speech at the University would directly contradict federal law. The Rutgers AAUP-AFT also provided a definition of academic freedom by the AAUP's national organization, which discourages political influence on such policies.
"All members of our community — our faculty members, students, alumni and staff — are free to express their viewpoints in public forums as private citizens, including viewpoints that the University itself may not share. And we do not restrict the activities of recognized university organizations, including the speakers they invite to campus," Holloway said in 2021, according to the letter.
Holloway echoed this sentiment in a December 2023 Board of Governors meeting when he did not cancel a controversial speaker event, despite receiving more than 12,000 emails urging him to do so.
Additionally, the Rutgers AAUP-AFT's letter said that criticism of Israel must be considered distinct from antisemitism and that merging the concepts is dangerous.
The letter also included that the Rutgers AAUP-AFT is in alignment with freedom of speech and academic freedom regarding Sahar Aziz, a distinguished professor of law at Rutgers Law School—Newark and the CSRR's founding director.
"We at Rutgers are proud of the critical work of the Center for Security, Race and Rights in advancing our core values and goals as a university," the letter read. "We recognize the importance of the Center's wide-ranging work, both when we agree with the content of any particular presentation given there, as well as when we do not."
