A Georgetown University law professor’s letter confronting University President John DeGioia sparked a debate on academic freedom, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, when the professor spoke in front of an audience of more than fifty Law Center students and faculty Tuesday.
DeGioia discussed the issue with Law Center faculty during a previously scheduled lunch last week. According to Professor Louis Michael Seidman, DeGioia said that he did not go through the normal channels to get approval for using the University’s name in the advertisement.
University Spokesperson Julie Green Bataille said she “[does] not know of any formal procedure that is followed before issuing a public statement.”
“As President, he consults with a range of individuals about various topics and at his discretion makes a determination about when and how best to address them,” she said.
While Seidman sought to discuss the “general decline … in free speech culture”, students and faculty focused mostly on his comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Much of the back and forth was between Muslim Law Student Association Co-president Seema Ahmad (LAW ’09), who moderated the event, and members of the Jewish Law Student Association, who sought a discussion on why they were not invited to co-sponsor the event.
Dalal Hasan (SFS ’01, LAW ‘10), who attended the event, said she was disappointed at the direction of the discussion.
“I thought it would focus on … the fact that Professor Seidman’s voice was curbed,” Hasan said. “Instead, it focused on Professor Seidman, his [Jewish] identity, and on his particular views, when I think his larger point was ignored.”
Ahmad, on the other hand, said she was “thrilled” about the tone of the debate.
“I think that the Israel-Palestine issue is a particularly sensitive issue, and it’s difficult to put forth a discussion that’s productive … I hope it leads to many more such discussions,” she said.
DeGioia’s signature on the August 8th New York Times advertisement criticizing a proposed boycott of Israeli universities drove Seidman to write a letter to DeGioia criticizing his signing of the American Jewish Committee ad on behalf of the University.
DeGioia offered to meet with Seidman after the professor voiced concerns with the ad, Seidman said during the presentation.
“The meeting, from my point of view, was entirely successful,” he said. “[DeGioia] thought in retrospect that the advertisement was unbiased, he’d made a mistake, and it required some corrective measure on his part.”
After receiving no further response from DeGioia for several weeks, Seidman sent him a letter critical of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians and invoking “the boycott of South African universities a generation ago.”
While Seidman was able to use the Law Center e-mail to distribute his letter, Seidman said, Provost James O’Donnell prevented him from using university resources to distribute his letter to the main campus, citing university policy. Seidman characterized the Provost’s response as less than cordial, saying that the Provost responded “at the top of his lungs” to his questions.
