Dr. Coffin is partially correct, that “the basic role of faculty is to support the students.” Why, then, have she, Associate Professor Weiss, Professor Benjamin, Associate Professor Padilla Peralta, and others from Faculty for Justice in Palestine supported events like the December rally that invited speakers from Samidoun, an alleged supporter of foreign terrorist organizations, to campus? Why do they charge pro-Israel University members with supporting genocide and apartheid and insist that the University stop supporting campus CJL and Hillel student programs like Tiger-Trek Israel? Why do they target for termination a talented Black woman leader like Vice President Calhoun, who for almost a decade has ably shepherded Princeton’s student body as it has become more diverse, survived COVID, dealt with multiple student deaths, etc., simply because a grand total of 13 students were arrested? That doesn’t sound like supporting students to me.
Dr. Coffin, however, is only partially correct. Aren’t Ivy League faculty forays into the public arena supposed to be grounded in actual expertise? Look at the CVs of the tenured and tenure-track faculty listed in this article. With the exception of Weiss, who has taught courses on Israel and Palestine, none is a published area specialist on Zionism or Israeli studies or, even, U.S.-Israel relations. They may be experts on modern Arabic thought, Ottoman Christians, Roman religion, epistemology, modern India, race in America, etc. On what basis do they make their bold declarations regarding problems that actual experts find so wicked, intractable, and tragic? As they surely know in their own fields, that which is complex often looks simple to outsiders. If some of these faculty will produce actual reasoned research backing up their claims, I look forward to reading it.