“Academic Freedom” panel sparks backlash

A panel titled “Academic Freedom in Times of Crisis” sparked backlash from members of the Lehigh community after it was held on April 1 in the Rauch Business Center, amassing an audience of about 60 people. 

While the event was advertised to be a panel addressing student safety, freedom of speech, and the rights of students and educators in the current political landscape, many believe the discussion turned into a promotion of antisemitic rhetoric.

The panel, facilitated by biology professor Kathy Iovine, included Provost Nathan Urban, sociology professor Ziad Munson and guest speaker Maura Finkelstein, a former professor at Muhlenberg College who was fired for reposting anti-Zionist rhetoric on Instagram. 

Finkelstein said the event was initially supposed to be an academic talk delivered solely by her, but it was instead converted into a panel following calls for it to be cancelled. 

Rabbi Steve Nathan said prior to the event, a group of 22 Jewish students who actively engage with Israel on campus met with President Joseph Helble on March 27 to discuss their concerns surrounding the event. Nathan and Tyler Katz, the engagement and programming associate of the Office of Jewish Student Life, also attended the meeting to represent the office, as well as hear what the students shared with Helble and his response. 

A petition sponsored by Alums for Campus Fairness, an organization which combats antisemitism on college campuses, also called for the university to remove sponsorship of the event. The petition is no longer available to sign or view on the organization’s website. 

The petition addressed Helble and Urban directly, citing formal complaints against Finkelstein while she was teaching at Muhlenberg.

According to the petition, “By sponsoring an event with Dr. Finkelstein, Lehigh is platforming and promoting an individual and rhetoric that contributes to a hostile environment for Jewish students on campus, in potential violation of the university’s OCR Resolution Agreement.” 

The panel was co-sponsored by the English, global studies, history, political science, and sociology and anthropology departments at Lehigh. The petition stated Alums for Campus Fairness was alarmed by the panel also being sponsored by the Center for Global Islamic Studies.

Current students and staff also protested Finkelstein’s lecture in a letter from the boards of Chabad, Hillel, Friends of Israel, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and Tamid shared with The Brown and White. The letter referenced Lehigh’s commitment to rejecting discrimination based on religion, political beliefs and national origin.

It also referenced Finkelstein’s reported criticism of Hillel International — an organization created for college students to participate in Jewish life on campus — during a lecture she gave at Franklin and Marshall College.

“This is not just an attack on Hillel members — it is an attack on every Jewish student at Lehigh,” the letter stated. 

At the panel, which was limited to members of the Lehigh community, police lined the entrance to the building. Officers checked student and faculty IDs before attendees were admitted. 

Jason Schiffer, chief of the Lehigh University Police Department, said LUPD had five police officers and two security guards present at the panel. They were stationed inside the event room, in the lobby and outside of the building.

In an email statement to The Brown and White following the event, Schiffer wrote LUPD conducts security assessments for every event held on campus to determine if additional safety measures are needed. He also wrote LUPD is committed to enacting measures that protect all participants from disruptions or threats.   

“The security measures for this event were designed to ensure the safety of the guest speaker, panelists and attendees, creating a space free from harm and conducive to open dialogue,” Schiffer wrote. 

At the event, after the panelists were introduced, each speaker shared their perspective on academic freedom. 

“Academic freedom is the bedrock of knowledge and truth,” Munson said. “We cannot have that if we allow one side in the debate, in any debate.”

 Munson also discussed the official Rules and Procedures of Lehigh faculty, which protect freedom of thought and expression regardless of perspective, and encouraged attendees to join him in the effort to reaffirm institutions’ rights to free expression. 

 Finkelstein disagreed with Munson, saying there is no such thing as academic freedom. She said it has never existed in American institutions, because they are inherently rooted in white supremacism and dismiss Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

“What is academic freedom in the midst of a genocide?” she said.

Finkelstein said Israel is destroying universities in Palestine through “scholasticide,” which refers to the mass destruction of education in a specific area. She also said bombings in Gaza are deliberate and calculated assaults on Palestinians. 

Urban said Lehigh and other research universities foster the pursuit of truth and academic freedom, even when that truth goes against the status quo. 

He said academic freedom comes with certain responsibilities. Urban also said it must facilitate respectful dissemination of knowledge and intellectual discourse while also not becoming hateful.

The conversation then turned to discussing the role of colleges and universities in ensuring academic freedom. 

Finkelstein said research universities have nothing to offer if they don’t acknowledge inherent inequalities in American society.

In response, Munson said although it’s become harder for conflicting groups to have open discussions, research universities still play a key role in the dissemination of knowledge in the United States.

“Universities are particularly valuable to us if they provide unique advantages other institutions can’t provide,” he said. “Free expression is one of them.”

Munson then asked Finkelstein how she processed being fired and losing her tenure at Muhlenberg, as well as what it meant for the future of academic freedom. 

Finkelstein said she never wants to work for an institution where she’d be scared that her speech is regulated and surveilled. She also said she didn’t feel safe in the room the panel was being held in, referencing the armed police stationed around the room.

“We’re just in a room having a conversation, and there’s armed officers in here,” she said. “I have the academic freedom to say this — this is f**king insane, and everything we’re doing is f**king insane. We’re in an Octavia Butler novel, welcome.”

Finkelstein said she feels pessimistic about the future of academic freedom on college campuses, and she hopes professors and faculty can come together despite differing  opinions and beliefs.

She also said while she was fired from her job, she knows she is morally in the right place. She said no one should concede their situatedness, which refers to one’s worldview and beliefs.

“Once we concede with fascists and genociders, we lose,” Finkelstein said.

She then said college and university administrations should reject grants and funding from the federal government if the requirements have a “chilling effect,” like repression and sanctioning.

“The fact that you’re speaking here today and tomorrow is evidence that that’s untrue,” Urban said in response.

The panel then opened up to questions from attendees.

Lauren Gilmore, a second-year doctoral student at Lehigh, asked Finkelstein to share her thoughts on the event’s change from a talk to a panel. 

Finkelstein responded by saying Zionist organizations, such as Hillel International, can invite “genocide deniers” to campus, but she gets in trouble for speaking her beliefs. 

She also said her presence on campuses is considered “so dangerous” because she brings awareness to Hillel International’s efforts to encourage people to move to Israel and join Israel Defense Forces.

Richard Matthews, a retired Lehigh political science professor, also attended the event. He said student participation and faculty action is important, particularly speaking as one of the writers of Lehigh’s Policy on Freedom of Thought.

“Student involvement is critical, or, one by one, these universities are going to give up academic freedoms,” Matthews said.

In a follow-up interview with The Brown and White, Urban said it’s important to hear from multiple perspectives, which the event provided.

“The fact that we have multiple voices and then the audience raising issues, raising questions, making their own points, really made it a more dynamic and interesting discussion,” he said.

Sara Goldin, ‘27, an attendee and the vice president of Lehigh Hillel, said she felt the event was not a discussion about academic freedom as it was advertised. 

She said she’s learning to be comfortable with uncomfortable subjects and doesn’t mind when someone challenges her viewpoints, but she felt worried about the subject matter discussed at the event.

“As a Jewish student, I did not feel welcome,” Goldin said. “I did feel unsafe and uncomfortable with the event. And sitting there listening to antisemitism be spewed and with a lack of response and lack of someone trying to at least help us or counter, it made it feel as if it was not a place that Jews were supposed to feel safe.”

She also said her definition of antisemitism aligns with the definition provided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. According to the organization’s website, antisemitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.”

In a follow-up interview with The Brown and White, Finkelstein said antisemitism is difficult to define, and many schools are using or codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition. 

She said the problem with this definition is that Judaism is an ethnic and religious identity protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VI, while Zionism is a political ideology. 

Finkelstein also said she’s anti-Zionist, meaning she critiques the state of Israel and its policies, and she challenges Zionism. She said this is not antisemitic. 

“To conflate (anti-Zionism) with being antisemitic is to weaponize antisemitism to shut down dissent,” she said.

Finkelstein said students can disagree with her, even strongly, but they cannot deny the humanity of others, inside or outside the classroom.

At a Faculty Senate meeting on April 4, Helble addressed the senate regarding the backlash he received about the event. He said he received more than 10,000 emails asking him to cancel it, but he instead elected to change it from a lecture to a panel. 

While he was aware of the concerns people were communicating, he said the university cancelling the event would not have set a good precedent. He also said there was an additional event with Finkelstein hosted on April 2 by the Student Political Action Coalition, where police presence was limited to reflect community concerns.

Helble said he believed he found a middle ground by hosting the panel, which in turn also protected academic freedom.