Columbia University’s new provost, Claude M. Steele, has agreed to meet with several Columbia professors critical of the institution’s recent decision to grant tenure to Joseph A. Massad, a Palestinian scholar who has been accused of anti-Israel bias, according to a letter posted online by the Manhattan Institute. In a letter sent to Mr. Steele in July, before he had started his job, 13 professors argued that the university had violated its own procedural rules in granting Mr. Massad tenure after a second review they view as unjustified. In a response sent to the professors this month, Provost Steele said it was important for Columbia’s faculty members to have faith in the integrity of the tenure process.
Follow The Ticker through your favorite RSS reader.
2 Responses to Columbia U. Provost Agrees to Meet With Critics of Palestinian Scholar’s Tenuring
princeton67 - September 21, 2009 at 7:43 pm
1.I read the letter: thirteen, not fourteen, signatures are appended.2. According to “Rate My Professor”, Columbia has (at keast) 525 Professors. Are thirteen objectors significant? typical?3. None of the signees is in a discipline even close to Prof. Massad’s Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures appointment. Four are in the Medical School; one is in Space Studies. I wish someone from, or even near, the MEALAC Department had objected.
pschmidt - September 22, 2009 at 11:44 am
Thank you for noting the inaccuracy, Princeton67. The Ticker item has been changed.