Academic Boycotts Cannot Become the New Normal

The University of Minnesota's Ronald Krebs has an excellent essay in Inside Higher Education, explaining how "the new AAUP statement on academic boycotts undermines scholarly values and opens the door to further politicization of the academy." Krebs identifies and sharply refutes the three major arguments in favor of legitimizing academic boycotts. 

Here are some excerpts (though I highly recommend reading the full piece):

Why do the old, serious arguments against academic boycotts get short shrift from defenders of the new AAUP policy? I suspect their silence masks, or rather reveals, deeper, unspoken disagreements over the nature of the scholarly enterprise and the purpose of the university.

 Society grants the academy special prerogatives, encapsulated in codes of academic freedom, because it recognizes the larger good the scholarly enterprise serves. Society has little reason to grant the academy those special prerogatives when the faculty collective behaves in ways that no longer advance that public good. When faculty vote for academic boycotts that violate colleagues’ academic freedom and that curb the circulation of ideas, they lose the right to autonomous democratic self-governance.

Defenses of the AAUP statement traffic, bluntly, in Orwellian doublespeak. Proponents of academic boycotts are, they claim, the true defenders of academic freedom. Those calling for unfettered scholarly exchange are, they argue, the enemies of academic freedom. Boycotting colleagues because of one’s politics, they contend, is a courageous ethical stance. Holding the line against punishing colleagues for crimes they did not commit is, they aver, pure politics. Backing the legitimacy of academic boycotts is, they maintain, the only neutral stance.

The AAUP’s new statement on academic boycotts has further delegitimized a once-august institution. It has further opened the door to the university’s already-blooming politicization and polarization. The AAUP has lost sight of the academy’s purpose.

You can read the entire essay in Inside Higher Education.