A hopeful sign. But Michael McIntyre, Associate Professor of International Studies at DePaul, kindly shared with me this letter he sent to the Trustees, which is still timely, and takes up the new issue, namely, the presence of an openly racist member of the Board of Trustees, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, the one who led the charge against Kushner initially. Here is Professor McIntyre's letter:
I learned yesterday of the CUNY trustees' decision to table the recommendation that John Jay College award Tony Kushner an honorary degree, a motion that in effect amounts to a decision not to award him the degree. Rather than rely on press reports, I listened to the last ten minutes of the board proceedings to find out what really happened. I was shocked by the lack of care taken while making this decision. After a short diatribe by one trustee, Mr. Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, and the lack of an absolute majority on a motion to approve the honorary degree to all of the nominated candidates, Mr. Kushner's candidacy was separated from that of the other nominees. His nomination was then tabled without further debate. Perhaps this decision was made hastily because the meeting was drawing to a close and everyone wanted to move the agenda and adjourn. Whatever the motive, this decision should not have been made so thoughtlessly. On those grounds alone I would urge the Board of Trustees to reconsider its decision.
In today's New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/nyregion/opponent-of-honor-for-tony-kushner-criticizes-palestinians.html?_r=1&hp), however, I learned a bit more about Mr. Wiesenfeld. He is, to state matters plainly, a bigot. See here his comments on the Palestinians and their humanity, or lack thereof:
‘On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Wiesenfeld took a phone call about the events at the board meeting, and said he was surprised to get enough support from other trustees to block the Kushner degree. He had thought, he said, that he was going to register his dissent for the record and move on.
‘I tried to ask a question about the damage done by a short, one-sided discussion of vigorously debated aspects of Middle East politics, like the survival of Israel and the rights of the Palestinians, and which side was more callous toward human life, and who was most protective of it.
‘But Mr. Wiesenfeld interrupted and said the question was offensive because “the comparison sets up a moral equivalence.”
‘Equivalence between what and what? “Between the Palestinians and Israelis,” he said. “People who worship death for their children are not human.”
‘Did he mean the Palestinians were not human? “They have developed a culture which is unprecedented in human history,” he said.’
A bigot of this sort has no place on the CUNY Board of Trustees. I urge you to call for his immediate resignation.
Professor McIntyre also forwarded the e-mails of the members of the CUNY Board of Trustees:
Charles Shorter: charlie.shorter@davisbrodyaedas.com
Carol Robles-Román: croman@cityhall.nyc.gov
Rita DiMartino: dimartino@att.net
Dr. Hugo Morales: DRHMORALES@msn.com
Freida Foster: ffostertolbert@gmail.com
Joseph Lhota: joe@lhota.net
Judah Gribetz: judah.gribetz@bingham.com
Kathleen Pesile: kathleen.pesile@mail.cuny.edu; kaympesile@aol.com
Peter Pantaleo: peter.pantaleo@dlapiper.com
Philip Berry: philip@philipberryassociates.com
Cory Provost: provost.cory@gmail.com
Sam Sutton: sam.sutton@aeny.com
Sandi Cooper: Sandi.Cooper@csi.cuny.edu
Valerie Lancaster Beal: vlancaster@mrbeal.com
Wellington Chen: wellingtonchen@yahoo.com; wellingtonzchen@gmail.com
Jeffrey Wiesenfeld: wiesenfeldjs@bernstein.com
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