Regarding the "Advisory Board" of the so-called "Pluralist [sic] Guide" section on "The Climate for Women"

Philosopher Anita Allen (Penn), who is listed on the Advisory Board, writes:

As a general matter, I strongly support efforts to increase the subject matter, methodological and  demographic diversity of academic philosophy.  But since I was not involved in the design or execution of the Pluralist Guide, I cannot specifically endorse it.

I received an email from Professor Linda Martin Alcoff in March 2010 requesting that I complete a survey.  I do not recall completing the survey.  On the contrary,  I replied by email dated April 2, 2010 stating that “I do not feel qualified to judge departments other than my own. Is there another way I could help?”  It is possible that I made an effort to complete the survey based on my limited knowledge of the philosophy department at my university,  in which I have only a secondary appointment ( I am tenured in Penn’s law school) and for which I do only undergraduate teaching.  

I just learned this morning that I am listed as an advisor to the Pluralist Guide in the category of Feminist Philosophy and Gender Issues. I do not recall agreeing to be an advisor.   I do not recall providing any advice to this project or promising to be available for such advice in the  future.  This morning I  scoured my old incoming email and found one dated October 29, 2010 addressed to me and a few dozen others in which Linda Martin Alcoff wrote: “We will be listing all of your names on our [Pluralist Guide] website, along with our four other Advisory Boards. Now is your chance to decline… You need only email me back if you wish not to be included.”    I don’t recall reading or responding one  way or another to this well-meaning but arguably presumptuous “consent-by-failure-to-opt-out” email.

In light of Professor Allen's helpful e-mail, I renew my earlier request:   it would be nice if some of the philosophers who were allegedly surveyed for the "Climate for Women" guide, and who presumably did not anticipate the travesty it would turn into, will begin to speak out, either by e-mailing me or some of the other blogs that have been posting information about this affair.   Knowing some of these philosophers, I am sure they did not realize how this would turn out, but now is the time to speak up--and especially if it turns out that, like Professor Allen, they did not even act in an advisory capacity, despite their being so listed.