Whereas: Academic freedom includes students' right to free
speech,
expression, and political activity, and requires that evaluation of
students be based on academic performance
professionally judged and not on matters irrelevant to that
performance;
Whereas: Dean Richard Brodhead wrote a letter of
recommendation for a
student which criticized her "poor judgment" in participating in union
actions and Professor Kagan refused to write a letter of recommendation
for a graduate student due to union activity;
Whereas: Eighteen Yale Administrators and faculty members threatened
punitive actions including a loss of spring semester teaching assignments,
negative letters of recommendations, discharge, suspensions, and
expulsion, against graduate students who engaged in union activity during
Fall semester 1995;
Whereas: The National Labor Relations Board filed a formal complaint
charging that these actions of intimidation against graduate students
involved in union activity violates labor law;
Whereas: Yale does not dispute occurrence of above events, but denies
its
actions were inappropriate as they consider the individuals involved to be
students, not employees protected by labor law;
Whereas: The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the
Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association
Council have expressly censured the Yale University Administration
for infringement of students academic freedom.
Therefore, we the undersigned, call on President Levin to protect
studentUs right to free speech and political activity by signing the
current AAUP guidelines on academic freedom.
