An email circulating through the Boston University School of Education that calls for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq has collected a handful of signatures but has drawn fire from others who say the academic forum is inappropriate.
Professors Tom Cottle and Douglas Zook presented the petition — which has collected 20 signatures so far — at an SED meeting in late January, when they then decided to send it in an email. They plan to send the petition to other BU colleges, as well as other education schools at other universities, Zook said.
“The idea was to make SED and BU more connected to outside issues,” said the science education professor. “We should not be afraid to speak up on key issues, such as having your brothers and sisters at war.”
In the Jan. 23 email, Cottle and Zook prefaced the formal statement by urging their fellow faculty members to electronically sign the petition by Jan. 29. The email said the document will be forwarded to congressional representatives and the White House.
“Accordingly, we, the undersigned faculty and staff of Boston University School of Education, call for the immediate and safe withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq,” the email petition said.
SED staff member Margaret Sullivan, who responded to the email petition in a follow-up email to faculty members, said SED professors interested in activism for or against the war in Iraq should present their beliefs as individuals, stressing that these political views should be expressed “in our own time and in our own name.”
“Each member of the SED community holds sincere opinions on this and other issues and is moved to action as conscience requires,” Sullivan said in the reply email.
In a Jan. 26 email to SED faculty and staff, SED dean ad interim Charles Glenn, who did not sign the petition, did not comment on the appropriateness of the petition, but did say “it is possible to disagree about the wisdom” of withdrawing troops from Iraq. He also said he did not intend to be involved in the petition but thought it necessary after Sullivan’s email.
“I think the implication of the petition is that anyone who really cares about peace in that tormented part of the world has to favor immediate American disengagement,” Glenn said in the email.
Glenn said there is no animosity toward any faculty and staff who signed the petition and said he respects their decision to voice their opinion.
“We need to be careful not to act as if there’s only one position that a person of caution can act,” he said in a Feb. 7 interview with The Daily Free Press. “I think it is obvious that they have a right to voice their opinion.”
Zook continued to stay firm to the opinions he and Cottle expressed in the original petition, stressing that “our biggest enemy is silence.”
“By proposing issues like this, we’re modeling an important democratic process,” he said. “Democracy needs to be brought into the fabric of the university.”
Although Zook said he thinks a petition of this sort make BU stronger, he said he realizes Glenn does not agree with this petition circulating throughout SED.
“I don’t think, frankly, that the dean is comfortable with this kind of expression,” Zook said. “He doesn’t have to participate.”
While it is important for people to express their beliefs, the ideology is not so clear when it involves a professor voicing their personal views to students, said literacy ‘ language, counseling and development acting chairwoman Shanley Allen.
“I think it’s important to voice your opinion,” she said. “Whether SED should take that stance . . . that’s another case.”
Linguistics professor Bruce Fraser, referencing activist professors during the Vietnam War, said the petition will encourage discussion among members of the BU community to think more closely about global affairs.
“I don’t see academia being up-in-arms the way they used to be,” he said. “Students are not activists today . . . they do not give me the impression that they are activists.”