University President John T. Casteen, III recently joined more than 300 college and university presidents condemning a vote by a British labor union to advance a boycott against Israeli academic institutions. Representatives to the University and College Union decided by a vote of 158 to 99 to "consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions" at their first meeting May 30. In an individual statement issued the previous week, Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger said if the UCU took formal actions to boycott Israeli institutions, it should also add Columbia to its boycott list.Casteen issued a statement June 21 supporting Bollinger. According to Casteen, at least 10 University faculty members and several alumni expressed concern about the UCU's vote and encouraged him to take action. "Concerns included the principle of open exchange of ideas within universities, concerns about the personal safety of students and faculty members working in Israel, possible loss of contact with essential colleagues in joint ventures, and moral outrage," Casteen stated in an e-mail. A list of more than 300 concurring college and university presidents was printed as a full-page advertisement in The New York Times Aug. 8 as a public service of the American Jewish Committee. "I think that, in terms of American interventions in this issue, this is perhaps the most important initiative to date," said Ben Cohen, AJC's associate director of anti-Semitism and extremism. "It clearly expresses, unequivocally and without reservation and without any room for doubt, the fact that some of America's finest academic institutions are deeply opposed to this boycott." According to Cohen, this is the third time in as many years that boycott resolutions against Israel have been considered by British academic faculty unions. In 2005, the Association of University Teachers voted in favor of an academic boycott and in 2006 the University & College Lecturers' Union approved such a measure. Later that year, the two unions merged to form the UCU.The University did not comment during the earlier academic boycotts. Casteen, who called the UCU's position "shameful and unacceptable" in his statement, stated that there is not a circumstance in which the University would endorse such a boycott. "Responsible universities in free societies don't boycott scholars or ideas," he stated.
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