Rutgers Faculty Call on Union Boards to Withdraw Statements

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The following statement does not necessarily reflect the beliefs or feelings of all writers of the Gleaner: Rutgers-Camden Student-run newspaper

–Editors of the Gleaner

November 27, 2023

To the executive board of the Rutgers University Adjunct Faculty Union,
and the executive council of the Full-Time Rutgers University Faculty Union:

We are writing to object to statements issued by the executive board of the Rutgers University Adjunct Faculty Union and by the executive council of the Full-Time Rutgers University Faculty Union. After Hamas’s October 7 massacre of 1,200 innocent people, mostly civilians, both unions released statements that we consider to be flawed on factual, political, and moral grounds. These statements have angered and alienated a large portion of the memberships of both unions, as well as of the larger Rutgers community. To maintain their claim to represent their memberships, we ask both unions to withdraw these statements.

In response to the Hamas massacres, the executive board of the adjunct faculty union, representing about 3,000 faculty, endorsed a statement from a radical anti-Israel group called Jewish Voice for Peace. JVP, taking the extreme position that Israel should no longer exist as a Jewish state, promotes one-sided propaganda to delegitimize Israel. Its statement about October 7 touched only glancingly on the massacres and instead focused on Israel’s response. The statement falsely and outrageously described that response as “genocidal.” Using an age-old antisemitic trope, it accused Israel of having brought about the terrorist attacks on its own citizens. It made no mention of widely acknowledged legal and moral differences between deliberately targeting civilians, which Hamas does, and accidentally killing civilians in wartime,which Israel has done.

As problematic as the statement endorsed by the lecturers’ union was the undemocratic procedure following in making the endorsement. The executive board of the adjunct faculty did not consult its membership before making its decision, and it ignored suggestions to follow a more moderate path, such as endorsing the statement of the national AAUP. It has also ignored calls to withdraw or change its statement.

The Full-Time Faculty Union has likewise let down its membership with its own statement. In late October, the executive council announced that it was considering a statement and convened a Zoom “office hours” session for members to discuss a draft. The draft was badly one-sided, omitting or misstating the nature of the conflict in significant ways and prescribing political and military policies aligned with Hamas’s goals. Among the flaws: the draft statement spoke of a “crisis in Gaza” but not in Israel; failed to mention Hamas or terrorism; endorsed a letter by a self-selected group of Rutgers professors critical of President Jonathan Holloway’s heartfelt concern for the lives lost on October 7; and waded into foreign policy, calling on President Biden to broker a ceasefire in the war without conditioning that ceasefire on either Hamas’s release of some 240 innocent hostages or on the surrender of Hamas’s leaders.

Almost every single union member who spoke at the October 25 Zoom “office hours” meeting criticized the statement on these and other grounds. Members urged the executive council either to discard it or to modify it significantly. They proposed specific revisions to address the shortcomings. Executive committee leaders promised attendees that their criticisms would be taken into account. But several days later the executive committee issued a statement that was virtually unchanged from the controversial draft. They had made six revisions, largely cosmetic.The final statement retained the implicit endorsement of the anti-Holloway letter and a call for a ceasefire that was not explicitly conditioned to the release of hostages or on bringing Hamas leaders to justice.

The union has every right and even a duty to weigh in on matters of academic freedom and the campus climate. But it should not be issuing statements on geopolitics and foreign policy, especially when it is obvious that no consensus among the membership exists on the issues. Rather than follow the reasonable and decent path of confining its statements to areas where consensus exists, the unions took stands that they knew stood in opposition to many members’ views. For the sake of comity, and to retain their claim to faithfully represent their members, the union leadership should withdraw these statements.

On behalf of the faculty of Rutgers JFAS (Jewish Faculty, Administration, and Staff)
David Greenberg
Professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Martha Greenblatt
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University-New
Brunswick
Cynthia Saltzman
Lecturer in Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Rutgers University-Camden