In the several days since this correspondent reported that over a hundred Stanford University community members had signed a petition against Condoleeza Rice, the number of signees exploded to nearly 800 signatures.
As of this writing, 767 petition signers [1] have expressed their displeasure at Rice’s return to Stanford, calling for “investigation and, if the facts warrant, prosecution” of the former Secretary of State.
Stanford alumni who participated in the antiwar April Third Movement [2] of the 1960s nailed this petition to the University President’s door as part of their 40th Annual Reunion.
Thomas Jefferson School of Law Professor and President of the National Lawyers Guild Marjorie Cohn [3] said that by this action “we are asking the University to sever its ties with the war criminal Condoleeza Rice, who has absolutely no business being a tenured professor and teaching and doing research at Stanford University because she participated in the conspiracy to commit illegal war and to commit war crimes.” She continued,
“This is not an issue of academic freedom any more than calling for the dismissal on John Yoo from the Berkeley law faculty is an issue of academic freedom. Professors are free to espouse radical views in their classroom or write in scholarly articles about views. That’s a far cry from being hired by the administration to advise it on how to break the law and get away with it. That is not academic freedom.”
Yet Bill Ayers [4], a former member of the Weather Underground [5], whose fingerprints were found at a bomb factory, and Ward Churchill [6], fired for plagiarism, have recently argued [7] that their actions constitute academic freedom.
Lenny Stiegel, Director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight [8], communicated solidarity with Stanford Says No To War, connecting this effort with the 1968 mobilization by Stanford Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to stop Vietnam-related military projects on campus.
“We didn’t win on all of it, but we got a whole lot done,” he said, calling Rice a “war criminal.”
Ironically, the Stanford community seems to also be overlooking the record of Professor Phillip Zimbardo, who still teaches at Stanford. The creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment [9] in the 1970s, just last year Prof. Zimbardo himself likened this experiment to the atrocities at Abu Ghraib. “Our guards stripped prisoners naked. They put bags over their head[s]. They sexually humiliated them,” he said [10].
The academic atmosphere to which Rice has returned is far from friendly, and those who oppose her stay include the groundskeeper, campus minister, librarians, financial aid staff and political science faculty.
As of this writing, 90 or more of the community signees are paid faculty and staff members:
- Todd Davies [11], Associate Director of the Symbolic Systems Program
- Paul R. Ehrlich [12], Professor of Biology,
- Thomas Wasow [13], Professor of Linguistics & Philosophy
- Ivan Sag, Professor of Linguistics,
- Elizabeth Tallent [14], Professor of English,
- Dmitri Petrov [15], Associate Professor of Biology,
- Rev. Geoff Browning, the Campus Minister,
- Maurice “Rush” Rehm [16], Professor of Drama and Classics,
- Carol Shloss, Professor of English
- Robert Crews [17], Assistant Professor of History,
- Sandra E. Drake [18], Emerita Associate Professor of English
- Alice Miano, Lecturer in the Language Center
- Janet Cooper Alexander [19], Professor of Law,
- Pamela M. Lee, Professor of Art and Art History,
- Hubert Marshall [20], Emeritus Professor of Political Science,
- Marisa C. Juárez, Administrative Associate in the African and African American Studies Department,
- Sean Hanretta, Assistant Professor of History, and
- J.P. Daughton, Assistant Professor of History.
- Joshua Cohen [21], Professor of Political Science, Philosophy, and Law,
- Terry Lynn Karl [22], Professor of Latin American Studies,
- Paul Kiparsky, Professor of Linguistics,
- Sylvia Yanagisako [23], Professor of Anthropology,
- Debra Satz, Professor of Philosophy,
- Laura Cosovanu, Research Assistant at the Levin Center for Public Interest,
- Tadashi Fukami [24], Assistant Professor of Biology,
- Mary McDevitt [25], Lecturer in the Department of Engineering,
- Michael Predmore [26], Professor of Spanish,
- Sophia Chernikova, Basic Life Science Research Associate,
- John L’Heureux [27], Emeritus Professor of English,
- Joel Beinin [28], Professor of History,
- Paul Robinson, Emeritus Professor of History,
- John Manley [29], Emeritus Professor of Political Science,
- Peter Stansky, Emeritus Professor of History,
- David Laitin, Professor of Political Science,
- Paul Seaver [30], Emeritus Professor of History,
- Katherine Jolluck, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History,
- Beatriz Magaloni-Kerpel, Assistant Professor of Political Science,
- David Hills, Associate Professor of Philosophy,
- Bernard Roth, Professor of Mechanical Engineering,
- Franco Moretti [31], Professor of English and Comparative Literature,
- David Como [32], Associate Professor of History,
- Theodore Glasser [33], Professor of Communication,
- Charles Stein [34], Emeritus Professor of Statistics,
- Robert Finn [35], Emeritus Professor of Mathematics,
- Kathleen Coll [36], IHUM Fellow and Lecturer,
- Susan Holmes [37], Professor of Statistics,
- Richard Roberts [38], Professor of History,
- Beth Sherman [39], Administrative Associate in Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences,
- Richard R. Fagen, Emeritus Professor of Latin American Studies,
- Harold L. Kahn [40], Emeritus Professor of History,
- Shelley Fisher Fishkin [41], Professor of English,
- Carolyn Duffey [42], Lecturer in American Studies,
- Estelle Freedman [43], Professor of United States History,
- Khalid Aziz [44], Professor of Energy Resources Engineering,
- Martin Carnoy, Professor of Education,
- Martin Perl [45], Emeritus Professor at the Stanford Linear Acceleration Center,
- Leonard A. Herzenberg [46], Emeritus Professor of Genetics,
- William S. Eddelman [47], Emeritus Professor of Design and Theatre History,
- Charles Dreckmeier, Emeritus Professor of Political Science,
- Penelope Eckert [48], Professor of Linguistics,
- Helen Longino, Professor of Philosophy,
- David Palumbo-Liu [49], Professor of Comparative Literature,
- Jon Levitow, Lecturer in the Language Center,
- Roland Greene [50], Professor of English and Comparative Literature,
- Joan Berry [51], Outreach Program Director at the Center for Ethics in Society,
- Laura Maguire [52], IHUM Fellow, Introduction to the Humanities,
- Khalil Barhoum, Senior Lecture at the Language Center,
- Philippe C. Smitter, Emeritus Professor of Political Science,
- Eliana Vasquez [53], Administrative Associate in Political Science,
- Diane Frank [54], Lecturer in Dance,
- Megan Miller [55], Arts in Student Life Coordinator for the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts,
- Dr. Sebastien Couvidat, Research Associate for the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory,
- Morgan Mills [56], Development Associate in the Office of Development,
- Priya Satia [57], Assistant Professor of History,
- Carla Hanawalt [58], Financial Management Analyst in the Office of Development,
- Krista Lawlor, Associate Professor of Philosophy,
- Alvin Patino [59], Groundskeeper, Facilities Operations,
- Carol Delaney [60], Emerita Professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology,
- Linda Lopez-Otero [61], Library Specialist,
- Jane R. Vaden, Library Specialist,
- Everardo Rodriguez [62], Library Specialist,
- Mehdi Javanmard [63], Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Stanford Genome Technology Center,
- Deanna Fountain [64], Associate Director of Student Awards in the Financial Aid Office,
- Stephen Boyd [65], Professor of Electrical Engineering,
- Oyekunle A. Olukotun [66], Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
- Natalie May Zahr, Social Science Research Associate, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,
- Damian Wheeler [67], Basic Life Science Research Associate, Molecular and Cellular Physiology,
- Dr. Pavel Podvig [68], Acting Associate Director for Research, Center for International Security and Cooperation,
- Douglas Monica [69], Student Affairs Officer, School of Medicine, and
- Ronald Rebholz [70], Emeritus Professor of English.
“I’m proud of being one of the ‘101 Most Dangerous Professors,'” wrote H. Bruce
Franklin on the petition. A former Stanford professor, Franklin was fired in 1972 “from his tenured professorship for having delivered three on-campus speeches that led to violence and rioting on campus,” wrote David Horowitz in The Professors: the 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, noting that Franklin was a Stalin admirer, author of The Essential Stalin and a Maoist.
(The April Third Movement was active at Stanford 1965 through 1975). Franklin now teaches at Rutgers University [71].