A week after Tony Kushner's honorary degree from John Jay College was halted by the CUNY Board of Trustees (because of Kushner's stance on Middle East politics), the board's executive committee gave it right back last night. The decision, which concluded a less-than-30 minute meeting where board members expressed displeasure with the way the situation had unfolded, comes after tremendous political pressure was put on the school. Explained trustee Kathleen M. Pesile yesterday, “we are now correcting it because it benefits CUNY and we will not get another chance to remove this blemish.”
The emergency meeting by the executive committee (which "has the power to reconsider any decision of the 17-member board that would be detrimental to the university without immediate action.") was called by the board chairman, Benno Schmidt, at the urging of the chancellor—even though Schmidt, who was out of the country, was unable to attend. The final vote was 6 to 1.
Kushner's honorary degree was initially tabled when a trustee appointed by George Pataki, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, raised concerns he had about Kushner's opinions of Israel. Without reaching out to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright to clarify, the board simply tabled the decision—which, without the emergency session, would have been a fatal blow to the honorary degree. The question now is if Kushner will even accept the degree. Last Wednesday he made it sound like he wouldn't, but "then indicated Thursday that he might reconsider if it was important to people at John Jay." Commencement is scheduled for June 3.
And what about the troublemaking trustee Wiesenfeld? He has two more years on his term but a number of CUNY faculty, including the teachers union, are calling for his resignation. Wiesenfeld "has demonstrated a profound lack of understanding of the principle of academic freedom," the union pointed out in a statement yesterday that harps on the man's perceived failings (i.e. he has "has made a habit of vilifying students and particularly faculty with whom he disagrees politically."). While the union acknowledges it has had a history of problems with trustees in the past by its nature, that is a moot point as "there is no other trustee in our knowledge who has worked deliberately to undermine the institution by publicly discrediting its faculty."
Wiesenfeld has said he intends to serve his full term as trustee.
