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Barnard would have you believe that we are outsiders and have no right to our opinion. We disagree. We invested years of our lives attending classes and being an integral part of life on campus. And, in the years that have followed, Barnard has consistently reached out to maintain a strong connection. Regularly we are approached for donations, asked to participate in events, attend reunions. It is our right and our obligation to offer our informed opinions in the hope that Columbia will do the right thing...and Deny Nadia Abu El Haj tenure!
 

I welcome this opportunity to join in the protest against Nadia Abu El-Haj receiving tenure at Barnard. I took the trouble to read her book.

While it  has a panache of scholarly gloss and style, it strikes me as a prime example of biased, shoddy scholarship, ignoring of context, special pleading, exclusion of data and willful determination to reach a preordained conclusion. I reached these conclusions by utilizing the skills I gained at Barnard after receiving instruction by a balanced and diverse faculty in various fields of study which was able to establish and sustain high standards not only for student performance but for professional performance.

Should Barnard grant tenure to Abu El-Haj, my contributions to the college will end and I shall certainly try to influence my fellow
alumnae to join me in refusing to support the college in such a
decision in such opposition to its claim (and history) of scholarly
excellence and objectivity.

It is important that the faculty, students and community of Barnard and Columbia recognize that this is NOT a matter of academic freedom but a matter of academic integrity.

Elsa A. Solender, Barnard Class of 1961

I read Nadia Abu El-Haj’s book, Facts on the Ground, and was completely astonished at what seemed to me to be more like fiction on the ground. However, admittedly, I am not a trained archeologist and so I asked two people who are to review her book – namely Profs. Motti Aviam and Robert Eisenman.  Their reviews entirely corroborated my impression.  There is no need for me here to enumerate what they are as many published reviews have already done so. This book is replete with errors of proper scholarship and its author should not be given tenure at Barnard or any other respectable institution of higher learning. I can’t even imagine what the committees reviewing her record are thinking of. Should she receive tenure, I will request of Barnard that they remove my name permanently from their mailing list.  I will certainly not make any further donations and, if fact, won’t even want to read news of the college.

Maxine E. Schwartz
Director of Development and Outreach
University of Miami
Sue and Leonard Miller Center
for Contemporary Judaic Studies
Barnard, Class of 1960

I loved Barnard and dreamed of sending my daughters there, to get the same intellectually stimulating education that I did.

Recently, I lost my faith in Barnard. On staff, in the anthropology dept, is a teacher who denies the existence of the ancient Israelite kingdoms, despite all historical and archeological evidence. Her research is flimsy and her conclusions politically motivated. She has no credibility in her field. And yet President Shapiro has offered her tenure.

I could not imagine sending my daughter to an institution that considers political correctness a higher value than intellectual honesty and academic integrity. I will always treasure the education I received at Barnard. I hope that one day Barnard will regain that standard of excellence.

Rivka Zuckerman Matitya
Class of  1989

This is not in the exalted traditions of Profs. Joseph Schacht, John Badeau, J. C. Hurwitz, Gershon Cohen, et. al. It makes a mockery of the work and tradition of all these eminent forbears and should be denied.

Prof. Robert Eisenman CSULB Emeritus 1971; Ph.D in Middle East Languages and Cultures and Islamic Law, Columbia, 1971.
 

We are Barnard parents (Amber Abrams, 04) shocked that the University would consider tenure for an unqualified political jester. 

Will you give me a full professorship for writing an undocumented, unsupported bunch of tripe? Academic integrity is not just "allow anything", it must support real science and study, not politically charged BS.  If the University gives this NADIA ABU EL HAJ person tenure, I would not ever send another member of my family to Barnard or Columbia! At this point, I will not contribute any more money to the University until this NADIA ABU EL HAJ is dismissed. 

Dr. Ronald W Abrams, CEP
Washington & Lee Unviersity, BA 1972
 University of Cape Town, PhD, 1985
 

 

 

2007 Copyright: Deny Abu El Haj Tenure Committee