Before the start of the Fall semester, I noted that an assistant professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University was mired in a controversy over a book that she had assigned for an upcoming class. The university was receiving demands that the book be banned from the class, and in some cases that the professor be fired for good measure. The book, The Right to Maim, was characterized as antisemitic in its criticism of the Israeli military. The controversy is detailed in my post here.
The semester has now begun, and to my knowledge the class is being taught with The Right to Maim still on the syllabus. The university administration had refrained from issuing a public statement on the controversy, until now.
President Chris Eisgruber included a brief reaffirmation of the importance of academic freedom in his address to the faculty at the start of the new academic year. That statement was cast in general terms, and it can be found here.
