Faculty letter to U. admin calling for VP Calhoun’s resignation

The following is an open letter and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a letter to the Opinion section, click here.

We, the undersigned faculty members and academic staff at Princeton University, write this letter to condemn your repression and vilification of Princeton students and other community members currently protesting and engaging in civil disobedience in solidarity with Palestine. 

For almost a week now, people of multiple faiths, genders, ages, and colors — belonging to the Princeton community and beyond — have participated in an entirely peaceful student-led sit-in on campus in pursuit of their demand that the University divest from Israel. In your communications with the campus community, you fail to mention the context preceding the students’ escalation of their protest which culminated in the occupation of Clio Hall on Monday, April 29: your refusal to consider the students’ demand for divestment from Israel for decades and your ignoring of their most recent efforts since the Fall of 2023 to reach you through the formal and procedural channels available at the University. You do not admit the complete refusal of the Princeton administration to respond to all the earlier requests to engage with students in serious, good-faith dialogue.

In the face of such deliberate indifference, escalating a student protest through the occupation of a University building is a measure with abundant precedent in the history of protest movements in this country and beyond — a history that the University itself lauds. If we may remind you, your assigned Pre-read for this past school year was “How to Stand Up to a Dictator” by Maria Ressa ’86. 

Protest measures such as occupying academic buildings, encamping on university lawns, and assembling and mobilizing people on campus premises have all long been part of U.S. campus protests, including at Princeton. Such protest measures have been amply visible on U.S. and global campuses during moments like the protest against apartheid in South Africa, and against the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The current protest is no different. It is neither exceptional nor dangerous. Rather, it is your criminalization of this protest, and of the student protesters who are leading it, that is both exceptional and dangerous.

In her April 30 message to the campus community, Vice President W. Rochelle Calhoun falsely claimed, without providing any evidence, that student protesters who entered Clio Hall on April 29 were violent and threatened people inside the building. This is a lie negated by the eyewitness account of the faculty observer who entered the building with the student protesters. VP Calhoun builds a case for unsparing discipline upon the students on the grounds of the picture of yelling, abuse, and unsafety she paints. This attempt to scare student protesters through stereotyping and the threat of arrest and criminal punishment constitutes an authoritarian assault on democratic principles.

All Princeton students protesting for divestment from Israel have done so non-violently and their disruptions have been no different than those in previous occupations on campus. The only student arrested for violent activity on April 29 was a counter protester who was charged with assault. 

Your invocation of “time, place, and manner” restrictions to free speech appears arbitrary in this case and clearly shows your bias against the viewpoint espoused by the student protesters. Moreover, your use of force and power that we have witnessed over the last week sets a dangerous precedent of how the subjectively interpreted grounds of maintaining “public order” might swallow and circumvent future expressions of student, faculty, or staff dissent and protest. 

If anything, your recourse to the contrived imperative of “maintaining public order” with the help of law enforcement agencies — a textbook colonial discourse and tactic still abundantly employed by authoritarian states — has only brought disorder and disturbance to an otherwise entirely organized and peaceful student-led protest movement. For instance, to cite one among the many cases of police heavy-handedness that you unleashed on your own students, an arrested Black Muslim student had no choice but to pray while restrained with zip-ties, next to the Graduate School’s own Office of Access, Diversity, and Inclusion. 

Let us be very clear and direct: your turn to authoritarian threats of violence against your own students peacefully protesting a just cause has little to do with an ostensible concern for public order and safety, and everything to do with the desire to quash a movement critical of a particular modern nation-state, and of the possible implication of Princeton University’s financial portfolio in a horrific genocide being currently conducted by that nation-state. By casting student protesters as potential criminals, you also authorize the insidious and untenable assumption of equating raising one’s voice against the violence of a modern nation state with antisemitism. More than anyone else, such an implication is offensive to our Jewish students who are playing a leading role in the organization and execution of these protests, at Princeton and across the country.

Along with our diverse student organizations, we reject the lockdown of Morrison Hall from April 30 to May 2, which houses the Department of African American Studies and the Effron Center for the Study of America — where many students come to engage with Latino Studies, Asian American Studies, American Studies, and Indigenous Studies. Four of five arrested undergraduate students are pursuing degrees in African American Studies.

We affirm the democratic tradition which includes the historic role of civil disobedience. We affirm Princeton University’s commitment to serve humanity and we seek to pursue this value without discrimination among the people of the world.     

We urge you to stop the criminalization, gross mischaracterization, and harassment of non-violent student protesters. We urge you to drop all charges against the arrested students, in recognition of their right to protest and their use of civil disobedience methods, and to grant them full amnesty. We demand that the University recognize that the students have tried all available procedural means to initiate dialogue on their demands with the administration and that you enter into dialogue with the students immediately. Finally, we demand the immediate resignation of VP Calhoun, in whose leadership we have lost all faith following her untruthful and, in our opinion, deliberately misleading representation of student protesters, that has proven to be the real threat to the Princeton University community.

Signed,

Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Associate Professor of Classics and associate faculty in African American Studies; Faculty Coordinator, MMUF Princeton

Rob Nixon, Barron Family Professor of Environment and Humanities, HMEI and English

Anne McClintock, A Barton Hepburn Professor High Meadows Environmental Institute and GSS

Behrooz Ghamari, Professor NES

Gyan Prakash, Dayton-Stickton Professor of History

Max Weiss, Associate Professor of History

Susana Draper, Professor, Comparative Literature

Judith Weisenfeld, Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion

Ruha Benjamin, Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies

Hal Foster, Townsend Martin 1917 Professor of Art and Archaeology

Joshua Guild, Associate Professor of African American Studies

Zahid Chaudhary, Associate Professor

Andrew Cole, Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature, Department of English

Lara Harb, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Studies

Tehseen Thaver, Assistant Professor of Religion

Karen Emmerich, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature

Mohamed Abou Donia, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology

Bryan D. Lowe, Assistant Professor of Religion

Carolyn Areum Choi, Assistant Professor, Effron Center for the Study of America

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies

Zia Mian, Senior Research Scholar and Co-Director, Program in Science and Global Security (SGS)

Agustín Fuentes, Professor of Anthropology

Jenny Greene, Professor of Astrophysics

Meredith Martin, Associate Professor English

Eldar Shafir, Class of 1987 Professor in Behavioral Science and Public Policy

Chika Okeke-Agulu, Robert Schirmer Professor of Art and Archaeology and African American Studies

Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion

Molly Greene Professor Department of History Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

Junko Yamazaki, Assistant Professor, East Asian Studies

Divya Cherian, Associate Professor of History

Eduardo Cadava, Philip Mayhew Professor of English

Gayle Salamon, Professor of English

Benjamin Bradlow, Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Affairs

Steven Chung, Associate Professor, East Asian Studies

Vera S Candiani, Associate Professor, History

Carlos Brody, Professor of Neuroscience, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Christine Allen-Blanchette, Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Statistics and Machine Learning

Lorgia García Peña, Professor, African American Studies and Effron Center.

V. Mitch McEwen, Assistant Professor in Architecture

William Gleason, Hughes-Rogers Professor of English and American Studies

Natasha Wheatley, Assistant Professor of History

Gavin Steingo, Professor, Department of Music

Ben Baer, Associate Professor, Comparative Literature

Curtis Deutsch, Professor of Geoscience and HMEI

Erin Besler, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture

Allison Carruth, Professor of American Studies and Environmental Studies

Bradley Dickerson, Assistant Professor, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Matthew Karp, Associate Professor of History

D. Vance Smith, Professor of English

John Storey, Professor of Genomics

Adji Bousso Dieng, Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Aleksandar Hemon, Professor, Creative Writing Program, Lewis Center for the Arts

Autumn Womack, Associate Professor, English and African American Studies

Radhika Nagpal, Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Computer Science

Jeremy Goodman, Professor, Astrophysical Sciences

Catherine Clune-Taylor, Assistant Professor, Program in Gender and Sexuality

Stephen F. Teiser, D.T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies and Religion

Pedro Meira Monteiro, Arthur W. Marks ‘19 Professor of Spanish and Portuguese

Jay Cephas, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture

Andrea L. Graham, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Fenna Krienen, Assistant Professor, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Jack Tannous, Associate Professor of History and Hellenic Studies

German Labrador Mendez, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Byron Ahn, Assistant Professor, Program in Linguistics

Natalia Castro Picón, Assistant Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Rafael Cesar, Assistant Professor, Department of Spanish & Portuguese

Hendrik A. Hartog, class of 1921 bicentennial professor in the history of American law and liberty, emeritus

James Gunn, Eugene Higgins Professor, Astrophysical Sciences (emeritus)

Olga Peters Hasty, Professor Emerita, Slavic Department

M. V. Ramana, Visiting Professor, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Fadi A. Bardawil, Visiting Associate Professor, Anthropology and Near Eastern Studies

Ken Anderson, Visiting Professor, Keller Center, SEAS

Shen-yi Liao, Visiting Faculty Fellow, University Center for Human Values

Nancy Coffin, Sr. Lecturer, Near Eastern Studies

Anastasia Mann, Lecturer

Mounia Mnouer, Lecturer, Near Eastern Studies

Mayank Sarika, Lecturer, School of Public and International Affairs.

Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Lecturer, Anthropology

Anthar Darwish, Lecturer, Department of Molecular Biology

yuniya edi kwon, Lecturer and Arts Fellow, Lewis Center for the Arts

Colleen Asper, Lecturer, Lewis Center for the Arts

Sean Cashbaugh, Lecturer, Princeton Writing Program

Devanne Brookins, Lecturer and Associate Research Scholar, SPIA

Jessica Leung, Lecturer, Keller Center

Faris Zwirahn, Lecturer in Near Eastern Studies

Abdelrahman Hamdan, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Adel Ardalan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Arthur Obst, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University Center for Human Values & High Meadows Environmental Institute

Ayah Nuriddin, Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows, Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and African American Studies

Christine Roughan, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Near Eastern Studies

Danny Hang, Research Specialist, Department of Psychology

Dionne Worthy, Dept. of African American Studies, Admin and Events Coordinator

Emilee Shine, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Molecular Biology

Evan Russek, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Computer Science and Psychology

Forrest Rogers, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Neuroscience and Molecular Biology

Guillaume Falmagne, Postdoctoral Research Associate, HMEI/EEB

Hamza El-Asaad, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Science and Global Security

Harini Kumar, Postdoctoral Research Associate, CGI and Dept. of History

Harrison Ritz, Associate Research Scholar, PNI

Javier Masís, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Joseph Fronczak, Research Scholar, History

Juan Ferre, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Judy Kim, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University Center for Human Values & Psychology

Lacy Feigh, Link-Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows, Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and History

LaNell William , Associate Research Scholar

Lindsay Becker, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Chemical and Biological Engineering

Lindsey Stephenson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Mae Guthman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Maral Sahebjame, Postdoctoral Researcher, Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies

Martin Zettersten, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Psychology

May Kosba, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Program in African Studies

Merihan Alhafnawi, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Mia Kussman, Research Specialist, Princeton Neuroscience Institute and Psychology

Moamen Elmassry, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Molecular Biology

Mohan Gupta, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Psychology

Mostafa Abdou, Postoctoral Research Associate, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Naveed Mansoori, Associate Research Scholar

Negar Razavi, Associate Research Scholar, Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies

Nicolás Sánchez-Rodríguez, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Society of Fellows

Nusrat Molla, Postdoctoral Research associate, Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment

Paola Estrada, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Molecular Biology

Rachel L Bedder, Postdoctoral Research Associate, PNI & Psychology

Samuel A. Nastase, Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Sergio Garcia, Associate Research Scholar, Chemical and Biological Engineering

Sina Tafazoli, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Supratik Baralay, Perkins-Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows, Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities, Classics and in Humanistic Studies

Tea Temim, Research Astronomer, Department of Astrophysical Sciences

Yeon Soon Shin, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Psychology