-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Prof Papadimitrou Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:40:08 -0500 From: Dimitri B. Papadimitriou <dbp at levy.org> To: pbond at mail.ngo.za References: <49A07CAC.3090204 at mail.ngo.za>
Dear Professor Bond,
Thank you for writing. Professor Kovel was not fired, and most certainly not for any political views he may or may not hold. After fifteen years of serving as the full-time occupant of an endowed chair, he voluntarily assumed part-time status in 2004. At that time he received a five-year contract, with the understanding that after those five years the college reserved the right to renew his position on a year-to-year basis. He knew it was possible that his position might not be renewed after the 2008–2009 academic year. In consultation with faculty, Bard elected not to renew Professor Kovel’s contract because, like all colleges, it faces severe fiscal constraints and is doing everything it can to preserve the employment of its full-time faculty. Professor Kovel enjoyed a fine and productive career at Bard for more than twenty years. We are sorry for and astonished at his allegations, which have no basis in fact.
Cordially,
Dimitri Papadimitriou
Patrick Bond wrote:
>
> Greetings from Durban, South Africa,
>
> We use your Levy Institute analysis regularly, and will continue to do
> so. But my respect for your courageous and rigorous work on political
> economy is one reason I am so very appalled that Professor Joel Kovel is
> not being reappointed, in a decision I gather you were party to.
>
> We got to know Joel when he was an unpaid visiting scholar at our Centre
> for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2006. The
> contribution he made - and makes - to our broad understanding of
> political ecology and politics can only be described as brilliant and
> generous. More than anyone I have met, Joel's own courage and rigour
> merit a senior position at a fine liberal arts college like Bard.
>
> Given that his work on Israel has for several years created tensions at
> Bard, and given that it has stood up as an academic work of great merit,
> I really would have expected you to nurture his presence rather than
> terminate it.
>
> Your own reputation as a leading critical intellectual in a hostile US
> environment in which neoclassical economics has reigned, with such
> enormous adverse consequences for the world, can only suffer, not
> insubstantially, if the decision on Joel's position is not reconsidered.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Patrick Bond
> (Senior Professor, School of Development Studies, UKZN)
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Thank you for writing. Professor Kovel was not fired, and most
> certainly not for any political views he may or may not hold. After
> fifteen years of serving as the full-time occupant of a non-tenured
> endowed chair, he voluntarily assumed part-time status in 2004. At
> that time he received a five-year contract, with the understanding
> that after those five years the college reserved the right to renew
> his position on a year-to-year basis. He knew it was possible that his
> position might not be renewed after the 2008–2009 academic year. In
> consultation with faculty, Bard elected not to renew Professor Kovel’s
> contract because, like all colleges, it faces severe fiscal
> constraints and is doing everything it can to preserve the employment
> of its full-time faculty. Professor Kovel enjoyed a fine and
> productive career at Bard for more than twenty years. We are sorry for
> and astonished at his allegations, which have no basis in fact.
>
> Cordially,
> Leon Botstein
> President, Bard College
>
>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>> Your decision not to renew Joel Kovel's contract is a disgrace. For
>> an institution that likes to think of itself as independent and
>> "liberal," you've demonstrated a cowardish and slavish devotion to
>> orthodoxy. First the University of Michigan Press tries to suppress
>> Joel's book, Overcoming Zionism. Then Bard fires him, almost
>> certainly for his high-profile anti-Zionism. I suppose I shouldn't be
>> surprised, but American academia is proving itself an extremely
>> narrow-minded place.
>>
>>
>>
>> Doug Henwood
>> Left Business Observer
>> 38 Greene St - 4th fl.
>> New York NY 10013-2505 USA
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>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> download my book Wall Street (for free!) at
>> <http://www.wallstreetthebook.com>
>>
>
>
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