May 17, 2017
Interim President Vincent Boudreau
Office of the President
The City College of New York
The Howard E. Wille Building, Room 300
160 Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031
Dear Interim President Boudreau:
We write in regard to your May 12th statement concerning the altercation during a recent event at City College of New York (CCNY) featuring Ambassador Dani Dayan, Consul General of Israel in New York. We welcome your affirming the critical principle of free speech and the importance of an unfettered exchange of ideas as the cornerstone of institutions of higher education.
At the same time, we are troubled by part of your statement, which not only omitted Ambassador Dayan’s name and title, but referred to him as “a well-known advocate of expanding Israeli settlements in the contested territories, a position that generates great opposition and anger among some in our community.” While it is true that in his previous capacity Ambassador Dayan represented the Israeli settlement movement, he currently serves as the official diplomat in New York for Israel, and not as a settler advocate. Your statement’s failure to mention this important detail, and portrayal of Ambassador Dayan as a nameless, provocative ideologue, is not only misleading and dismissive of the ambassador, but may be seen as justifying the lack of civility demonstrated by some students to the Consul General during the question and answer portion of his presentation.
Since accuracy, important in all contexts, is especially essential in an institution of higher learning, we strongly urge you to correct this omission from the statement posted on your website.
ADL has a number of useful resources on how to handle challenging situations such as this one, and we would be happy to meet with and your staff you to discuss this in further detail. Please let us know if we can be of assistance.
Evan R. Bernstein
Anti-Defamation League
New York Regional Director
Andrew J. Frackman
Anti-Defamation League
New York Regional Chair