At Pitzer, we debate ideas. We have strong beliefs. Not everyone
in our community appreciates all of our inquiries or engages in the same way.
These differences contribute to the distinctive quality of the Pitzer community
and enrich our educational experience. This is how we discover and comprehend.
This is how we create knowledge and shape it for meaning and function in our
lives.
This week, an anonymous person posted a publication by the David
Horowitz Freedom Center accusing Pitzer and several other colleges of
anti-Semitism. The authors of the newspaper attacked students associated with
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), equating their commitment to the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement to a terrorist agenda. The headline:
“PITZER COLLEGE – Promoting Jew-Hatred and the Hamas Agenda” and
article claiming that Pitzer is “remarkably
intolerant of Jews and their homeland of Israel” are demonstrably false and
intentionally incendiary.
To encourage the open exchange of ideas, as an institution Pitzer
generally refrains from judging or sanctioning the exercise of free speech on
campus. But occasionally we are confronted by attack speech or hate
speech so extreme that it requires our response. This is such a case.
I encourage all
of you not only to support each other as we conclude the fall semester, but to
reach out to the Office of Student Affairs for information about appropriate
support services, if needed. Thank you for being an active and thoughtful
member of our Pitzer Community.
Melvin L. Oliver
President