Template for email to colleagues concerning Middlesex Philosophy closure and suspensions

UPDATE: W 26 May 7:10 am CDT: Please sign the pledge for an Academic Boycott of Middlesex University until restoration of its philosophy program:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/academic-boycott-of-middlesex-university.html

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Dear Colleagues,

Many of you have heard of the abrupt and unwarranted closure of the highly-ranked program in philosophy at Middlesex University in London.

I’m writing today because the administration’s latest action in this case, the suspension of Professor Peter Osborne and Professor Peter Hallward, along with a number of Middlesex philosophy students, is a grave threat to academic freedom.

Administrators at other universities are carefully monitoring this situation and due to a ratcheting effect, if these suspensions are not overturned by international protest, they will become common practice. We must prevent this administrative bullying of our colleagues, who were doing nothing but attempting to present their side of the case to public opinion.

You can read about the suspensions here: http://savemdxphil.com/2010/05/21/philosophy-students-and-staff-suspended/

You can find details on why the original decision has already provoked an international outcry here: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/05/17/protevi.

Today I’m asking you to protect academic freedom and the integrity of the modern university by taking as many of the following steps as you can.

Please forward this email to colleagues and to any listservs you may belong to.

Please sign the online petition for restoration of the program at: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-middlesex-philosophy.html. Please include your institutional affiliation and location.

Please sign the pledge for an Academic Boycott of Middlesex University until restoration of its philosophy program:http://www.gopetition.com/online/36583/signatures.html

Please write a letter of protest by email, and in hard copy, concerning the original decision, the suspensions, or both. If you have already written in protest of the original decision, please consider writing again to protest the suspensions, which are in some sense an even more serious matter, as they strike at the very heart of academic freedom itself. 

a.       Examples of previous letters are here: http://savemdxphil.com/category/letters-of-support/

b.      Email addresses of the Board of Governors of Middlesex University are here insemicolon format: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected].uk; [email protected]k; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]k; [email protected]btinternet.com; [email protected]; [email protected]m; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]om; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]gov.uk; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

comma format: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].uk, [email protected]k, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]k, [email protected]btinternet.com, [email protected], [email protected]m, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]om, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]gov.uk, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

c.       Please follow your email with a hard copy letter on departmental letterhead. The postal address is:

Board of Governors
Middlesex University in London
The Burroughs
London NW4 4BT England

d.      Personal letters are great; departmental letters are even better.

e.      If you agree to have your letter published on the Save Middlesex Philosophy website, you should BCC [email protected].

4.       If you have a blog, please make a post on the situation and link to http://savemdxphil.com.  

 With my very best wishes,

 

Comments

[Jodi]

I'm on the Council of the American Political Science Association. I'm hoping the organization will write a letter.

[looby]

I have sent the follwing to the Sociology postgraduates' email list and my own department's list (Institite of Contemporary Arts) at Lancaster University. I am absolutely outraged by this and I hope that everyone who made this decision will be forced into revoking a act of vandalism against one of the unsung institutions of British humanist thought.

Dear All

I hope you won't mind me bringing to the attention of those who aren't
already aware of it of the almost certainly illegal action of Middlesex
University's Board of Governers in barring from the University its own
Professors Peter Osborne, Christine Kerslake and Peter Hallward, along
with several students. This has arisen as a result of protests held
against the closure of the department, based on the usual myopic
grounds of income generation. One can only presume such actions are
designed to make the climbers up the slippery pole of academic
administration glow more brightly in their managers' eyes, since it has
absolutely no basis in the quality of the work that they are seeking to
destroy.

Middlesex University has an illustrious history. As Hornsey College of
Art it was instrumental in bringing the ideas of Situationism into
England; as Middlesex Polytechnic it was a pioneer in introducing the
poststructuralist thought of the same country into the UK, something
which is now a central part of any humanities discipline.

As someone working in the same broad area that is being attacked here,
I wonder if you might find ten minutes of your time to follow the
actions suggested on
http://proteviblog.typepad.com/protevi/2010/05/template-for-email-to-colleagues-concerning-middlesex-philosophy-closure-and-suspensions.html

Further background information on the situation, which fits every
definition of bullying, can be found at
http://savemdxphil.com/2010/05/21/philosophy-students-and-staff-suspended/

There is evidence from other recent protests that decisions can
be overturned if sufficient publicity is focussed on the wrecking crew.
In the light of the impending demise of IAS for comparably spurious
reasons, we all need to make sure that managers of a similar bent are
put on the back foot rather than emboldened by compliance with
similar acts of vandalism in sister institutions.

Cliff Laine
Postgraduate student
Institute for the Contemporary Arts (Music)

[Danny Wolpert]

I am so heartened to see this.
Thank you for supporting the cause. I am a former graduate of the CRMEP MA at Middlesex and right now Middlesex Philosophy, its students and staff need every voice behind them to stop this vandalism.

Danny Wolpert
PhD Candidate
University of Cambridge