To: Gloria D. Thomas, Director of the Center for the Education of Women
University of Michigan: Reverse decision to disinvite Alice Walker
Just Foreign Policy
We urge you to reverse the decision to disinvite celebrated novelist Alice Walker from speaking at the University of Michigan. This ill-considered decision was a blow against academic freedom and free speech. If the decision is not reversed, the University of Michigan's reputation as an upholder of academic values will be tarnished.
Why is this important?
"World-renowned American author Alice Walker has been disinvited from giving a speech at the University of Michigan because a donor objects to her views on Israel, the agent negotiating the contract was told.
Walker, the Pultizer Prize winning author of The Color Purple, posted on her blog an excerpt of a letter from the agent informing her that the invitation to keynote the 50th anniversary celebration of the Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan had been withdrawn."
-"Alice Walker disinvited from University of Michigan over ‘Israel comments’"
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/alice-walker-disinvited-university-michigan-over-israel-comments
Urge the University of Michigan to reverse this decision and re-invite Walker.