Dear President Rodin:
My name is Robert Chatelle and I'm the Political Issues Chair of the National Writers Union, a 4,000-member labor union representing freelance writers nationwide. Our membership includes journalists, book authors, poets, short-story writers, children's authors, academics, and business and technical writers. We are proud to be affiliated with the United Auto Workers as UAW Local 1981.
By our constitution, the National Writers Union is committed to freedom of expression in all media. Therefore we are dismayed to hear that in mid-February of this year the entire archives and files of one of your student publications, Red and Blue, were destroyed. We are saddened to hear that issues dating back to the 19th century were permanently lost, including the only known copy of the first number of the magazine, dated February 1889. I have advised the magazine's officers immediately to retain legal counsel to insure that justice is done.
We respectfully request that you inform the National Writers Union of the actions that you are taking to identify and punish the persons responsible for this destruction of valuable property.
Furthermore, we are astounded to hear that the destruction may actually have occurred with the knowledge and consent of employees of the University of Pennsylvania. I've been informed that Ms. Francine Walker of the office of the Vice Provost for University Life may have authorized the removal and disposal of property from the Red and Blue's office. We would like to be in full possession of the facts in this matter. Therefore, we respectfully request a copy of any recent letter (should such a document exist) to the officers of the Red and Blue informing them of their legal eviction from their premises and of any right of appeal. Since a competent person would send such a notice by registered mail (or, at the very least, by certified mail with return receipt requested) we also respectfully request a copy of the signed receipt showing that said notice was actually received by the Red and Blue.
Had these acts been directed against a gay/lesbian publication, I suspect that there would be outrage on campus, complete with rallies that would feature you as a speaker. (I don't make this statement thoughtlessly: I'm proud to be a gay man myself.) I gather that the reaction in the Red and Blue case has been quite different. We have been informed that the Student Activities Council has acted to defund the Red and Blue and to demote them to a "partially recognized" student group. Frankly, we suspect that the defunding and demotion were motivated by objections to the magazine's content. At a leading and respected university such content restriction surely violates the principles of free expression.
We have also been informed that on January 17 you issued a statement in defense of free speech and that, in this statement, you characterized Red and Blue as "bigoted, racist, hateful." We certainly defend your right to characterize the magazine in any way you choose. Since you spoke as a university president, however, your remarks may have been imprudent considering that there seems to be an effort on campus to silence the publication. On the other hand, the context of this quote may have been a vigorous defense of Red and Blue's right to exist, to publish, and to receive funding. I hope that the latter will prove to be the case. In any case, we also respectfully request a copy of your remarks so that we may judge for ourselves.
As Political Issues Chair of the National Writers Union I often write letters on behalf of students and student groups that have been censored on college and university campuses. Recently, for example, we have defended free speech at the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. And, as I'm sure you're well aware, the University of Pennsylvania itself is still held up for ridicule because of the unfortunate "water buffalo" incident. In most cases, the silencing of free speech has been done at the insistence of officers of the university. We are sadly coming to the conclusion that many university and college administrators now hold in contempt the inalienable and Constitutional right to freedom of speech.
We recognize that universities are economic institutions in great need, and that controversies on campuses have negative economic impact. But universities must serve a higher purpose and that purpose is not the creation of a society where everyone is equal but no one is free. All universities, public and private, have an ethical obligation to teach people how to participate in democracy and democracy is not for the thin-skinned. The free marketplace of ideas can be a bruising, abusive, hostile place. A place where even "bigoted, racist, and hateful" (and, I might add, homophobic) speech must be protected. The protection of such speech is the necessary price we all must be willing to pay to preserve our own freedom.
We look forward to receiving the requested materials and in hearing any additional thoughts you have on this important matter. I edit a newsletter for the National Writers Union and I'm eager to do an article about this case.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Chatelle, Political Issues Chair
National Writers Union UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO
cc: Dr. Stanley Chodorow; Daily Pennsylvanian; Red and Blue; Marjorie Heins, ACLU Arts Censorship Project; Judith Krug, American Library Association; LeAnne Katz, National Coalition Against Censorship; David Mendoza, National Campaign for Freedom of Expression; Chris Finan, Media Coalition; Gara LaMarche, Human Rights Watch; Marcia Pally; Feminists for Free Expression; Jim Halpert, People for the American Way; Siobhan Dowd, PEN American Center; other members of the Free Expression Network; Harvey Silverglate; Nat Hentoff