The Brant Clock Tower at Pitzer (Wikimedia Commons) In November, faculty members at Pitzer College in California voted to suspend their study abroad program at the University of Haifa, in line with Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) guidelines. While Pitzer President Melvin Oliver strongly condemned this vote, if implemented, it would stifle academic freedom on campus. Also in California, following a letter organized by the AMCHA Initiative and signed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center, all 10 University of California Chancellors condemned the anti-Israel boycott as a “direct, serous treat to academic freedom.” The condemnation is the first of its kind, wherein the chancellors condemned any attempts by faculty to “implement an academic boycott of Israel on campus.” The response by the Chancellors of the UC system is a direct recognition of the harmful impact of academic boycotts of Israel on both students and faculty. The response by the UC Chancellors invoked their “commitment to continued engagement and partnership with Israeli, as well as Palestinian colleagues, colleges, and universities.” The statement further elaborated on the harmful effects of boycotts, stating that they pose “a direct and serious threat to the academic freedom of our students and faculty…the unfettered exchange of ideas and perspectives on our campuses…and discourse regarding conflicts in the Middle East.” The joint letter organized by the AMCHA Initiative contained the signatures of over 100 civil rights, advocacy, education, and religious groups. The letter was sent to 250 university leaders, urging each of them to sign statements against academic boycotts of Israel. The pledge itself asks the universities to protect the rights of individual faculty and students to express pro-Israel speech, disavow boycotts, and stand against the use of faculty and students as “collateral damage to a political agenda.” A separate petition has been circulated among the general public, urging university leaders to sign the statement. To date, the petition has accrued over 2,000 signatures. “As UC has correctly recognized,” stated AMCHA director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, “an academic boycott, if allowed to be implemented, will directly violate the rights of, and substantively harm, students and faculty on U.S. campuses.”