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On Friday, October 17, the Rutgers University Senate overwhelmingly approved a resolution in support of academic freedom, spurred by the recent attacks on History Professor Mark Bray.
The University Senate is made up of more than 200 members, representing faculty, students, staff, administrators, and alumni.
Bray, the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, says he began to receive death threats after President Trump signed an executive order declaring “Antifa” a terrorist organization. The student chapter of Turning Point USA also launched a campaign to have Bray fired, falsely claiming that the professor is “a prominent leader of the antifa movement on campus.”
Fearing for their safety, he relocated his family to Europe.
Trump and other far-right extremists routinely accuse those who disagree with the president’s fascist agenda of being part of “Antifa,” which stands for anti-fascist and, as many have already noted, is not an organization.
Bray is on Turning Point USA’s “Professor Watchlist,” along with 21 other Rutgers professors. The group makes the baseless accusation that those on the list “discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” Turning Point, the right-wing extremist organization founded by Charlie Kirk, says it has more than 800 college chapters and over 1,000 high school chapters.
The Rutgers resolution does not name Bray or Turning Point, but states, in part:
A faculty member in the Department of History at Rutgers-New Brunswick, has been targeted by a Rutgers student organization, which launched a petition calling for his dismissal based on disagreement with the political content of his scholarship and public engagement.
The resolution continues: “[T]his campaign has created widespread concern among Rutgers faculty and governance bodies about institutional support for academic freedom and free expression under intensifying political pressure, as well as threats to any Rutgers faculty and their family’s safety.”
The University President’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Bray has received widespread support from his colleagues. The professors’ unions, representing tenure-track, tenured, and adjunct teaching staff, posted a statement in solidarity with Bray, stating, in part, that they “proudly stand with” Bray and his wife, Dr. Yesenia Barragan,” who is also a Rutgers professor.
“Turning Point’s attack is part of an escalating effort by the far right to suppress the speech, teaching, and scholarship of faculty who do not conform to their movement’s politics,” the unions said. “Silence in the face of these assaults will only embolden the far right.”
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