NY Times: After Reversal, Honor Is Likely for Kushner

Here, the opening paragraphs of today’s NY Times article on CUNY’s reversal in re Tony Kushner (you can read the full article here):

After Reversal, Honor Is Likely for Kushner

By WINNIE HU

Published: May 6, 2011

Under mounting pressure, the City University of New York board of trustees moved on Friday to reverse its decision earlier this week to withhold an honorary degree from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner because of one trustee’s concerns about Mr. Kushner’s views regarding Israel.

Benno C. Schmidt Jr., chairman of the CUNY board since 2003, said in a statement that he believed the board had “made a mistake of principle, and not merely of policy,” in failing to approve the degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at its meeting on Monday. Mr. Schmidt scheduled a meeting for this coming Monday of the board’s seven-member executive committee, which has the power to reconsider any board decision that is detrimental to the university.

“Freedom of thought and expression is the bedrock of any university worthy of the name,” Mr. Schmidt, a former president of Yale, said in a statement. “But it is not right for the board to consider politics in connection with the award of honorary degrees except in extreme cases not presented by the facts here.”

Related

• Outrage on CUNY Vote to Shelve Playwright’s Award (May 6, 2011)

• City Room: Reconsidering, CUNY Is Likely to Honor Kushner (May 6, 2011)

• City Room: Transcript of CUNY Trustee’s Speech on Kushner Award(May 6, 2011)

• ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: Tony Kushner and the Art of Empathy(May 5, 2011)

• Times Topic: Tony Kushner

  Related in Opinion

• Letters: CUNY and Tony Kushner: A Firestorm (May 7, 2011)

 

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