Ball of Cottont, Metro Academic Support U.S. campus presidents reject British boycott of Israel. On the Boardwalk Don Cohen Special to the Jewish News 248-626-777 • T Thursday, Aug. 16 1 Oam-Spm Friday, Aug. 17 I Oam-Spm Saturday, Aug. 18 I Oarn-Spm 400 I want to move closer to my grandchildren. New LifeStyles Senior Housing & Care Option guides are available FREE for over 40 areas throughout the USA. New LifeStyles guides include: • All options, from Active Adult Communities to Alzheimer's care, including home care and valuable products and services • Comprehensive listings of all licensed providers • Articles and advice to help you make a decision • Easy to use, with descriptions and locations CVS/pharmacy® Call today! It's FREE! 1-800-820-3013 or visit us online at www.NewLifeStyles.com Callers requesting New LifeStyles may also receive information from providers in their area. 14 August 9 • 2007 JN he presidents of three of Michigan's top universities have joined 280 of their fel- low college and university presidents, a unanimous U.S. Congress as wells as thousands of academics and others around the world in publicly opposing a proposed academic boycott of Israel. Lou Anna K. Simon of Michigan State University, Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan and Dr. Irvin D. Reid of Wayne State University have each endorsed Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger's statement condemning the call for a boycott and telling British academics to boycott his university if they boy- cott Israel. Harold T. Shapiro, like Bollinger a former president of the University of Michigan, solicited endorsements of the statement from more than 2,000 university and college presidents across the nation. Shapiro, president emeritus of Princeton University and co-chair of the American Jewish Committee's Koppelman Insitute on The Bollinger Statement The following statement from Columbia Universtiy President Lee C. Bollinger was slated to be pub- lished as an ad with endorsements in the New York Times on Aug. 9: "As a citizen, I am profoundly disturbed by the recent vote by Britain's new University and College Union to advance a boycott against Lee Bollinger Israeli academic institutions. As a university professor and president, I find this idea utterly antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy, where we will not hold intellectual exchange hostage to the political disagreements of the moment. In seeking to quarantine Israeli universities and scholars, this vote threatens every univer- American Jewish-Israeli Relations, solicited the help of the AJC in prepar- ing an ad that will appear in the Nov. 9 edition of the New York Times. The ad will include Bollinger's statement and a list of endorsers. In May, the University and College Union of the United Kingdom, by a vote of 158-99, called on the European Union to stop funding educational programs with Israel academics and instituions of higher education because of "Israeli academia's coop- eration with the occupation?' It also called for a year of study during which the union would promote the views of Palestinian advocates of a boycott before voting on a full boycott. Opposition to the boycott call has been significant. The head of the UCU has spoken out against it. In early July, the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 414-0, unanimously passed a resolution urging the European Union and governments around the world to reject the call. A Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) petition drafted by Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz has garnered more than 11,000 signers. sity committed to fostering schol- arly and cultural exchanges that lead to enlightenment, empathy and a much-needed international marketplace of ideas. At Columbia I am proud to say that we embrace Israeli scholars and universities that the UCU is now all too eager to isolate — as we embrace scholars from many countries regardless of divergent views on their governments' poli- cies. Therefore, if the British UCU is intent on pursuing its deeply misguided policy, then it should add Columbia to its boycott list, for we do not intend to draw dis- tinctions between our mission and that of the universities you are seeking to punish. Boycott us, then, for we gladly stand together with our many colleagues in British, American and Israeli uni- versities against such intellectu- ally shoddy and politically biased attempts to hijack the central mis- sion of higher education."