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Balancing Act: Women's Studies on the Tightrope
by Brian Mahoney

This month, on Saturday, October 19, the Women's Studies Department at SUNY New Paltz will be holding its 26th annual conference, "Women and War, Peace, and Revolution." The conference will feature a keynote panel with Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now" on Pacifica Radio, who will present a paper entitled "The Effects of War on Women Throughout the World"; Ruchama Marton, an Israeli psychiatrist who founded Israeli-Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights and has written of the Israeli government's abuses of Palestinians during the Intifada, who will present a paper on "Tactics of Oppression in the Peace Negotiations Between Israel and the Palestinians: A Feminist Perspective"; and Nadia Hijab, a Jordanian/British author who has co-authored, with Dr. Amina Minns, Citizens Apart: A Portrait of Palestinians in Israel, and will present a paper on "Human Rights and International Law as a Framework for a Just Peace: A Women's Perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." Following the keynote panel, three sessions of workshops will be presented by academics and activists on such topics as "Including Women in the Global Peace Process," "Growing up Female in War-Torn Bosnia," "Song as an Organizing Tool for Peace," and "Women and Wars of National Liberation in Africa." To conclude the conference there will be an evening performance by actress and performance artist Reno entitled "Rebel Without a Pause," a personal reflection by the artist on the events of 9/11.

For this conference, the Women's Studies Department, in conjunction with the Theater Department (which sponsored the Reno performance), had requested funds totaling $3,325 for its keynote panel and evening performance. The Women's Studies Department has received funding for its conference for the last 15 years through the SUNY New Paltz Foundation, a discretionary fund administered by the office of the college Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs, David Lavalle. This year, however, funds were denied to the Women's Studies Conference. In a memo from Gerald Benjamin, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to David Lavalle, Benjamin wrote: "I do not recommend funding the proposed panel; from SUNY New Paltz Foundation funds." Benjamin went on to state that the views to be aired at the conference were "in accord with the function of the University as a venue for free expression. Financial support for this panel, however, does not constitute optimal use of limited Foundation revenues, nor, in my view, is it in the best interests of the University."

According to Peter Brown, Distinguished Professor of German and a member of the planning committee for the conference, at a lively meeting between Provost Lavalle, Dean Benjamin and members of the planning committee, Dean Benjamin expressed the opinion that he thought the keynote panel would engage in "Israel bashing."
Calls directed to Dean Benjamin were referred to Interim Director of Public Affairs, Shelly Wright, who further explained the Dean and Provost's position on the conference. "Funds are limited, and every request doesn't get funded each year; it's a competitive process" said Wright. "After [the Provost] reviewed the material provided by the conference planning committee and based on further research of the speakers, it was clear the group was proposing a biased and unbalanced panel. And a one-sided panel is not consistent with the best academic values of the college." Wright hastened to add, "The college is comfortable with the level of support it is providing," and stated that the Women's Studies Department was still using their venue and that the college was providing publicity for the conference.
Gerald Sorin, Director of the Jewish Studies program, agreed with Wright's assessment that the speakers on the keynote panel were biased against Israel. Sorin, a self-described "left liberal," believes the conference has academic viability, but that "[the keynote panelists] are all on the same side politically," said Sorin. "I have no objection to any single person on the panel. I just think it needs more balance….Since this was a conference about women and war and revolution, there's other women they might have paid attention to. For example, women in Israel, who are also suffering."

Harold Jacobs, Chair of the Sociology Department and an opponent of the controversial Women's Studies "sex" conference in '97, said that he believes Benjamin is wrong to defund the conference, based on the principle of balance put forward by Dean Benjamin. Jacobs argues that when Dean Benjamin stated that conferences needed to be balanced, he set up an irrational and impossible standard. "There's no end of points of view on a particular issue, so you could never get every perspective represented," said Jacobs. "The idea that every time someone stands at a public podium and makes a presentation on a controversial issue there's got to be somebody standing by who stands for the very opposite point of view, whatever that might be, is absurd."
One untenured professor, who agreed to talk to me on condition of anonymity, went so far as to suggest that the reason the Women's Studies Department had been denied funding was because it had failed an ideological litmus test. The professor asked this question, suggesting it be asked of Dean Benjamin: "What if was the opposite, what if it were two women who were Israelis who had something to say about Palestinian human rights violations? Would Benjamin have cut the funding for that?"

The Women's Studies Department is now scrambling to find money to fund their upcoming conference. According to a recent fundraising letter, the Women's Studies Department believes it needs $4,000 to meet the expenses of the conference. Those wishing to offer support can send donations to Women's Studies-SUNY, 75 S. Manheim Blvd., New Paltz, NY 12561. Make checks payable to "Women and War/CAS."

Women and War, Peace, and Revolution will be held on October 19 at SUNY New Paltz. For program information, call the Women's Studies Department at 257-2975 or visit www.newpaltz.edu/wmnstudies/.