Two days ago I posted a note here about the resolution proposed by J. Lorand Matory, a anthropologist and Afro-Americanist, and docketed for the Harvard Faculty of Arts of Sciences this past Tuesday. It was an insipid resolution but, as its sponsor made abundantly clear himself, it was rooted in his attempt to shut Jews and other friends of Israel up. Had it passed it would have been insidious.
Frankly, I feared that--what with a faculty largely disgusted with the politics that has become much of its business--only the usuals would come. Now, it is true that not even one-sixth of the faculty, the constitutional quorum, showed up. So no resolution of any sort would be passed. But Matory's mischief was discussed. And it fared very badly, as The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday.
The most interesting fact is that not many of Matory's comrades showed up. Well, Harvard, it seems, is not Columbia.