Rutgers Senate committee censures dean for canceled convocation speech, demands formal review

A top committee of the Rutgers University Senate criticized university officials for canceling a planned convocation speech from biotech CEO Rami Elghandour for what Rutgers deemed “inflammatory” comments, but the committee stopped short of calling for Elghandour to be reinstated.

On Tuesday, the executive committee of the Rutgers University Senate censured Engineering Dean Alberto Cuitiño for his “opaque” handling of the matter, which sparked anger from progressive groups and confusion among the university community. The resolution also called for a review of Cuitiño’s decision to cancel the speech and asked Rutgers University President William F. Tate IV to publicly reaffirm the school’s commitment to free expression.

Elghandour had been scheduled to deliver an address at the Engineering School’s convocation this Friday, but the school pulled the plug late last month after an unspecified number of students said they wouldn’t attend his speech because of posts critical of Israel. A Rutgers spokesperson pointed specifically to a post claiming that Israel trains dogs to sexually assault Palestinian prisoners. (The claim has been the subject of international controversy lately, after Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof published a similar account; Israel called the article “blood libel” and argued it had been poorly sourced.)

The executive committee’s resolution argued that Cuitiño handled the controversy in a “one-sided” manner that harmed the university and its community. 

“Following widespread criticism of both the cancellation decision and the process by which it was reached, Dean Cuitiño has sought retrospective validation of his actions through fragmented faculty engagement rather than transparent, collective dialogue,” the resolution states.

And though the resolution criticizes the process through which Elghandour’s speech was cancelled, it doesn’t demand that the university reinstate Elghandour for Friday’s convocation. An initial version of the resolution held that demand, but it was absent from the approved version on Tuesday.

The Rutgers University Senate is a body independent of university administration, consisting of faculty, staff, and students who make recommendations to Rutgers leaders.

In an email to Rutgers University senators, executive committee member Paul Boxer, a professor of psychology, cited a New Jersey Globe article about a controversial “New Jewsy” post that Elghandour had retweeted, sparking criticism from Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly).

Elghandour said he didn’t see the tweet as a pejorative, but rather as a phonetic spelling of the Jersey accent, like “New Joisy.” Still, Boxer said the posts “dismayed” the executive committee.

“While it would be possible to write this off as an angry reaction from someone who was slighted by the University, or as an honest mistake as Mr. Elghandour claimed on Twitter, we chose not to do that,” Boxer wrote. “It was very clearly a slur — intentional or otherwise. We viewed this as both inept and intolerable in the broader context of the situation and could no longer defend a demand for reinstatement.”

But regardless of the post, Boxer said Cuitiño made missteps in handling the situation, calling Cuitiño’s decision “rank hypocrisy.”

“He canceled the speech because he was concerned about a few students being upset and refusing to attend — with no consideration or even basic acknowledgement of the fact that his actions could cause other students to be upset and refuse to attend,” Boxer wrote. “This, along with other details elaborated in the resolution text, led us to our majority vote of censure for the SOE dean.”

Elghandour had also criticized the process, saying Cuitiño did not inform him of why his address was being canceled.

Cuitiño deferred a request for comment to  Rutgers spokesperson Dory Devlin, who said the dean made the right decision to cancel the speech and that no graduate should be forced to choose “between their personal convictions and celebrating their hard-earned academic achievements at convocation.”

“Rutgers strives to foster an environment where people from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are welcomed, respected, and able to participate fully in university life,” Devlin said.

Several university groups have expressed their displeasure about the decision to cancel Elghandour’s speech. On Monday, a gathering of protesters attempted to deliver a petition to Cuitiño, according to the Daily Targum, Rutgers’ student newspaper. 

Deans were generally tasked with approving convocation speakers for their respective schools, so the buck stopped with Engineering Dean Alberto Cuitiño to invite (and then disinvite) Elghandour.

But the snafu has apparently led to an overhaul of how future convocation speakers will be selected. According to Boxer, Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway said future school-specific speakers will be selected in a “shared governance process,” similar to the one already used for university-wide speakers.