It has come to our attention that Professor Adam Miyashiro, a member of the Stockton University faculty, is the victim of a libelous internet smear campaign.  In the past 24 hours, an anonymous person or persons has posted accusations that Miyashiro is recruiting students to a “domestic terrorist organization.”    The accusation, which is made with no material proof, and anonymously, asks students at Stockton to write to University administrators to make this same libelous accusation. 

This is a scandalous, illegal, and unfounded attack, with potentially dangerous consequences. We write as concerned colleagues across the profession to request that you denounce this smear campaign, and offer public support for Professor Miyashiro. 

The assault on Professor Miyashiro is not an isolated incident. It is one of the latest in a string of orchestrated right-wing attacks against faculty who have had the courage to stand with students and colleagues against oppression as vocal advocates for social justice. The recent move by the David Horowitz Freedom Center to equate scholar-activists like Hatem Bazian or Kumars Salehi at UC Berkely or San Francisco State’s Rabab Abdulhadi with terrorists or anti-Semites is only one example. Faculty from across disciplines, like Dorothy Kim at Vassar College, Johnny Eric Williams at Trinity College, Mark Bray at Dartmouth College, Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor at Princeton University, and Amanda Gailey at University of Nebraska, Lincoln, among numerous others, have all been singled out as part of multiple, maliciously orchestrated, politically motivated character assassination campaigns.

It is imperative that action is taken in defense of Professor Miyashiro as both an affirmation of academic freedom and as part of a formal refusal to validate right-wing fear-mongering. False, inflammatory, libelous accusations against any University employee should never be tolerated.  We request on Professor Miyashiro’s behalf that the University conduct an investigation into this smear campaign as a protection of his rights and good standing at your University, including legal support as necessary.

We also ask that you affirm Professor Miyashiro’s first amendment rights to freedom of political expression.  The 1940 Association of American University Professors principles on academic freedom and tenure make clear that University faculty first amendment rights should be protected within and without the classroom: https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure

Should harassment of Adam continue and his safety on campus be jeopordized we demand that Administration publicly signal its commitment 1. to faculty freedom of speech including Adam's and 2. to working with Adam on a plan to ensure his continued safety on Stockton's campus.