God and Juan at Yale: An update

Michael Rubin and I have been corresponding regarding our conflicting reports on the Yale history department’s vote in favor of appointing Juan Cole to the Yale faculty. This afternoon Michael advises us:

Your friend’s Yale source quoted a tenured history professor as saying my alert on the Juan Cole vote was inaccurate. Well, it’s a case of what the meaning of is, is: The history department did vote. They voted in favor of Cole’s appointment. The inaccuracy in my post was in a technicality: The history department’s vote was not to offer Cole an appointment, but rather to offer him honorary affiliation with the department when YCIAS formalizes his nomination. The money will come from YCIAS, which has made clear that Cole is their man. Sociology will likewise schedule a vote on honorary affiliation. The next step is for the senior appointments committee to formalize the offer. This is usually a rubber stamp process. Whether it is in this case is up to Yale’s alumni that may not want to see a $40,000 per year education throw out scholarship for polemics. I really wonder whether, when Whitney and Betty MacMillan who just gave a gift to Yale in order to attach their name to YCIAS, knew that in so doing their name would become synonymous with hate?

Thanks to Michael Rubin for the update. As I said last night, now is the time for all good Yale alumni to come to the aid of their alma mater.

One more thought from reader Jim Cooper: “How about us Michigan alumnae? Do we get to vote on sending him to Yale? I’ll bet we can raise first class airfare as long as it’s one way.”

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