On November 15 of last year I was heading to Hunter College on foot from Central Park. I turned onto Park Avenue near Hunter and saw a giant picture of myself on a double-parked truck. I’m sure you can imagine what a discombobulating moment that was. Above my name, it took me a second to absorb, were the words “CUNY’s Leading Antisemites.”
Christopher Stone (Photo Credit: Paul Frangipane)
Quickly my picture disappeared, only to be replaced, in turn, by those of 24 Hunter colleagues, many of them adjuncts (and many of them, incidentally, who identify as Jewish). I quickly realized what was happening; I had seen reports of similar trucks circling other campuses such as Harvard and Columbia, funded by a shady organization with the Orwellian name Accuracy in Media (AIM).
I also remembered that in those cases those universities responded swiftly and forcefully, not only with resources for those defamed, but also a defense of them. Surely Hunter and CUNY would do the same, no? Well, the answer turned out to be: “No.” It took many of the 25 of us coming together and demanding a response for the Hunter administration to do anything. Weeks after the incident, the school added a page about doxing to its Information Technology website.
Okay, it took some time and pressure, but Hunter responded with a full-throated defense of its faculty and staff members, no? Well, “No,” again.
TEPID TONE
The tepid tone of the web page is set with this sentence: “CUNY does not condone the act of doxing any member of its community.” This is the best that Hunter and CUNY could do? “Not condone?” At least we could rest assured knowing that Hunter would spring into action the next time the doxing trucks appeared, no? “No” again: We are told that if they come again, members of the college community can call 311’ – only if they are double-parked or obstructing traffic.”
QUESTIONABLE USE
AIM also created a website for each individual pictured on the truck. When I search “Chris Stone Hunter” the page is the 11th result on Google. The web pages illegally use both Hunter and CUNY logos. We and the union brought this fact to the attention of the Hunter and CUNY administrations, but as far as we know, no action was taken to have the websites taken down on the basis of copyright infringement, even though CUNY has been quick to respond to such violations on other occasions.
I am a tenured faculty member. At the end of the day I personally am not so worried about the impact of this defamation. But many of those who appeared on the truck are staff and adjunct faculty members. What will Hunter and CUNY do to protect them? Sadly, and apparently, very little.
Christopher Stone is an associate professor of Arabic at Hunter College. This article was originally delivered as testimony to the Board of Trustees in April.
Published: May 19, 2024
