Support Academic Freedom
Cornell University purports to be "an institution where any person can find instruction in any study". However, the treatment of the course formerly known as "NS200 - Vegetarian Nutrition" makes it necessary to add "except plant-based nutrition that saves lives." The course was pulled from the course catalog in 2005 with no notification given to the course instructor, T. Colin Campbell, followed by subsequent refusal to disclose the reason that the course was withdrawn, and further, with no opportunity given to Dr. Campbell to discuss the reasons for this decision with the Division of Nutrition Curriculum Committee. T. Colin Campbell says of his experience: "That termination of the course for credit is a violation, in my view, of the sacred concept of academic freedom, as it is for the course content itself. Further, the course was terminated, with no consultation with me by a department head who had a strong conflict of interest arising from the for-profit world which stands against the information presented in the course, namely, that I was questioning the alleged health value of cow's milk. Obviously I cannot say with certainty that this is the major reason for his decision but he and his successor refuse to answer my question as to why they did this without my consultation or without allowing me to seek the opinion of the curriculum committee who originally approved it on behalf of the faculty. Also, the course content arose from the results of my years-long research program which was generously funded by American taxpayers (NIH), which were published in the very best scientific journals and which have now proven to be of exceptional value to many people since publication of our national bestselling book, The China Study. I sincerely regret that we cannot abide by Ezra Cornell's wishes in 1868 when he said that "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study." " I urge the Cornell Administration to reverse this decision, which is so clearly a violation of academic freedom and is behavior which falls far below the standard one would expect from an institution such as Cornell.
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