Programs & Campaigns

NEAVS Supporters Speak Out

Letter from Paul Waldau, D.Phil., J.D., M.A. to
Mr. Richard Cravatts, Publisher

Mr. Cravatts,
Because I teach at a number of the universities in the Boston area, I take time out of a busy schedule to write you regarding a recent decision that you made refusing to run an advertisement for NEAVS in ART's program book. I am deeply concerned by the decision, and expressly ask that you reconsider it.

I am concerned about this matter because I am deeply involved in teaching about the ways in which our society treats, and even sometimes mistreats, the living beings around us, both human and nonhuman. My principal appointment is as a faculty member at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, where I teach the ethics classes. I am also a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and an Adjunct Professor at Boston College Law School. Although I write as an individual and not as a representative of these schools, I feel strongly that educational and arts institutions should promote open discussion. In fact, your group's Mission Statement captures well the spirit of my concern when it mentions that your group "encourages students to respect ideas and their free expression, and to rejoice in discovery and in critical thought...."

In light of this nicely stated goal, I ask you to reconsider your refusal to allow NEAVS to place the ad in question. I have a copy of the ad before me, and it is clear to me that the ad's text and image are tasteful, even artistic tools for informing the public of an important issue that is, without such ads, hidden away in some ugly, rather unartistic, if you will, corners of our society. I think it wrong that anyone in the arts, especially someone involved with the performing arts which have been so instrumental in increasing awareness of injustice, to engage in the kind of censorship that your arbitrary decision involves. Organizations of all kinds need access to publications such as the ART's program book for many purposes, not the least of which is increasing awareness that our society continues certain practices that are not well known and which, if well known, would be thought by many to be of questionable morality and scientific value. Your decision to bar this ad, especially as it is related to the complaint of unspecified faculty, is a sad indication that hidden forms of censorship by an undisclosed minority continue to prevail.

Because I think such censorship wrong and harmful to our community, can you please tell me who on the faculty of Harvard was concerned with this ad? I would like to approach them directly and ask them to rescind their complaints. If you will not disclose their identity for this purpose (and I represent to you that I will keep their identity confidential), I insist that you allow this ad to run as requested. The issue to which the ad speaks is profoundly important to the public, not to mention many of your patrons. This can be evidenced in any number of ways (I will include an article I wrote recently that addresses some of these issues).

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Very truly yours,

Paul Waldau, D.Phil., J.D., M.A.

More letters: Beverly Rockhill, PhD | Tovis Page, PhD3

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