British Boycott Threat Sparks ASA Council Action

The American Sociological Association’s governing Council approved an official policy statemeant at its August 15, 2007, meeting that was prompted by, and in opposition to, the renewed effort last May of the 120,000-member British University and College Union to approve a boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions. The boycott proposed by delegates of the Union was intended to protest Israeli government policies that adversely affect Palestinian scholars and people. While the boycott was declared illegal by advisors to the Union this fall and has since died, the boycott idea stirred considerable international debate and condemnation, including by U.S. academic institutional leadership. Sociologists even debate ASA’s response to the proposed boycott (see Public Forum section in this Footnotes issue). The ASA statement appears below and can be accessed on ASA’s website at www.asanet.org.

The American Civil Liberties (ACLU), on behalf of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and four other associations, filed a legal complaint on September 25, 2007, against the United States government for excluding prominent South African scholar Adam Habib from entering the United States.

Sociology Research and Development (R&D) funding from the federal government (as measured by expenditures) increased by 7.9 percent between 2005 and 2006. This number outdoes the overall average of 4.3 percent for all R&D expenditures and 1.1 percent for overall social science expenditures, according to data compiled by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (see accompanying table). In addition, sociology funding was higher in actual dollars as well as percentage increase than economics and political science.