The following letter was sent on Oct. 28, 2013, to Cullen Murphy, chairman of the Amherst College Board of Trustees, and to Biddy Martin, the college president.

Cullen Murphy, chairman of the Amherst College Board of Trustees (Gasper Tringale photo courtesy of Amherst College)

Dear Cullen Murphy:

When we wrote you on September 28, we promised to send you a list of co-signers of our petition requesting that Amherst College “dissociate itself from Professor Hadley Arkes’s divisive and destructive views and his intellectual dishonesty” and our further request that “Professor Arkes be asked either to refrain from citing his association with Amherst College in his extracurricular writings or that any such association be accompanied by a disclaimer stating that his views do not represent Amherst College.”

Since then, 101 [now 106-plus] Amherst alums have joined us:

Doug Abernathy, physicist, Oak Ridge, TN, ’84

Elizabeth Hauser Abernathy, Oak Ridge, TN, ’83

Bud Alpert ’70

John Anderson, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, ’70

Elliott Arkin ’83

Mitch Ash ‘70

Jay Ashman, Senior Lecturer, Burlington, VT, ’70

Robert Bernstein, South Orange NJ, ’70

Chett Breed, Prof. Emeritus, Ph.D., AAUP 1981-2013, BA and PBK, ’69

Steve Cadwell, Ph.D. (Smith ’90), Boston, MA, ’72

David H. Cahan, M.D., ’70

Charlotte Canning ’86

Jerry Carl, Northbrook, Illinois, ’70

Robert Carlone ‘70

William Carter ’70

Carolyn Chernoff ’98

David Cichon ’70

Tim Clegg ‘70

Robert Collier, Berkeley, CA, ’83

Harold Dash ’70

Barry DeLapp, retired computer consultant, Hendersonville NC, ’70

Ron Dewdney, Waltham, MA, ’70

Dave Dorwart ’70

Rob Duboff ’70

M. James Egan, Professor Academy Arts University, ’72

Jon Einhorn ’70

Elisha M. Ignatoff Eli-Tables, Bronx NY, ’71

Paul Farrell ’70

Thomas P. Gilliss ’70

Joseph W. Gordon, Woodbridge, CT, ’70

Marvin M. Gross, Rabbi, Pasadena, CA, ‘70

Peter Hansen, M.D., ’83

Mark P Harris ’70

Richard P. Hauser ’56

Bill Hayes ’70

Mark A. Hoffman, M.D., Columbia University; J.D., University of Pennsylvania; LL.M., Temple University; M.Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania; M.B.A. Candidate (2014) Drexel University, ’72

Anthony J. Hom, NY, NY, ’71

Peter Howland, Portsmouth, RI, ’70

David Hunt ’70

James Andrew (Drew) Kalter, Teacher, NY, NY, ’70

Richard Kellogg ’70

Stephen Kent ’70

Doug Lane, Los Angeles, CA, ’70

Peter Livingston, attorney, Portland, OR, ’73.

Ron Marinucci ’71

Scott McGee ’70

Tom McKitterick, New York, NY, ’70

Richard Meeker, City of Roses Newspaper Company, Portland OR, ’70

Louis Miles, retired attorney, Portland, OR ’74

Dave Miner, Esq., Bradenton, FL, ’70

Paul Mintzer, M.D. Ph.D. ’70

Jennifer Moore, Prof. of Law, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, ’83

Michael Naughton, ’70

James Parakilas ’70

Rebecca Stewart Persson, graduate student, Arlington, MA, ’01

Brock Putnam, II, Litchfield, CT, ’70

Daniel Quinn, Colliers International, Boston, MA, ’70

Tom Reicher ’70

Bob Reichert, London, UK, ’70

Ian Reichert, London, UK, ’12

David Rimmer ’71

Whit Rutter, Newport News, VA, ’70

David Sanger, Photographer, ’70

Peter M. Sarafan, Acton, MA, ’70

Ken Sayle, real estate broker (retired), Rye, NY, ‘70 (deceased)

Fritz Schwentker ‘84

Michael Secondo, Santa Monica, CA, ’83

Steve Seward, Scarsdale, NY, ’70

David L Silverman, St John, USVI, ’70

Wylie Smith ’70

Bob Spielman, Retired, ’70

Colin Stewart, Editor/publisher Erasing 76 Crimes blog, Laguna Niguel, CA, ’70

Matthew Stewart, Fall River, MA, ‘96

Robert G. Sweeney ’96

Doug Swift, M.D., ’70

Steve Swigert, West Hartford, CT, ’70

Rebeca Torres-Rose, farmer, Cambridge, NY, ’97

Esther S. Trakinski ‘83

George Triano, Danville, CA, ’70

Jocelyn K. Vande Berg ‘83

Rasheda J. Vereen ’10

Thomas Radford Viall, Assistant Attorney General, Vermont (Ret.), ’70

Tina Villadolid, artist, educator, Santa Barbara, CA, ’83

Philip Ward ’70

Patricia Ware, Juneau, Alaska, Co-Vice President, Class of ’83,

David Wase, Arlington, VA ’70

David Watkins ’84

Alan Webber, Santa Fe, NM, ’70

Eric Weber ’70

Richard Weinhaus, M.D., Watertown, MA, ’70

Claude R. Williams, Jr., D.D.S., Dallas,Texas, ‘78

Russell Wise ’70

Ronald Wold, Retired, Eugene, OR, ’70

Ping Chang Wood, Glastonbury, CT, ’86

Stephen Wood, Glastonbury, CT, ’86

Burt Woolf, Ed. D., ’70

Robert J. Yamins, Great Neck, NY, ’72

Amy Ziering, Filmmaker, Los Angeles, CA, ’83

Jeff Zimmerman, lawyer, Washington DC, ’70

George Zoulalian, Trial Court of the Commonwealth (retired), Boston, MA, ’70

Lanny M. Zuckerman, Pittsfield, MA, ’70

[See below for additional names, added later.]

As you will see, only a few classes are represented here because we were able to access only a small portion of the College’s alumni/ae despite our best efforts. We continue to have little doubt that if more alums knew about this issue, far more would sign up.

We have recently created a website and a Facebook page, and when we get more co-signers, we will forward their names to you.

Sincerely,

John Greenberg for

Ronald Battocchi ‘70 (battocchi@comcast.net)
Ernest Craige ‘70 (etacraige@mindspring.com)
John Greenberg ‘70 (jsg1@copper.net)
Warren Mersereau ‘70 (warren.mersereau@gmail.com)
Robert Nathan ‘70 (wkbenchinc@aol.com)
Eric Patterson ‘70 (epatterson@hws.edu)

P.S. On October 11, I sent you and Biddy Martin a detailed analysis of the statement which you told me “speaks for the College.” In it, I note that Professor Arkes violates 3 of the 4 specific criteria of the rules for academic freedom to which the College subscribes, the last one of which requires that professors “should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution,” which is precisely what our second request demands.

I have received no response, but I assume that both of you got the email. If not, please let me know.

The following 5 alums signed after this letter was sent:

Amanda Bass ’10

Doug Clark ’70

Miles Herkenham ’70

Matt Rawdon ’79

Jeff Southworth ’70

See also the names of those who signed the related online petition “Oppose Amherst College’s Tacit Support of Hate Speech.”