CUNY Votes to Approve Honorary Degree for Tony Kushner

[Purveyor]

By Kathleen Horan

CUNY's Board of Trustees hopes to put a controversy to rest, now that a panel has voted to give Pulizer-Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner an honorary degree. The honor was put on hold last week after one trustee -- Jeffrey Wiesenfeld -- offered a critique on the playwright's views on Israel.

The meeting of the board's executive committee last night is the direct result of the enormous protest mounted in defense of free thought and open discussion by the CUNY community, and I'm very honored to accept the degree and the affiliation with these brilliant scholars and activists! --Playwright Tony Kushner

On Monday night, six trustees on the board's executive committee voted unanimously to grant a degree of doctor of letters to Kushner. (The board's chairman, Benno Schmidt, who called for the meeting, did not cast a vote as he was out of the country.)

During the meeting, which lasted less than 30 minutes, trustees spoke about Kushner’s body of work and his enormous artistic contributions. Trustee Kathleen Pesile expressed remorse for delaying granting the honor to Kushner.

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http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/may/10/cuny-votes-approve-honorary-degree-tony-kushner/