Beware of Prescott College Professor Craig Willse
Arizona-based Prescott College’s mission statement is, “For the Liberal Arts, the Environment, and Social Justice.” This statement is essentially a part of the school’s name, separated only by a colon. This motto is the first thing you see when conducting a Google search and is prominently placed at the top of the school’s “About” section. Although it is easy to see Prescott College’s espoused values, it is much harder to accept the viewpoints of one of its professors, Craig Willse. Prescott parents, students, faculty, friends, alumni and donors must be aware of Mr. Willse’s unacceptable conduct and values.
According to Prescott College’s website, Craig Willse is “Associate Faculty of Environmental Arts Practice, Social Justice and Community Organizing.” The school boasts that Mr. Willse’s work focuses on “neoliberalism, urbanism, biopolitics, and racial formations.” These liberal superlatives, although cringe-inducing, are not the problem.
The problem is that Craig Willse is an anti-Semite. According to Professor Watchlist, a 501(c)3 non-profit aiming to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom, Willse accuses Israel of being responsible for police brutality and racist profiling in the United States. In an article for the site, “Deadly Exchange,” Willse states that policing is a colonial and racial control project.
Deadly Exchange is a campaign by the anti-Israel group, Jewish Voice for Peace. The campaign intends to end any collaboration between the US and Israeli police forces. According to the official site for “Deadly Exchange,” security cooperation with Israel promotes “racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation and detention, and attacks on human rights defenders.”
In the same article, Willse compares policing with slave patrols in the Jim Crow-era and therefore says policing “fundamentally anti-black.” He states that police cannot be reformed, and his long-term goal is to abolish police and prisons.
As documented by the site, Canary Mission, Willse holds other anti-Israel stances and participates in protests accusing Israel of being an “apartheid state.” In an article for the site Truthout, Willse describes Israel and the US “as the world’s most racist, repressive and violent police and military forces.”
Willse has been caught on video disrupting a pro-Israel parade in New York. As reported by The Forward, members of the New York Police Department stated that Willse and 4 others “targeted” the parade on behalf of Jewish Voice for Peace and were arrested for disorderly conduct.
Those troubled by Mr. Willse’s conduct may contact Prescott College at (877) 350-2100 or reach out to Mr. Willse directly at craig.willse@prescott.edu. To obtain information and review information about other professors and schools, please visit https://www.professorwatchlist.org/.
