A former Biden administration official’s role at the University of New Hampshire is coming under scrutiny from a national civil rights group.
The university recently appointed former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as a senior fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy. Sullivan formerly taught at the Carsey School from 2018 to 2020.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations — a group of civil rights lawyers and advocates — is asking UNH to revoke Sullivan’s position. They are making a similar request to Harvard’s Kennedy School, which recently named Sullivan its inaugural Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order. Sullivan served as national security advisor for all of President Joe Biden’s term. He also filled top advisory roles in the Obama White House.
In a letter to UNH, the council cited Sullivan’s role directing the removal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2021, which included a drone strike that killed an Afghan family. The council also cited concerns about Sullivan’s role in the U.S. response to the Israel-Hamas war, saying that he “repeatedly affirmed Israel’s human rights abuses despite overwhelming evidence of systematic violence against Palestinian civilians.”
UNH defended Sullivan’s position in a statement provided to NHPR Thursday.
“Jake Sullivan’s deep experience in federal government and public policy led us to name him a senior fellow, an unpaid honorific position given to those with a significant role contributing to the public discourse on policy,” UNH spokesperson Tania DeLuzuriaga said in an email. “We look forward to having him contribute to our academic community.”
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s deputy director, said he was disappointed that UNH’s response didn’t address the Palestinian lives lost in Gaza during Sullivan’s time in the Biden administration. He said he understands that it might be a “badge of honor” for the school and that students could benefit from Sullivan’s inside perspective, “but a line has to be drawn somewhere.”
“When a university gives a government official like that in an honorific position, it sends a message to those people who are impacted by that person's harmful policies that their lives don't matter, that they don't count,” Ahmed Mitchell said. “And so that's why we think it's really time for academia to stop allowing government officials to fail up.”
Ahmed Mitchell said he would like to see Sullivan – who is married to U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander – acknowledge the harm that his policies caused. He pointed to former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who served during the Vietnam War, as an example of someone who took steps to atone for his actions after his term ended.
“He made horrible decisions that led to the deaths of thousands of people,” Ahmed Mitchell said. “But then Mr. McNamara recognized the wrong in what he did, and he dedicated the latter part of his post-Secretary career to trying to atone for what he did. He admitted his mistakes. He apologized, and he tried to make sure our nation did not commit those mistakes. Again, if Mr. Sullivan does something like that, then I think he should be welcomed and celebrated, but he is not doing that right now.”
