590 UC Alumni Send Letter to UC President Decrying Anti-Israel Political Indoctrination in UC Classrooms on November 2, 2016
(From Press Release) -– Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF) sent a letter signed by 590 UC alums to University of California President Janet Napolitano, denouncing the misuse of UC classrooms for the political indoctrination of students against the Jewish state of Israel on November 2, 2016. ACF is a grassroots organization that mobilizes alumni to address anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism at their respective alma maters. The letter may be found here and below.
The letter focuses on two student-led courses at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside that offer “absurdly one-sided reading lists, and rosters of speakers who are uniformly anti-Israel.” It further points out that these courses “violate specific UC policy, including the Regents Policy 2301: Policy on Course Content,” which mandates that “the University remain aloof from politics and never function as an instrument for the advance of partisan interest” and describes how allowing classrooms “to be used for political indoctrination…constitutes misuse of the University as an institution.”
The alumni letter supports a November 1, 2016 letter sent to President Napolitano signed by 47 concerned organizations and 176 respected faculty members.
The alumni call on President Napolitano and the UC Regents to clarify how the Regents Policy on Course Content works in conjunction with UC’s policy on academic freedom. Their letter further calls upon the President and Regents to “charge each of the UC Chancellors with urging their respective academic senates to ensure that courses in all departments and programs are explicitly and carefully evaluated for their compliance with the Regents Policy on Course Content.”
Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF) mobilizes alumni to press their alma maters to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all students and faculty, including those who feel a connection to Israel. It also advocates for a comprehensive education, rather than activist propaganda, with respect to Middle East studies, including and especially with respect to Israel.
ACF is a national network of alumni chapters, founded in 2014 by fellow Vassar alums Mark Banschick, Laurie Josephs and Susan Julien Levitt. In partnership with StandWithUs, ACF has organized over 15 alumni chapters, including at Vassar College, Oberlin College, Columbia University, New York University, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Riverside and Brown University. ACF empowers alumni to address anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism at their alma maters, and promotes freedom of expression for all members of the campus community including pro-Israel students and faculty.
To learn more about ACF and our mission, become a member, or join/start a chapter, visit www.campusfairness.org
Dear President Napolitano,
We are 590 devoted University of California alumni who are deeply concerned about the misuse of UC classrooms by certain faculty and student instructors to indoctrinate students to their anti-Zionist agenda, and to wage a partisan campaign against the Jewish state of Israel. Over the past few years, various UC campuses have offered student-led courses with absurdly one-sided reading lists, and rosters of speakers who are uniformly anti-Israel. These include a course titled “Palestine: A Settler-Colonial Analysis” at UC Berkeley this academic year, and a virtually identical class titled “Palestine & Israel: Settler-Colonialism and Apartheid” at UC Riverside during the prior school year.
Such courses are obvious efforts to delegitimize Israel and advocate for the anti-Zionist cause that has taken root among many UC faculties. These exercises in propaganda sully UC’s proud history as an institution that provides the highest quality of education. Instead of encouraging and fostering critical thought, these classes simply proselytize for a partisan cause.
These courses also violate specific UC policy, including the Regents Policy 2301: Policy on Course Content. That Policy mandates that “the University remain aloof from politics and never function as an instrument for the advance of partisan interest.” It also provides that “[m]isuse of the classroom by, for example, allowing it to be used for political indoctrination, for purposes other than those for which the course was constituted, or for providing grades without commensurate and appropriate student achievement, constitutes misuse of the University as an institution.”
We question how courses that employ biased, one-sided reading lists and speakers on controversial and complex issues like the Israel-Palestinian conflict could have been approved given the Regents Policy on Course Content. It seems that certain faculty are failing in their supervisory responsibilities, likely because they share the anti-Zionist views of those student instructors and others who design these courses. Indeed, some UC departments are chaired by or include faculty members who have publicly endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and many of them are quite vitriolic in their hatred of Israel and disdain for its supporters.
The Board of Regents under your leadership has shown commendable concern for the welfare of Jewish students and other victims of bigotry, including by issuing its Principles Against Intolerance. However, the alarming increase in anti-Semitic incidents plaguing our alma maters is directly proportionate to the campaign being waged against Israel by certain faculty and students. While the extramural expression of anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic views may be protected by the First Amendment, faculty and students do not have the right to use the classroom to recruit for their anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic cause. And when they do so — as in the courses described above — they not only contravene UC Policy but they also undermine the University’s efforts to foster tolerance and understanding.
We understand that the review of course content implicates important issues of academic freedom. Nevertheless, UC has important and vital policies designed to ensure that faculty and student instructors do not abuse the great pedagogical responsibility with which they have been entrusted. Accordingly, we urge you and the Board of Regents to put an end to the misuse of the classroom by certain faculty and student instructors to indoctrinate their students into their chosen cause.
Toward that end, we add our support to the letter sent to you on November 1, 2016, signed by 47 concerned organizations and 176 respected faculty members, asking you to take the following steps:
1. Issue a statement that describes how the Regents Policy on Course Content works in conjunction with the UC Policy on Academic Freedom (APM 010) and that clarifies when the “advance of personal interest” and “political indoctrination” constitutes misuse of the classroom;” and
2. Charge each of the UC Chancellors with urging their respective academic senates to ensure that courses in all departments and programs are explicitly and carefully evaluated for their compliance with the Regents Policy on Course Content.
Thank you for your leadership, and for your commitment to rooting out bigotry on the UC campuses, and ensuring that the University of California system remains one of our nation’s finest institutions of higher learning.
Mark Banschick
Laurie R. Josephs
Susan Julien Levitt
Co-Founders
Disagreement, discussion and a vigorous honest examination of all opinions is the essence of an academic environment.
However, blatant propaganda presented as a course of study is completely unacceptable. Napolitano needs to demonstrate some backbone, protect the reputation of the UC and stand up to bigotry.
It is not unreasonable that the modern history of the middle east may be taught from a non-Israeli perspective which is likely what this letter is about. There are a number of parallels between the arrival of the Europeans in the New World and the Arrival of the Zionists in Palestine. Where is Sean on this?
The problem is that on today’s campuses anti-Semitism seems acceptable while all other religions are protected.
BP wrote:
> The problem is that on today’s campuses anti-Semitism seems
> acceptable while all other religions are protected.
It is also OK to be anti-Christian and if you are not anti-Catholic you better not expect to become a tenured professor at a California public university.
It is nice to see the Jewish students getting involved and pointing out how so many UC classes have “absurdly one-sided reading lists”.
I only wish the Jewish students got involved sooner (I bet most Jews have heard a quote something like this before):
First UC started bashing the fraternity guys, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a fraternity guy.
Then UC started bashing the Republicans, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Republican.
Then UC started bashing the Catholics, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Catholic.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me…
I agree SOD that anti-Christianity is also allowed.
Can you imagine the uproar over a course that was slanted anti-Islam?
UC needs to have the same policies across the board.
quielo wrote:
> It is not unreasonable that the modern history of the middle
> east may be taught from a non-Israeli perspective
I don’t have any problem with the Davis PLO club teaching the “modern history of the middle east from a non-Israeli perspective” (or the local ADL chapter teaching it from a “pro-Israeli perspective”), but a public “University” should (at least make some effort) to “try” and teach the truth and that means covering the bad stuff that BOTH the Israelis and Palestinians have done in the (very messy and violent) “modern history of the middle east”.
Since I guess you have not attended a university I should explain that is not how it works. As an example look the below course description. This is history from a certain POV. It is not a balanced look at both sides. There would be other courses from the European POV. Given the prominence of the middle east conflict it is entirely appropriate that there be courses from all sides as there are more than 2 sides to this conflict.
This course will analyze Native American History from the perspective of the Native American. The study will start with an in-depth examination of how Native Americans have been stereotyped throughout history before delving into a study about pre-Columbian Native America. Students will then examine the Mound Builder society, which constructed some of the world’s largest pyramids in the American Midwest; the arrival of Columbus and how this impacted relations between the two cultures for the next five hundred years; the History of Jamestown and Plymouth; U.S. relations with various Native tribes from the time periods of the Washington administration; Tecumseh’s confederation; the Trail of Tears; and the massacre at Wounded Knee.
The letter is a line in the sand putting UC on notice that it has to do more to combat anti-semitism at UC and if you see who signed the letter that included the names of several important legislators you will recognize that UC must respond accordingly.
The courses in question are an example of the many ways anti-semitism is rearing its ugly head at UC. Some other incidents include graffiti swastikas found on Hillel House, a protest where “Jewish students” were harassed while walking across campus at Berkeley and the political persecution of Jews in student government.
Some of you want to detract from the seriousness of these events and the chilling effect they have on Jewish students looking to choose a college where they can feel safe by wringing your hands about your own perceived victimization. You might do better by actually showing some concern for groups that are regularly marginalized at UC or UCD in particular like the black Ph.D student who told me, while we watched the Cubs together in the World Series, that the indignities she faces at UCD are much worse than those she had to deal with at the University of Illinois downstate from Chicago where she was born and raised.
I agree with everything you wrote here except the last sentence.