[News] Israel lobby descends on UC- Santa Barbara - Faculty Protest
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Wed May 20 10:25:29 EDT 2009
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<http://sb4af.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/faculty-members-protest-investigation-of-sociology-professor/>Faculty
members protest investigation of sociology professor
http://sb4af.wordpress.com/
UC-Santa Barbara professors circulate petition to
halt proceedings against William I. Robinson and reject outside pressures
Date: May 19, 2009
Contact: Alba Peña-Leon, (626) 665-9212, alba at umail.ucsb.edu.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. A group of about 20
professors at the University of California at
Santa Barbara have launched a campus-wide
petition to get professors, department chairs and
deans to join them in protesting the Academic
Senates investigation of sociology professor William I. Robinson.
The petition, sent on May 16 to faculty
throughout the university, says the Senate
Charges Committee has directly violated
Robinsons rights by mishandling student complaints against him.
These procedural improprieties have already
produced a substantive injustice with respect to
Professor Robinson, reads the petition.
Moreover, we are concerned that external
pressures may have influenced the way this case is managed.
The case against Robinson began when he
introduced materials critical of Israel in a
course on global affairs last January.
The materials included a photo essay that
Robinson forwarded to students from the Internet
juxtaposing images of Israeli abuse against
Palestinians with Nazi abuses during the
holocaust. Two students took offense at the
images and withdrew from the course, prompting
pro-Israel groups to pressure the university to
pursue charges of anti-Semitism against Robinson.
Those groups, which continue to pressure
university officials as the case drags on,
include the Anti-Defamation League, the Israel
advocacy group Stand With Us, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
The faculty petition calls on the Academic Senate
to explain its actions in the Robinson case, make
public all communications that Senate leaders and
university administrators have had with external
organizations or individuals, immediately correct
procedural mistakes, conduct inquiries into why
those mistakes were made, and take disciplinary
action if necessary against those responsible.
It also requests clarification of how student
complaints about course content and materials are
handled, and it asks the Senate to reaffirm the
importance of academic freedom at UCSB.
The petition will be sent to Senate Chair Joel
Michaelson before the next Senate meeting on June
6, said Nancy Gallagher, history professor and
chair of the Middle East Studies Program.
The administration has said to trust the system,
but this process has stretched on with so many
irregularities that it breeds distrust, and the
professor has already been seriously damaged, as
has the university itself, Gallagher said. I
thought this case would immediately be dropped
for lack of any legitimate cause, but it wasnt,
and frankly the campus is beginning to look like
a laughing stock, or a place where one wouldnt want to be.
Gallagher said the student complaints should have
been referred back down to the department level from the start.
It should have gone straight to the chair of the
department, but instead it went straight to the
charges officer, and on that ground alone it
should be dropped, she said. It sets a bad
precedent. What if people decide they dont like
evolution being taught? Can they also censor the professor this easily?
Lisa Hajjar, chair of UCSBs Law and Society
Program and an authority on the principles and
practices of academic freedom, said students
often get upset by material presented in classes
because the educational process deliberately aims
to challenge beliefs and generate debate.
Contentious material is a legitimate and
important part of the educational process,
Hajjar said. The intent is to provoke
reactions, not shield students from things that might upset them in class.
Academic freedom is a right enjoyed by faculty, not by students, Hajjar said.
They are not on equal footing, she said.
Students cant dictate course material because
they are not qualified to make those
determinations. The professors have earned
freedom in the classroom because they are experts
in their field. In this case, bringing charges
for disseminating relevant materials makes no sense.
Emeritus professor of sociology Dick Flacks said
the investigation against Robinson sends a
profoundly intimidating message to all other professors.
It has a chilling effect on what you can say in
class, Flacks said. It says that if students
dont like what youre presenting they can get
you brought up on charges. That stops effective teaching dead in its tracks.
Flacks said he expects Robinson to be exonerated
by the Academic Senate, but at this point, thats not enough.
Its the very fact that charges were brought
that has upset people so much, Flacks said. We
want an inquiry into why these charges were
brought and an investigation of the outside
pressures that may have influenced this case. We
want to clarify how these kinds of grievances
should be handled to avoid more situations like this in the future.
For detailed information about the Robinson case,
visit the Committee to Defend Academic Freedom
Web site at www.sb4af.wordpress.com.
For media inquiries, call Alba Peña-Leon at (626) 665-9212.
*****************************************************
<http://sb4af.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/israel-lobby-descends-on-uc-santa-barbara/>http://sb4af.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/israel-lobby-descends-on-uc-santa-barbara/
BREAKING NEWS: Israel lobby descends on UC- Santa Barbara
Investigation of sociology professor is frontline
in nationwide campaign to silence criticism against Israel on college campuses
Please Distribute Widely
May 18, 2009
Contacts: Alba Pena-Leon, (626) 665-9212,
<mailto:alba at umail.ucsb.edu>alba at umail.ucsb.edu.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Noam Chomsky is no
newcomer to harassment by pro-Israel organizations.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) once compiled a
150-page dossier on the famous author and
linguistics professor, apparently to find
information it could use against him, Chomsky
said in an interview in late April.
An ADL insider sent Chomsky the file, which
included conversations, correspondence and other
materials. Chomsky said it read like an FBI file.
"It's hard to nail this stuff down in a court of
law, but it's clear they essentially have spies
in classrooms who take notes and send them to the
ADL and other organizations," Chomsky said. "The
groups then compile dossiers they can use to
condemn, attack or remove faculty members.
They're like J. Edgar Hoover's files. It's kind of gutter stuff."
Such covert tactics have yet to emerge publicly
at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
But the effort to discredit and censor criticism
of Israeli policies has taken a potentially ominous turn.
The ADL and the Israel advocacy group "Stand With
Us" are leading an aggressive, direct campaign to
pressure UCSB administrators and faculty to
investigate and discipline sociology professor
William I. Robinson for having introduced
materials critical of Israel in a course on global affairs.
The materials included a photo essay that
Robinson forwarded to students from the Internet
juxtaposing images of Israeli abuse against
Palestinians with Nazi abuses during the
holocaust. Two students took offense at the
images and withdrew from the course, prompting
the ADL to pressure the university to pursue
charges of "anti-Semitism" against Robinson.
The pressure campaign includes face-to-face
meetings with university officials and faculty,
use of Internet-based media to influence public
opinion, and a formidable letter-writing effort
that relies particularly on UCSB donors, some of
whom have threatened to withdraw their support for the university.
Some meetings -- such as an hour-long encounter
between ADL National Director Abraham Foxman and
UCSB officials and faculty -- may have seriously
violated university policies. The Foxman meeting
generated concern that pressure by the Israel
lobby may have influenced the Academic Senate in
its decision to open a formal investigation against Robinson.
Other meetings are only now coming to light.
Aaron Ettenberg, a UCSB psychology professor and
member of the Academic Senate's Charges Advisory
Committee, has confirmed that he met with Rabbi
Arthur Gross-Schaefer prior to the committee's
recommendation to investigate Robinson.
Gross-Schaefer is interim director of the local
chapter of Hillel, an organization that works
with Jewish communities on college campuses.
Hillel met with the two students who withdrew
from Robinson's class before those students filed
their grievances against Robinson.
Both Gross-Schaefer and Ettenberg told Anthony
Fenton -- a reporter based in Vancouver who
writes for the "Asia Times Online" and "The
Dominion" of Canada -- that they had met and discussed the Robinson case.
"I really didn't discuss that with him very
much," Gross-Schaefer told Fenton in a telephone
interview. "We see each other socially, it wasn't
any meeting or anything in particular. . . It
wasn't. . .set up to discuss that at all actually."
Ettenberg told Fenton he is "just friends" with Gross Schaefer.
"I can't say anything at this point," he said. "I
didn't have a meeting with him formally to
discuss any of these kinds of things."
Whether formal or not, that they met and
discussed the Robinson case may constitute a
serious breach of Academic Senate procedures for
dealing with student complaints.
In a public statement on May 4, Robert Potter --
professor emeritus of the Department of Theater
and Dance and former chair of the Academic Senate
Committee on Privilege and Tenure -- expressed
deep concern about the "campaign of accusations" against Robinson.
"This orchestrated attempt by outside agencies to
pressure the university into disciplining a
faculty member over the content of a course is an
entirely improper attack on academic freedom,"
Potter said. "The campus community should express
concern over this very troubling sequence of events."
Members of the California Scholars for Academic
Freedom, which includes nearly 140 academics at
20 institutions, say the campaign at UCSB
reflects a major escalation by the Israel lobby
to silence criticism at universities in California and elsewhere.
Mark Levine, a Jewish professor of Middle Eastern
Studies at UC-Irvine, said pro-Israel groups
have, in effect, created a "large machine" to
attack Israel critics on college campuses.
"That's why this case is so important," Levine
said. "These are powerful, organized groups in
the Jewish community who use fear and
intimidation to try to make sure Israel doesn't
get criticized. They go after anyone, even more
so when the critics are Jews, because they fear
that if we can criticize them, then everyone can."
Sondra Hale, a UCLA professor and founder and
coordinator of the California Scholars, said the
Robinson case stands out because the Israel
lobby's pressure tactics have been so public.
"A lot of incidents at other campuses have been
more subtle types of pressure, but this case is
very straightforward," Hale said. "The evidence
is right there. It's very clear cut."
For detailed information about the Robinson case,
visit the Committee to Defend Academic Freedom
Web site at<http://www.sb4af.wordpress.com>www.sb4af.wordpress.com.
For media inquiries, call Alba Pena-Leon at (626) 665-9212.
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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