SFSU Event With Leila Khaled Etc. Who Are the Sponsors?

Here is more on the scheduled Pali-panel at San Francisco State University, just the latest dog and pony show put on by SFSU professor, Rabab Abdulhadi in support of her fellow Palestinians and dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel. In addition to AMED, her own academic storefront operation, the event is sponsored by a couple of University of California entities. 

First, there is something called the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI). 

"Thinking differently together"

 Still confused? Here is a little bit more about UCHRI.

"An incubator for experimentation, UCHRI strives to (re)animate ideas that contribute to the comprehension of the worlds we inhabit..."

Digging deeper into this incubator, I note that the director of this outfit is none other than anti-Israel activist and UCI professor Theo Goldberg. The only other two names I recognized are Robin Kelley and Saree Makdisi, both professors from UCLA and anti-Israel activists. I have heard all three of these characters speak, and my description of them is spot on.

The other organization is something called the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA).

"The Council of University of California Faculty Associations is a coordinating and service agency for the several individual Faculty Associations — associations of UC Senate faculty — on the separate campuses of the University of California, and it represents them to all state- or university-wide agencies on issues of common concern."

So apparently, every University of California campus has a chapter. Just out of morbid curiosity, I decided to check out the UC Irvine chapter since I used to teach part-time there. They call themselves the Irvine Faculty Association.

"The Irvine Faculty Association is a voluntary faculty association affiliated with the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA)."

Checking into their published "Executive Board", I wanted to see if I found any familiar names.

Executive Board

Eyal Amiran (Comparative Literature)

Mark LeVine (History)

Virginia W Jackson (Chair in Rhetoric and Communication)

Kristin Peterson (Anthropology)

 One position is vacant.

 (I did. That would be my old pal, Mark LeVine, who once cursed at me in front of his own students because I called him an "anti-Israel activist". But I digress.)

I note that one position is vacant. Maybe I should apply. (Just kidding.)

And just for kicks, here is another recent endeavor by this bunch at UC Irvine.

So here is my point: Here we have two University of California-connected entities co-sponsoring a panel event at San Francisco State University (part of the California State University system, as opposed to the University of California system) featuring Leila Khaled, a documented terrorist and skyjacker, who is still active in trying to destroy the Jewish state. Not that UC and CSU entities can't get involved in co-sponsoring each other's events, but (in my humble view), the University of California deserves a nice big letter of complaint from the more rational voices in the CSU system for bringing discredit to one of the CSU system's campuses (SFSU). To go even farther, these two UC Faculty groups are co-sponsoring an event at SFSU featuring a documented terrorist, Khaled, who is an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US-designated terrorist organization, and participating in a campaign (Abdulhadi's) that has long been accused of fostering a  climate of anti-Semitism on the SFSU campus. SFSU is a lost cause, but these UC Faculty groups might want to re-think what they are doing. 

To say nothing of the fact that the University of California system has (at least) two faculty associations who are agenda-driven. To be honest, I don't know if these UC Faculty groups are publicly funded, but it would make an interesting question.