The below letter, which is signed by several UC-Irvine faculty members has been sent to the campus newspaper, New University, this week. Most all of the signees are Jewish professors at UC-Irvine.
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We, faculty at the University of California--Irvine, are deeply
disturbed about activities on campus that foment hatred against Jews
and Israelis. The troubling events over the past few years include the
painting of swastikas in university buildings, the Star of David
depicted as akin to a swastika, a statement (by a speaker repeatedly
invited by the Muslim Student Union) that the Zionist Jew is a party
of satan, a statement by another MSU speaker that the Holocaust was
God's will, the tearing down of posters placed by the student group
Anteaters for Israel, and the hacking of their web site. Some
community members, students, and faculty indeed feel intimidated, and
at times even unsafe.
Some of these actions are protected by the First Amendment and in no
way do we want to limit freedom of speech. We welcome open dialogue
among all members of the UCI community. We respect and value our
Muslim colleagues, including those members of the MSU who support and
encourage open dialogue and civility on campus. At the same time, we
take issue with hate-promoting actions that we find unacceptable. They
run counter to the peaceful co-existence and civility that are
essential to a university environment. Actions that demonize and
derogate others, such as the previous events that have occurred on our
campus noted above, have contributed to UCI's developing a growing
reputation as a center of hate and intolerance. Our campus deserves
better.
Signed:
Marlon Boarnet, Professor, Department of Planning, Policy, and Design
Matthew Brenner, Professor, Department of Medicine
Dan Cooper, Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering
Rina Dechter, Professor, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
George Farkas, Professor, Department of Education
Paul Feldstein, Robert Gumbiner Professor, The Paul Merage School of Business
Gary Fouse, Adjunct teacher, University Extension
Stephen Franklin, Lecturer, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
Jean Fried, Project Scientist, Department of Planning, Policy, and Design
Sheldon Greenfield, Donald Bren Professor, School of Medicine
Amihai Glazer, Professor, Department of Economics
Dan Hirschberg, Professor, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
Zeev Kain, Professor, Anesthesiology & Pediatrics & Psychiatry
Tatiana Kain, Chair and Medical Director, Department of Emergency Medicine
Sherrie Kaplan, Executive Co-Director, Center for Health Policy Research
Mark I. Langdorf, Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Seymour Menton, Research Professor, Department of Spanish & Portugese
Dana Mukamel, Professor, Department of Medicine
Mark I. Langdorf, Professor, Clinical Emergency Medicine
Marc Lerner, Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Frank Meyskens, Professor of Medicine, Biological Chemistry and Public Health
David Neumark, Professor, Department of Economics
Alex Nicolau, Professor, Department of Computer Science
Raymond W. Novaco, Professor, Department of Psychology and Social Behavior
Richard Pattis, Lecturer, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
Shlomit Radom-Aizik, Postdoc, Department of Pediatrics
Roberta Seid, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences
Roxane Cohen Silver, Professor Department of Psychology and Social Behavior
Etel Solingen, Chancellor's Professor, Political Science
Dara Sorkin, Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Medicine
Eugene Spiritus, Chief Medical Officer, UCI Medical Center
Hal Stern, Professor, Department of Statistics
Dan Stokols, Chancellor's Professor, Department of Planning, Policy,
and Design and Department of Psychology and Social Behavior
Jerome Tobis, MD, Professor emeritus (recalled)
Gene Tsudik, Professor, Department of Computer Science
Alex Veidenbaum, Professor, Departmet of Computer Science
Mark Warschauer, Professor of Education and Informatics
Hadar Ziv, Lecturer/Research Scientist, Department of Informatics
nicely done.
ReplyDeleteToo bad it is falling on deaf ears.
ReplyDeleteToday I invited Norman finklestein to sign that letter at the msu rally. I got a 5 minute speech about Richard Goldstone and no answer.
ReplyDeleteNote how all but two or three signatories are not in the social sciences and probably have little more understanding of the nuances of the Israel/Palestine situation than the average Joe off the street.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to note that Dean Chemerinsky, Dean of the Law School, did not sign. He is the same as Mark LeVine, who would be the last person I would expect to see offended by the Muslim outrages at UCI.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. The problem in the universities is precisely the kooks that infest the social sciences. The only sane voices are in the physical sciences.
The important thing is that the signees know what it is like to be Jewish.
Miggie,
ReplyDeleteExcellent point, Miggie, but Chemerinsky is already on record as never having seen the slightest trace of anti-semitism at UCI. By the way, have you seen him at the events this week? Or the chancellor?