UCLA Academic Senate OKs Anti-Israel Messages on UCLA Class Website

It appears that UCLA has put its official imprimatur on the boycott Israel movement-as advocated by Professor David Delgado Shorter on his class web site. Below is the text of a letter sent by the AMCHA Initiative to the University of California Regents.

The Regents of the University of California

1111 Franklin St., 12th Floor

Oakland, CA   94607

July 22, 2012

Dear Regents of the University of California,

On July 9, the UCLA Academic Senate Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) issued a letter to UCLA Professor David Delgado Shorter, which stated, in relevant part, that it was the committee's determination that Professer Shorter had violated no University policies in promoting the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel on his official class website (see HERE and HERE), a campaign which Professor Shorter himself has publicly endorsed. Indeed, the UCLA CAF stated that "such advocacy" was "consistent with professional standards" and therefore protected by the UC rules of academic freedom.

We are outraged and appalled that a UCLA academic senate committee has given its official endorsement to Professor Shorter's use of his class website to promote the academic boycott of Israel, for the following reasons:

• Professor Shorter's class web pages are in clear violation of several UC policies, including the Regents Policy on Course Content, which states that the misuse of the classroom for "political indoctrination" constitutes misuse of the University as an institution.  Shorter's promotion of the academic boycott of Israel on his UCLA class website is also a violation of California Education Code 92000, which prohibits the use of the name of any UC campus for the support, endorsement, or advancement of political or partisan activity or program, with “boycott” specifically named.

• The academic boycott of Israel promoted on Shorter's UCLA webpages was adamantly opposed by the American Association of University Professors and denounced by 446 American University Presidents, including the Chancellors of UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCSD, and UCLA, who called the boycott of Israeli Universities "utterly antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy, where we will not hold intellectual exchange hostage to the political disagreements of the moment."

• The founders of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel have openly stated that their ultimate goal is the dismantling of the Jewish state, and Hannah Rosenthal, U.S. State Department's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, has called their campaign anti-Semitic. Indeed, the Jewish community remembers the Nazi boycott of thousands of Jewish academics as a prelude to the slaughter of 6 million Jews, and we recognize all boycotts of Israel as deliberate assaults on the Jewish state and the Jewish people. 

Last Friday, many UC-affiliated taxpayers received an email from Larry Salinas, Associate Director of Institutional Relations for UC State Governmental Relations, promoting Proposition 30, which asks taxpayers to voluntarily accept a significant tax increase in order to fund California public education, including the University of California.

However, we and many members of the California Jewish community are rapidly losing confidence in your ability to ensure that our tax dollars are not going to fund the misuse of public resources for the promotion of anti-Jewish bigotry.  Until this serious problem is addressed, we cannot in good conscience vote for an increase in our taxes to support the University of California.

We urge you to do the following in order to help restore our trust in the University of California:

1. Publicly affirm the importance of the UC Regents Policy on Course Content, which states:

“They (The Regents) are responsible to ensure that public confidence in the University is justified.  And they are responsible to see that the University remain aloof from politics and never function as an instrument for the advance of partisan interest.  Misuse of the classroom by, for example, allowing it to be used for political indoctrination… constitutes misuse of the University as an institution.”

2. Call on the UC-wide academic senate and all campus academic senates to outline how they will enforce this Regents Policy.

We are sending a copy of this letter to you by U.S. registered mail, as well as hard copies to the university, state and federal leaders copied on this email.  We look forward to hearing from you soon.

If we do not hear from you, we will interpret your silence as an affirmation of the UCLA CAF's statement and a sanctioning of institutional anti-Semitism at the University of California.

Sincerely,

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin

Lecturer, University of California at Santa Cruz
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative

Leila Beckwith
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative

Cc:  University of California President Mark Yudof

       University of California Chancellors

       California Governor Jerry Brown

       California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom

       California Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez

       California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson

      California Senator Fran Pavley (UCLA)

       California Senator Ted W. Lieu (UCLA)

  California Senator Curren D. Price, Jr. (UCLA)

       California Assembly Member Holly J. Mitchell (UCLA)

  California Assembly Member Mike Feuer (UCLA)

       United States Congressman Howard Berman

       United States Congressman Brad Sherman

        Bcc: Members and supporters of the Jewish community

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Below is a letter from the Amcha Initiative to its supporters.

UCLA academic senate committee gives official sanction to professor's promotion of the academic boycott of Israel on his class website
 

Action Alert: Urge UC Regents and elected leaders to ensure that UC classrooms are not being used to promote anti-Jewish bigotry

Appallingly, the UCLA Academic Senate Committee on Academic Freedom has given its official endorsement to Professor David Delgado Shorter’s use of his class website to promote the boycott of Israeli academics, universities, and cultural institutions. (See Shorter's webpages HERE and HERE).  In a letter written July 9, the UCLA Committee wrote to Professor Shorter and stated that his promotion of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, posted on his official class website, was “consistent with professional standards” and violated no University policies.

In response to this deplorable decision, the AMCHA Initiative co-founders Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith sent a letter today to the Board of Regents of the University of California (see HERE), pointing out that Shorter's promotion of a boycott of Israel on his class website violates both University policies and the California Education Code.  Further, the letter indicates that the boycott is anti-Semitic, since its founders  state that their goal is to dismantle the Jewish state, and their campaign has been labeled anti-Semitic by the U. S. State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.  The use of public resources to host the webpages is particularly offensive to the Jewish community.

The AMCHA co-founders' letter warns that given the misuse of public resources for the promotion of anti-Jewish bigotry, it is difficult to recommend support for a ballot initiative endorsed by the UC Regents, which asks California citizens to voluntarily accept a significant tax increase in order to provide more funding to California public education, including the University of California.

To restore trust in the University of California, the AMCHA co-founders urge the UC Regents:

1. To publicly affirm and circulate widely among UC faculty the Regents Policy on Course Content, which states that the misuse of the classroom for "political indoctrination" constitutes misuse of the University as an institution.

2. To ask all campus academic senates and the UC-wide academic senate to outline how they will enforce this Regents Policy.

Please write to the UC Regents and to your elected California officials to express your outrage at the academic legitimation of anti-Jewish bigotry.  Urge these leaders to enforce UC Policy and state law, which prohibit the use of the classroom and University resources for promoting political proganda. 

We encourage you to copy your letter to other UC leaders and state and federal legislators, and you can find a relevant list HERE for your convenience. Please remember to BCC administrator@amchainitiative.org when sending any letters.

Thank you!


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It's a little confusing since Shorter had earlier been sent a letter of reprimand by the chair of the Academic Senate.

http://docstalk.blogspot.com/2012/04/ucla-professor-counseled-after-linking.html

But then again, this is UCLA, so a little confusion is to be expected.