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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@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 Senate’s 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 Robinson’s 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 wasn’t, and frankly the campus is beginning to look like a laughing stock, or a place where one wouldn’t 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 don’t like evolution being taught? Can they also censor the professor this easily?”
    
Lisa Hajjar, chair of UCSB’s 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 can’t 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 don’t like what you’re 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, that’s not enough.
    
“It’s 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.

Anti-Defamation League’s national director personally pressured UCSB representatives to act against faculty member

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Contact: Jeb Sprague, (805) 886-0429, jhsprague [at] umail.ucsb.edu.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman held a confidential meeting in early March with University of California officials on campus to pressure them to investigate charges of “anti-Semitism” against sociology professor William I. Robinson.

The meeting included Dean of Students Michael Young, a second dean, and at least seven faculty members.   

Some of the meeting participants told Robinson that Foxman, who was in Santa Barbara to meet with local funders, requested the meeting at UCSB for the sole purpose of demanding that university officials investigate Robinson for introducing materials critical of Israeli state policies in a course on globalization in January.

The materials included a photo essay that Robinson forwarded to students from the Internet and that had been circulating in the public realm. The photos compared images of Israeli abuse against Palestinians during the recent military invasion of Gaza with Nazi abuses during the holocaust. Two students took offense at the images and withdrew from the course, prompting the Anti-Defamation League to pressure the university to investigate Robinson for “anti-Semitism.”

Robinson said participants at the meeting with Foxman were unaware beforehand of the ADL’s intentions. He said the attendees assumed the meeting had been convened to discuss university efforts to hire a chair for a Jewish studies program. “But when the meeting started, Foxman made clear that the only agenda point was his demand that I be investigated,” Robinson said.

Robinson said such intimidation against critics of Israel is standard ADL policy, but Foxman’s personal intervention at UCSB constitutes a marked escalation of pressure tactics that sets a dangerous precedent for the future of academic freedom here and at other universities.

Foxman, 69, has been director of the Washington, D.C.-based ADL since 1987 and has worked with the organization since 1965. He is an international lobbyist who has met frequently with national and world leaders, including all U.S. presidents since Richard Nixon.

Members of the ADL’s Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties Office — which serves Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties — accompanied Foxman to the meeting on campus.

It’s unclear what effect Foxman’s pressure had on university officials. However, the Academic Senate has opened a formal investigation of the charges against Robinson.

The decision to investigate the professor spurred an angry backlash on campus. Students formed a Committee to Defend Academic Freedom and have created an online blog to coordinate efforts to cease the investigation against Robinson.

For detailed information about the Robinson case, visit the committee’s blog at www.sb4af.wordpress.com.

For media inquiries, call Jeb Sprague at (805) 886-0429, or write him at jhsprague [at] umail.ucsb.edu.

Hate Speech is not Free speech. UCSB has become the latest front in the war against campus anti-Semitism.

Open posting appears to be suspended.

The content is all quite stale.

Maybe it would be better to close the site or redirect it to IMC USA or LA?