The Republican-led U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce criticized UCLA and other elite universities, including Harvard and Columbia, for “dramatic failures in confronting antisemitism.” The report — which drew upon emails between UCLA police, UCLA administrators, UC President Michael V. Drake and UC regents — followed explosive committee hearings in the last year that contributed to the resignations of presidents of Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers and the University of Pennsylvania… Members of the House minority have called the hearings an attempt by the chamber’s Republicans to use campus unrest for political gain, pointing out that equal attention has not been given to anti-Muslim or anti-Arab hatred, which have also increased since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
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by Jaweed Kaleem and Libor Jany, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: November 1st, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
United States District Court Judge James Donato granted permissive intervention to a group of six UC Berkeley students involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy efforts on campus on Oct. 25. This makes them defendant-intervenors with UC Berkeley in a lawsuit filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law alleging that campus failed to fight antisemitism. The court’s decision in allowing these six students to intervene will allow them to present additional defenses that “UC Berkeley may not raise,” according to the judge’s order.
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by Melody Seraydarian, The Daily Californian.
Posted: October 29th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The 2024-25 California State Budget outlines the state’s intent to cut the UC system’s state general fund by approximately 8% beginning in fiscal year 2025-26. According to the budget, the cut is part of a multi-year strategy to address a $46.8 billion state deficit. While the state has yet to adopt a budget for fiscal 2025-26, this year’s budget includes future planning adjustments aimed at placing the state on a “fiscally responsible long-term path,” the budget states.
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by Alexa Vasquez, The Daily Californian.
Posted: October 29th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
A recent survey of Jewish and Israeli community members at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that two-thirds of students, faculty and staff reported antisemitism as a problem, and nearly three-quarters believed it was treated less seriously than other forms of hate. The report, which was commissioned by UCLA interim chancellor Darnell Hunt and conducted by the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, highlights a rise in antisemitic incidents on campus since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, sparking an ongoing war in Gaza.
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by Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed.
Posted: October 24th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
As protests unfolded at scores of college campuses last spring, students were not the only ones punished for participating. Faculty members also faced consequences for supporting the students in their protests or for expressing views that were construed as antisemitic or, less commonly, for pro-Israel activism. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified what many faculty members and their allies believe is part of a growing assault on the ideals of academic freedom, a principle that most American colleges and universities hold dear.
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by Anemona Hartocollis, The New York Times.
Posted: October 23rd, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
In September, a group representing University of California faculty filed a complaint alleging the system sought to chill their academic freedom and keep from teaching about the Israel-Hamas war “in a way that does not align with the University’s own position.” To some professors, the protest restrictions are also a labor issue. Colleges have been granting tenure to fewer professors, and facing pressure in some areas to do away with it altogether. Legislatures in several states have taken an interest in how topics around race, gender and history are taught. Protest guidelines handed down by administrators are another way the faculty’s say in university affairs is being diminished, some professors say.
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by Annie Ma, The Associated Press.
Posted: October 22nd, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Campus has temporarily halted the hiring of new lecturers for the 2025-26 academic year on Sept. 30. Benjamin Hermalin, executive vice chancellor and provost, or EVCP, noted the pause in hiring is intended to be short term. This decision was made to provide maximum flexibility in preparing for financial strains in the next academic year and potentially beyond, according to Hermalin’s email to campus department chairs and other colleagues. Hermalin added that campus will soon face an approximately 8% cut in state funding.
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by Kelcie Lee, The Daily Californian.
Posted: October 21st, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
“UC’s actions to suppress speech about Palestine on our campuses, which represents an illegal content-based restriction of faculty rights, sets an alarming precedent,” said CUCFA President Constance Penley in a press release. “Our unfair labor practice filing demands they change course and follow the law, and make whole the faculty who have been harmed.”
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by Emily Cao, Andie Kirby, Jayden Higman and John Millsap, USC Annenberg Media.
Posted: September 27th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Wendy Matsumura, an associate professor of history at UCSD and 2023-24 chair of the UCSD Faculty Association, said it was important to fight for faculty’s academic freedom through this filing. “We just thought, this was a moment where we could not just stand by and let the university essentially inflict violence on us, threaten our workplace safety, threaten our ability to take care of our students and obstruct our right to be in solidarity with the union, particularly graduate workers,” Matsumura said.
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by Leo Place, The Coast News.
Posted: September 26th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The Council of University of California Faculty Associations said UC administrators have threatened faculty for teaching about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and launched disciplinary proceedings against faculty for supporting on-campus student encampments as well as backing a strike by student academic workers this spring. The faculty group made the allegations in a 581-page complaint filed Thursday with California’s Public Employment Relations Board, which oversees labor-management interaction for public employees in the state.
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by Suhauna Hussain, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: September 23rd, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
