For the second straight meeting, University of California regents on Wednesday delayed action on a controversial proposal to tighten controls on political expression on campus websites, such as criticism of Israel, amid stark disagreement over how to move forward when countless questions arose about how it would be implemented and imposed were left unanswered.
The consequences of the war between Israel and Gaza were evident during Wednesday's Board of Regents meeting at UCLA. UC President Michael V. Drake and Board of Trustees Chairman Rich Leib, in prepared remarks, condemned rising acts of anti-Semitism on campuses. Drake said UC had begun working with Hillel International on training senior university leaders to address anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance and hate.
During public comments, several Jewish speakers condemned the increasing harassment against professors and students who support Israel, including a “flurry” of negative and unjustified student evaluations of professors, classes disrupted by protests, swastikas painted on buildings, and signs that They called the Jews “the new Nazis.”
On the other hand, one student urged the regents to divest UC funds from companies that support the “ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. Several others called for Palestinian freedom and then temporarily shut down discussion of the website proposal, shouting, “Shame on you!” as Regent Jay Sures tried to present.
Tensions at universities have soared since October 7, when Hamas militants unleashed the worst attack in Israel's history, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping more than 240. Israel has responded with a massive military campaign that, According to Gaza health officials, it has killed more than 31,800 Palestinians.
The proposal would ban comments from an academic unit's home page and require them to be placed on a separate opinion page with a notice that the comments do not represent the university's position.
Before publishing statements, campus departments must subject them to an anonymous vote by their members and explain on whose behalf the opinions speak. Departments will also be required to develop standards to govern the process.
Sures, vice president of United Talent Agency, has pushed for such measures in recent years, previously saying he is concerned about the “abuse” and “misuse” of departmental websites that feature anti-Israel sentiments and other opinions. that do not reflect official opinions. university views.
The ethnic studies department at the University of California, San Diego, for example, released a statement lamenting the loss of life on both sides during the war between Israel and Hamas and supporting calls to end Israel's occupation and dismantle the apartheid system that creates suffocating and dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.”
The department has also released statements opposing racism against Blacks, Asian Americans and Muslims, along with caste-based discrimination. It now displays the comments in a section of its website called “statements and comments” and includes the disclaimer that they “do not necessarily represent the views of all faculty and graduate students in the Department of Ethnic Studies, the Regents of the University Of California”. , or the University of California, San Diego.”
Sures has said he supports free expression in spaces on the UC website clearly marked as “opinion pages,” but not on landing pages, which must display official information such as course offerings and campus activities. He reiterated his commitment to free speech on Wednesday.
“We have made it very clear that preserving academic freedom and freedom of expression is absolutely imperative … if we implement a policy and indeed is fundamental to the mission of the University of California,” he said.
But his comments were repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters. One accused him of trying to silence those who speak out against an “apartheid state carrying out genocide.”
UC Academic Senate President James Steintrager told regents that faculty leaders had rejected an earlier version of the policy out of fear that it was too ambiguous, lacked clear measures for implementation and enforcement and still potentially threatened limit academic freedom.
He said he was pleased that the latest proposal incorporated more content from a review of the issue by a systemwide faculty committee in 2021, sparked by a controversy over anti-Israel statements on a UCLA website.
The review concluded, in consultation with university lawyers, that departments had the right to weigh in on political and social issues, although they cannot endorse candidates. The Senate provided guidelines, such as making clear statements that represent members or faculty groups and not the university, and ensuring that minority or dissenting opinions are not silenced.
But Steintrager noted that the current proposal, which has been revised at least twice since the initial draft was presented in January, had been released just two days earlier and urged regents to delay action to give Senate members time. to check it.
“Today I felt like it wasn't quite put together yet,” he said later.
Several regents agreed, including Drake, who said the policy was not “ready” yet.
Regent John A. Perez, without mentioning Israel, said the timing of the proposal has led to the perception that the policy is not “content neutral,” undermining efforts to create rules that are considered fair. rather than a reaction to specific issues. “We have a problem of trust and mistrust,” he said, adding that UC needed to invite broad engagement with stakeholders to solicit ideas “about what can make a rule less offensive and less problematic.”
Leib, however, said the intent of the policy “was not about a single issue.”
“The time has come to act as we seek to respond to concerns expressed by our university community about the increasingly common practice of publishing opinions that may be offensive to some and that could inaccurately represent the views of the University and those of some. students. and faculty within the department,” he told The Times in a statement.
In the end, regents who were part of a joint committee voted to delay action until their next meeting in May.
Mathematics Admission Requirement
The regents also discussed the recent report from an Academic Senate task force that found that three popular data science courses would no longer substitute for Algebra 2 because they lacked sufficient advanced mathematics content required for admission to UC and UT. California.
The decision overturned a practice that had been in place since 2013, when UC first approved a data science course introduced by the Los Angeles Unified School District as a measure to expand math options for students.
The UC faculty admissions board reviewed the courses and revoked their approval last summer amid questions about the proliferation of data science classes and attempts to give the field more prominence in California's new state framework for data science. math instruction adopted last year.
After the task force confirmed that decision last month, UC notified high school counselors and other educators.
Although the topic has sparked widespread controversy, the regents did not question the findings of the data science courses. UC officials told regents that the decision would not have a significant impact on admissions. Only 387 of California's roughly 130,000 freshman applicants last fall had taken data science without an integrated Algebra 2 or equivalent math class. Of them, 169 were admitted and 63 enrolled.
Regent Joel Raznick asked if data science courses could be revised to include enough Algebra 2 content to count toward admission. Ani Adhikari, a statistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley who chaired the working group, told him that the three courses in question would have to be “modified very significantly” to achieve this, but it was generally not out of the question.
“It's possible,” he said. “Is it easy? Will it happen quickly? I'm not sure.”
Regent Lark Park raised the broader question of how to make mathematics more meaningful and relevant to students.
“If we try to instill a love of mathematics, we won't succeed,” he said. She called on all parties to work together because the issue “seems to be more of a war than it should be.”
