The New York Times weighs in on the Columbia Middle Eastern Studies controversy, and a VC reader sends the following criticisms, among others:
(1) The article repeatedly quotes a crude email from a medical professor as a representation of the pro-Israel view on campus.
(2) Everyone criticizing the professors are described as “pro-Israel,” while the Arab professors don’t get a similar branding. Dan Miron is referred to as a “pro-Israel professor in the Mealac department,” but no professors are singled out as “pro-Palestinian” or “pro-Arab.”
(3) Times: ‘Professor Massad, a Jordanian-born Palestinian… said nonenrolled hecklers attend his lectures to provoke him. He said he has chosen not to teach his most controversial course, “Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Societies,” in the coming semester, because of the emotional toll and because he worries it might jeopardize his tenure.’
VC reader: If Daniel Pipes had a speech and Arab students showed up to heckle him, it would be hailed as an exercise in freedom of speech. Which of course it is, it’s just also very rude [Bernstein: I disagree with this; heckling is not simply rude it’s disruptive, and therefore, unless explicitly invited, is not a proper exercise of freedom of speech]. And what is a Jordanian-born Palestinian? Wouldn’t that make him Jordanian? It’s tough to decipher the rules of this made-up nationality.
Bernstein adds: I suspect that Massad decided not to teach this class because as someone who does not speak or read Hebrew, and with the eyes of the world on him, his ignorance of Israeli society would be embarassingly apparent. As I’ve asked previously, how much can Massad know about Israeli society if he can’t speak to Israelis in their native tongue, nor read Israeli books or periodicals in the original?
(4) Times: ‘Some pro-Mealac professors say the anti-Mealac students are, in effect, hicks, products of sheltered environments where pro-Palestinian views are absent. One faculty member suggested that there is “no underestimating how ignorant college students are.” ‘Ms. Shanker, who grew up in the small town of Goshen, N.Y., where, she said, Israel is rarely discussed, said to this point: “I think that argument is ludicrous. We’re not idiots.”‘
VC Reader: Look at the Times not-so-subtly endorsing the description of Shanker as a sheltered hick.
Bernstein: The more I think about this controversy, the more I regret that the aggrieved students have framed the issue in terms of their being “intimidated” or (especially) “offended.” I see relatively little merit in these complaints (though claims of intimidation should certainly be investigated, and much more merit in the complaint that Mealac has poor academic standards, and is overly politicized (what do you expect from a department that seems to take its inspiration from the late Edward Said?). The problem, of course, is that the latter criticisms would apply to so many humanities departments at so many major universities that it would be hard to know where to begin.
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