Two profs now refused to write recs for students to study in Israel.
The header and the lack of source in the OP strikes me as a little clickbait-y IMO.
To be accurate, it was one prof and a TA (or as Michigan terms them, a GSI)
That said, the UMich response:
Additionally, the professor was disciplined:
As the situation is evolving, I suspect the GSI will face repercussions.
So no, I don’t think that Jews should boycott Michigan, and any ire directed to the university is misplaced.
The university gave the first prof a pretty harsh punishment, so I don’t think they should be the subject of a boycott.
Cheney-Lippold, a tenured American and digital studies associate professor, will not receive a merit raise during the 2018-19 academic year and will not be permitted take his scheduled sabbatical in January or any other sabbatical for two years, according to a letter signed by Elizabeth Cole, the interim dean of the university’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts, the Detroit News reported Tuesday. The newspaper said it obtained a copy of the letter through the Freedom of Information Act.
He could also face additional discipline, up to and including dismissal, if a similar incident occurs in the future, Cole wrote in the letter dated Oct. 3, the newspaper reported.
I’m so sick of people conflating Jews with Israel. My dad’s family is Jewish. We do NOT support Israel - or, specifically, what they’re doing to Palestinians. We DO support John’s right to not write an LOR.
IMO, we should absolutely be allowed to refuse to write LORs based on politics. I shouldn’t be forced to write a LOR for France when I disagree vehemently with what they’re doing to the Roma there. I shouldn’t be forced to write a LOR for one of my students to work an internship at an anti-abortion place when such a place actively works to suppress the rights of millions. (Just a few personal, partisan examples)
This is a ridiculous story. The student still got a LOR and will almost certainly be going to Israel. No one’s rights were oppressed - except maybe John’s.
So no, they shouldn’t. At least not over this. There are numerous instances of real anti-semitism in this country and world… this isn’t one of them.
I assumed most here had hear about at least the first incident. FYI there is a big hurricane today too. In Florida
First I’ve heard of it. But if we stop students from studying in countries with issues, then students can essentially only study in Canada or Iceland.
I’m not sure it is “stopping” anyone. I’d say students and profs should be very clear in their first communication what the referemce is for, and the prof should be able to say yes or no. The student should ask in a timely fashion with sufficient info, and the prof should respond promptly. Putting aside this example, I can think of organizations I would not want to write recs for.
^^^ Isn’t a LOR about the student or applicant? Why do your personal politics have any baring on providing a student with an LOR. S/he isn’t asking for a prof to endorse Israel or an abortion clinic, or anything. Simply an LOR for the student. Or have we reached a point where the left will only write LORs for people who want to participate in programs where the left aligns (either the type of program or where it’s located)? What if a similar program was in Palestine? Or Canada?
Do you think a Liberty prof would willingly write a student a rec for a job at Planned Parenthood? I don’t.
I agree that no one should HAVE to write an LOR for anyone and it is generally based on the student / professor relationship. But choosing to not write one because of the organization seems odd. This takes us into a very gray and potentially dangerous area. Who decides what are good and bad organizations? Or countries?
In reality, I would think the student / prof relationship would be deep enough to know if prof was a good source of that LOR.
^^^ Who decides what are good and bad organizations? Or countries?
The person asked to write the LOR.
Can I give @rickle1 a thousand “likes”?
If I were a prof (laugher!) I’d give the same LOR for a student regardless of the organization (DNC, RNC, NRA, DSA, etc.). It’s about the kid, not my political beliefs.
But what if a high school teacher refused to write letters for private schools, or Catholic universities, or BYU, or Liberty? Should a student not get to go to Yale because the APUSH teacher (assigned by the high school) doesn’t ‘believe’ in private schools, or went to Harvard and doesn’t like Yale?
I agree the letter might not be very strong if the writer doesn’t believe in the company, country, cause, but shouldn’t the asker get the lukewarm letter? I don’t think writers should get to object to writing a letter for a job at IBM or Microsoft because of the politics. The writer shouldn’t have to write “I think Susie would be perfect for Texico because it is such a good corporate citizen” but can’t the prof just say “Susie is a hard working student who would be an asset to any employer”?
“There are numerous instances of real anti-semitism in this country and world… this isn’t one of them.”
Really? So this professor would write a LOR for this student anywhere in the world except for Israel…which happens to be the only Jewish state on the planet. Yeah sure, nothing anti-Semitic about that.
I’m no World expert, but what if this were a student who wanted to study in China? There’s Tibet’s Muslims, Uyghurs, Taiwan, South China Sea, etc.
Spain? They have issues with Catalonia, Basques.etc. The LOR should focus on the student.
… the United States. A left-leaning recommender may oppose the US government as s/he sees it now, while a right-leaning recommender may oppose what s/he sees as most US universities’ left-leaning tendencies.
Most Tibetans are not Muslim, but most Uyghurs are.
I might have agreed with you about coming to America to study, if you had mentioned the repression-type issues we have here, whichever side you’re on, for example, families being separated at the border or African American males being killed by police. Left leaning vs. right leaning, meh. That’s politics.
Israel has problems, the US has problems, but so do a lot of other countries in our world. And then there’s South Amercia and Africa. Again, the student can choose to study wherever they want to, the LOR should be about the student not the teacher
I applaud the University of Michigan for taking swift action in this case…I think by anyone’s standards the professor and TA were overstepping their position and political beliefs at the expense of a student who wanted to study abroad at an international university.
Can you imagine a US professor refusing to write a LOR for a student who wanted to study abroad at the University of Cambridge because of the British government’s treatment of the people of Northern Ireland?
Yes, and there’s high levels of mercury in tuna. 8-|
Maybe the thread title should be:
“Should Jewish-Americans boycott U Michigan?”
Ya know, growing up we had a family friend who survived the concentration camps. He once said to me “eventually the goyim will call you a jew ■■■■■■■”. I use to laugh at it. Not so much anymore.