Tony
5th May 2003, 12:36 AM
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/7
by Tanya Schevitz
San Francisco Chronicle
May 10, 2002
At UC Berkeley, birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, a graduate teaching instructor who is a leader in the pro-Palestinian movement on campus has incited a nationwide controversy by trying to control the tenor of discussion in his class.
Snehal Shingavi, 26, a fifth-year graduate student in English, who will be teaching an undergraduate English class on "The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance," in the fall included in his class description a "warning" that "conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections." Students who are required to take the reading and composition course can choose from a menu of classes covering different themes.
The class description also says that the right of Palestinians to fight for their own self-determination is not up for debate. The course is already full with 17 students and has a waiting list.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl rushed Thursday to declare a "failure of oversight" by the English Department in reviewing course descriptions and said the class will be monitored to ensure that it does not exclude or discourage qualified students from participating. "It is imperative that our classrooms be free of indoctrination -- indoctrination is not education. Classrooms must be places in which an open environment prevails and where students are free to express their views," Berdahl said in a statement. But the issue had attracted a deluge of criticism, bringing Shingavi national attention and a Thursday television appearance on Chris Matthews' "Hardball."
Civil rights and free speech advocates reacted strongly, calling his statements "chilling," and saying that such restrictions do not belong in a university, especially one supported by public funds. Shingavi, who is a leader in the Students for Justice in Palestine group on campus, said Thursday that instructors have the right to frame the course, limiting the themes of the class to its purpose -- in this case, a literary examination of the Palestinian narration of their resistance movement. "You can have a series of debates about Israel's right to destroy Palestine, but those are not germane to the questions about how Palestinians understand themselves and how they understand resistance," Shingavi said. "I'm not restricting the class, it is merely a warning that the course has certain kinds of themes that are at its core."
by Tanya Schevitz
San Francisco Chronicle
May 10, 2002
At UC Berkeley, birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, a graduate teaching instructor who is a leader in the pro-Palestinian movement on campus has incited a nationwide controversy by trying to control the tenor of discussion in his class.
Snehal Shingavi, 26, a fifth-year graduate student in English, who will be teaching an undergraduate English class on "The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance," in the fall included in his class description a "warning" that "conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections." Students who are required to take the reading and composition course can choose from a menu of classes covering different themes.
The class description also says that the right of Palestinians to fight for their own self-determination is not up for debate. The course is already full with 17 students and has a waiting list.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl rushed Thursday to declare a "failure of oversight" by the English Department in reviewing course descriptions and said the class will be monitored to ensure that it does not exclude or discourage qualified students from participating. "It is imperative that our classrooms be free of indoctrination -- indoctrination is not education. Classrooms must be places in which an open environment prevails and where students are free to express their views," Berdahl said in a statement. But the issue had attracted a deluge of criticism, bringing Shingavi national attention and a Thursday television appearance on Chris Matthews' "Hardball."
Civil rights and free speech advocates reacted strongly, calling his statements "chilling," and saying that such restrictions do not belong in a university, especially one supported by public funds. Shingavi, who is a leader in the Students for Justice in Palestine group on campus, said Thursday that instructors have the right to frame the course, limiting the themes of the class to its purpose -- in this case, a literary examination of the Palestinian narration of their resistance movement. "You can have a series of debates about Israel's right to destroy Palestine, but those are not germane to the questions about how Palestinians understand themselves and how they understand resistance," Shingavi said. "I'm not restricting the class, it is merely a warning that the course has certain kinds of themes that are at its core."