UC regents debate stricter control of views on Israel and other topics on campus websites
For the second consecutive meeting, University of California regents delayed action Wednesday on a controversial proposal to tighten controls of political expression on campus websites, such as criticism of Israel, amid sharp disagreement about moving forward when myriad questions over how it would be rolled out and enforced remained unanswered.
Fallout from the Israel-Gaza war was evident throughout the Board of Regents meeting Wednesday at UCLA. UC President Michael V. Drake and board Chair Rich Leib, in prepared statements, decried rising acts of antisemitism on campuses. Drake said UC had begun to work with Hillel International on training senior campus leaders to address antisemitism and other forms of bigotry and hatred.
During public comments, several Jewish speakers condemned growing harassment against faculty and students who support Israel, including a "barrage" of unjustified negative student evaluations of faculty, classes disrupted by protests, swastikas painted on buildings and signs calling Jews "the new Nazis."
On the other side, one student urged regents to divest UC funds from firms that support the "ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians. Several others called for Palestinian freedom and later temporarily shut down discussion of the website proposal, chanting, "Shame on you!" as Regent Jay Sures tried to present it.
Tensions have spiraled on campuses since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants unleashed the worst attack in Israel's history, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping more than 240 others. Israel has retaliated with massive military campaign that Gaza health officials say has killed more than 31,800 Palestinians.
The proposal would ban commentaries from an academic unit's main homepage and require them to be placed on a separate opinion page with a disclaimer that the comments don't represent the university's position.
Before publishing statements, campus departments must put them to an anonymous vote of their members and explain on behalf of whom the opinions speak. Departments also will be required to develop standards to govern the process.
Sures, vice chairman at United Talent Agency, has pushed for such action for the last few years, previously saying he has been troubled by "abuse" and "misuse" of departmental websites featuring anti-Israel sentiment and other opinions that do not reflect official university views.
The UC San Diego ethnic studies department, for instance, posted a statement grieving the loss of lives on both sides during the Israel-Hamas War and supporting calls to end Israel's occupation and dismantle "the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance."
The department also has posted statements opposing racism against Black people, Asian Americans and Muslims, along with caste-based discrimination. It now displays the comments on a section of its website marked "statements and commentaries" and includes the disclaimer that they "do not necessarily represent the views of all faculty and graduate students at 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 on UC website spaces clearly marked as "opinion pages," but not on landing pages, which should display official information such as course offerings and campus activities. He reiterated his commitment to free speech Wednesday.
"We have made it crystal clear that preserving academic freedom and freedom of speech are absolutely imperative ... if we put a policy in place and in fact it is core to the mission of the University of California," he said.
But his remarks were repeatedly disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters. One accused him of trying to silence those who speak out against an "apartheid state carrying out a genocide."
UC Academic Senate Chair James Steintrager told regents that faculty leaders had rejected an earlier iteration of the policy over concerns that it was too ambiguous, lacked clear measures for implementation and enforcement and still potentially threatened to limit academic freedom.
He said he was pleased that the latest proposal incorporated more content from a systemwide faculty committee review of the issue in 2021, triggered by a controversy over anti-Israel statements on a UCLA website.
The review concluded, in consultation with university attorneys, 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 represented faculty members or groups and not the university and ensuring that minority or dissenting views are not squelched.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: