UC-Davis Chancellor Is Criticized for Circulating Jewish Gro

The Chronicle of Higher Education
September 17, 2014
UC-Davis Chancellor Is Criticized for
Circulating Jewish Group’s Guidance on
Israel Protests
By Peter Schmidt

The office of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi of the University of
California at Davis circulated to administrators this week a Jewish
advocacy group’s guidance for dealing with debates and protests
over Israel, prompting a pro-Palestinian group to complain that its
free-speech rights were being attacked.

Karen Nikos-Rose, a spokeswoman for the Davis campus, on
Tuesday described as a matter of routine the chancellor’s decision
to have a staff member forward the emailed guidance. "The
chancellor’s office frequently forwards information out to campus
leaders to make them aware," she said. "It is an FYI."

But Kristin Szremski, a spokeswoman for American Muslims for
Palestine, which is cited in the guidance as likely to soon cause
problems on the campus, described the forwarded email as part of
a concerted effort "to chill or inhibit the free speech of college
students."

A university official’s forwarding of the guidance to administrators
"is basically telling them that they should pay heed" in dealing
with controversies within the classroom or at campus events, Ms.
Szremski said on Tuesday. "The ultimate result," she said, "is a
chilling of the free speech of certain groups of students, primarily
Arab and Muslim students."

The emailed guidance accuses American Muslims for Palestine of
seeking "to isolate and demonize Israel and Jewish communal
organizations."

"These efforts serve only to polarize students on campus, inflame
existing tensions, and often isolate and intimidate Jewish
students," said the email, sent to Chancellor Katehi on Friday by
Seth Brysk, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s regional
office in San Francisco.

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Brysk called assertions that the
email sought to chill speech "a very odd characterization." Instead,
he said, the message sought to keep the exchange of ideas from
being stifled by advocates of an academic boycott of Israel.

Controversial ‘Day of Action’

The email urges Ms. Katehi to take steps to ensure that students
are protected from any hostile environment, as defined by federal
antidiscrimination laws, and to prohibit and discipline any
student behavior "detrimental to the free exchange of ideas."
The message specifically cites the American Muslims for
Palestine’s plans to hold, on September 23, an "International Day
of Action on College Campuses" to promote the boycott,
divestment, and sanctions movement. The academic boycotts
being advocated as part of the movement, it says, "disrupt campus
life and stifle the ideals of inquiry, free expression, and the civil
exchange of ideas."

The email accuses American Muslims for Palestine of timing the
"day of action" to take place the evening before the Jewish holiday
of Rosh Hashanah. Ms. Szremski on Tuesday denied that assertion
and said the event had been timed for the beginning of the
academic year on most college campuses.

"Be aware of the discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
that takes place on your campus and the potential for escalation,"
said the email, reprinted in an article published on Tuesday on the
Electronic Intifada, a blog supportive of the Palestinians and
critical of Israel.

The email said the ADL strongly supports free speech, but "no
university should countenance attempts to discourage and
suppress free speech, or harass and intimidate Jewish and other
students."

Among the more than two dozen top administrators at Davis who
were forwarded the email on Monday were deans, vice
chancellors, and Nick Crossley, the emergency manager for the
campus’s police department.

The ADL's Mr. Brysk said that he had sent the guidance to the
chancellors of other campuses of the University of California and
that several had sent him positive replies, although he did not
know how they planned to use the document.

Steve Montiel, director of media relations for the University of
California, declined on Tuesday to comment on the forwarded
email, saying he had too little information on the email or the
context in which it was sent.

"Our campuses are operated pretty independently," Mr. Montiel
said. The university president’s office, for its part, had no role in
circulating the document, he added.

Chancellor Katehi of the Davis campus has come under fire before
for her handling of free speech on the campus. She was harshly
criticized in an April 2012 investigative report in connection with a
November 2011 incident in which campus police officers peppersprayed
students protesting tuition increases. The report said she
had failed to communicate that police officers should avoid using
physical force and had made decisions related to the timing of the
protesters’ removal that should have been left to law enforcement.