An instructor at Stanford University has been removed from teaching duties as the school investigates reports that during a discussion on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the instructor downplayed the Holocaust and singled out students “based on their backgrounds and identities.”
“Without prejudging the matter, this report is a cause for serious concern. Academic freedom does not permit the identity-based targeting of students,” Stanford said in a statement Wednesday.
Whenever I read an article about something happening at a university, it seems like it’s always a 50/50 chance that someone being batshit insane or someone being overly sensitive.
This time it was someone being batshit insane. Like, what the fuck? The article is trying to downplay what he was doing. He wasn’t “downplaying” the holocaust, he wasn’t trying to deny it; he was trying to convince them that the holocaust was okay because Israel colonized Palestine. He was trying to convince them that it’s okay to kill Jews.
What the fuck?
The instructor, who is not a faculty member, has not been named.
Excuse me?? Why do you have a non-faculty member lecturing new students?? What the actual fuck is going on here??
Probably a graduate TA. Graduate students are not faculty.
I thought TAs were generally paid, especially grad students since they usually need the money.
Faculty is a very specific word in University systems. It almost exclusively means tenure track professors. Everyone else is staff, student, adjunct, volunteer, etc.
Ah, okay! Thanks!
I started working a tech job at a large university a couple of months ago and it’s a very different world and atmosphere than when I was in school 20 years ago.
I mean they are not entirely wrong with the colonization aspect. What Hamas is doing is indefensible but Israel is behaving like an oppressor, too. Especially with Netanyahu actually interested in diverting people’s attention towards an outside enemy instead of his corruption trial.
That whole conflict has no side that’s “right” anymore and both sides are too stubborn to actually make concessions with each other (especially after Hamas go in power and jeopardized the Oslo agreement"