A teaching assistant at the University of California, Berkeley, offered her students extra credit for attending a pro-Palestinian exit program amid the ongoing Hamas-Israel war before administrators canceled the option.
Victoria Huynh, who is an assistant in lecturer Harvey Dong’s course titled “Asian American Communities and Race Relations,” gave the incentive to students in an email Tuesday, J. The Jewish News of Northern California reported.
“We offer field trips and/or extra credit opportunities,” he wrote in an email, ie posted on X by the user who acquired the message.
“Students can watch a short documentary about Palestine and call/email your local California representative using this linktree,” wrote a PhD student in ethnic studies. “Doing so will either count as a field trip or 5 extra points on your grade field trip category.”
Students at the University of California, Berkeley, protest the Israel-Hamas war.AP
Huynh said students must provide photo proof of their extra credit activities to earn points.
He concluded by noting that two sections of his class would spend some time during their next class “talking about the history of Palestine in relation to class concepts like colonialism, imperialism, and Third World solidarity.”
The email was widely shared on X, where it got more than 2.3 million views and drew criticism from pro-Israel activists who called it indoctrination.
“Extra credit for protesting anything is pathetic,” Florida-based attorney Matt Sarelson write on X. “Extra credit for participating in pro-Hamas protests is evil.”
“Another unwarranted attempt to brainwash students,” writes activist David Lange.
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On Wednesday, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told the J. that “once the administration was notified of the assignment, it moved quickly to ensure it would be changed.
“The situation has been rectified,” he added.
Mogulof cited a policy adopted by the University of California Board of Regents in 1970 and amended in 2005.
A UC-Berkeley representative said the school has “resolved” the situation.X / @hellafeta
“Misuse of classrooms by, for example, allowing them to be used for political indoctrination, for purposes other than those for which the course was established, or to award grades without commensurate and appropriate student achievement, is an abuse of the University as an institution. ,” the policy said, according to the outlet.
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“In general, awarding academic credit to students for participating in civil disobedience activities, or for deciding not to attend their classes, would, in most circumstances, constitute ‘classroom abuse’ under this policy,” Mogulof wrote.
Dong, a lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the outlet.
Huynh did not immediately respond to J.’s email.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
