UCI FACULTY LETTER UPDATE: ‘Some community members, students, and faculty indeed feel intimidated, and at times even unsafe.’

We, faculty at the University of California–Irvine, are deeply disturbed about activities on campus that foment hatred against Jews and Israelis. The troubling events over the past few years include the painting of swastikas in university buildings, the Star of David depicted as akin to a swastika, a statement (by a speaker repeatedly invited by the Muslim Student Union) that the Zionist Jew is a party of satan, a statement by another MSU speaker that the Holocaust was God’s will, the tearing down of posters placed by the student group Anteaters for Israel, and the hacking of their web site. Some community members, students, and faculty indeed feel intimidated, and at times even unsafe.

Some of these actions are protected by the First Amendment and in no way do we want to limit freedom of speech. We welcome open dialogue among all members of the UCI community. We respect and value our Muslim colleagues, including those members of the MSU who support and encourage open dialogue and civility on campus. At the same time, we take issue with hate-promoting actions that we find unacceptable. They run counter to the peaceful co-existence and civility that are essential to a university environment. Actions that demonize and derogate others, such as the previous events that have occurred on our campus noted above, have contributed to UCI’s developing a growing reputation as a center of hate and intolerance. Our campus deserves better.

Signed:

Myron Bander, Professor, Department of Physics

Marlon Boarnet, Professor, Department of Planning, Policy, and Design

Matthew Brenner, Professor, Department of Medicine

Dvora Cyrlak, Professor of Diagnostic Imaging

Gil Conchas, Associate Professor, Department of Education

Dan Cooper, Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering

Rina Dechter, Professor, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

Hamid Djalilian, Associate Professor of Surgery

Jill Endres, MD, Director, Surgical Education, Department of Surgery

George Farkas, Professor, Department of Education

Paul Feldstein, Robert Gumbiner Professor, The Paul Merage School of Business

Gary Fouse, Adjunct teacher, University Extension

Karen Fox- Asraf, Adjunct teacher UCI-Ext/ESL

Stephen Franklin, Lecturer, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

Jean Fried, Project Scientist, Department of Planning, Policy, and Design

De Gallow, Director, Teaching, Learning & Technology Center, Division of Undergraduate Education

Julia M. Gelfand, Applied Sciences & Engineering Librarian

Amihai Glazer, Professor, Department of Economics

Sara Wallace Goodman, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science

Sheldon Greenfield, Donald Bren Professor, School of Medicine

Dan Hirschberg, Professor, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

Christopher Kahn, Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine

Tatiana Kain, Chair and Medical Director, Department of Emergency Medicine

Zeev Kain, Professor, Anesthesiology & Pediatrics & Psychiatry

Sherrie Kaplan, Professor of Medicine

Mark I. Langdorf, Professor, Clinical Emergency Medicine

Howard M. Lenhoff, Professor Emeritus, Developmental & Cell Biology

Marc Lerner, Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Kathie Levin, Lecturer, Department of English

Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology & Social Behavior, and Department of Criminology, Law & Society,

Gloria Mark, Professor, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

Richard Matthew, Professor, Department of Planning, Policy and Design

Seymour Menton, Research Professor, Department of Spanish & Portugese

Frank Meyskens, Professor of Medicine, Biological Chemistry and Public Health

Dana Mukamel, Professor, Department of Medicine

David Neumark, Professor, Department of Economics

Alex Nicolau, Professor, Department of Computer Science

Raymond W. Novaco, Professor, Department of Psychology and Social Behavior

Eliezer Nussbaum, M.D., Professor of Clinical Pediatrics

Ellen Olshansky, Professor and Director, Program in Nursing Science

Richard Pattis, Lecturer, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

Harry Pellman, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics

Henry N. Pontell, Professor of Criminology, Law & Society and Sociology

Shlomit Radom-Aizik, Postdoc, Department of Pediatrics

Judy Rosener, Senior Lecturer, School of Business

Carl H. Schultz, Professor, Emergency Medicine

Gail Schwartz, Adjunct teacher UCI-EXT/ESL

Jacobo Sefami, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Roberta Seid, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences

Roxane Cohen Silver, Professor Department of Psychology and Social Behavior

William A. Sirignano, Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Etel Solingen, Chancellor’s Professor, Political Science

Dara Sorkin, Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Medicine

Eugene Spiritus, Chief Medical Officer, UCI Medical Center

Robin Steinberg-Epstein M.D. Medical School Education

Hal Stern, Professor, Department of Statistics

Dan Stokols, Chancellor’s Professor, Department of Planning, Policy, and Design and Department of Psychology and Social Behavior

Jerome Tobis, Professor emeritus (recalled)

Gene Tsudik, Professor, Department of Computer Science

Alex Veidenbaum, Professor, Department of Computer Science

Mark Warschauer, Professor of Education and Informatics

Elaine Weiss, Adjunct teacher, UCI-EXT-ESL

James Weiss, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine

Hadar Ziv, Lecturer/Research Scientist, Department of Informatics