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Great news. By the way, one clear implication of the OCR's ruling is that "civility" is NOT required or even expected. Fuckin' A! PS: Ironically, one of those accused of anti-Semitism, Shehnaz, jumped all over my case once when I made what I thought was a factual statement about the preponderance of Jews among Hollywood moguls. She was REALLY harsh on me for what she perceived as an anti-Semitic statement. Bless her. On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 9:22 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 2014 > Education Dept. Clears Rutgers U. in Anti-Semitism Case > By Peter Schmidt > Washington > > The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has cleared Rutgers > University of charges that it violated federal law by failing to adequately > protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination. > > In letters to Rutgers and to the Zionist Organization of America, which > had filed a complaint against the university, Emily Frangos, the leader of > the OCR team that conducted an investigation, said the team had found no > evidence that Rutgers had violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 > by not responding adequately to the students’ reports of harassment and > discrimination based on national origin. > > The OCR’s two nearly identical letters, sent more than three years after > the Zionist Organization filed its complaint, and obtained on Friday by The > Chronicle, said the agency’s investigators also had found no evidence that > the students had been victimized in ways that violated federal > antidiscrimination laws. > > E.J. Miranda, a Rutgers spokesman, on Friday issued a statement that said > the New Jersey university was pleased with the OCR’s determination, which > "clearly shows that Rutgers University has excellent procedures in place to > investigate and address allegations of bias while maintaining an > educational environment that encourages freedom of expression and civil > discourse." > > Susan B. Tuchman, director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, on > Friday expressed frustration with how long the OCR had taken to conclude > its investigation. She said her organization was considering an appeal > within the federal agency. > > 3 Strikes > > The OCR investigation focused on three separate ZOA allegations of Jewish > students’ being victimized and of Rutgers’s failing to respond adequately. > All occurred in the context of debates on the New Brunswick campus over > relations between Israel and the Palestinians. > > One asserted that the university had failed to take sufficient steps to > protect a Jewish student, Aaron I. Marcus, after he had been physically > threatened by Shehnaz Sheik Abdeljaber, the outreach coordinator for the > university’s Center for Middle East Studies, following a November 2009 > student-government meeting, and then subjected to anti-Semitic comments and > harassment by Ms. Abdeljaber on Facebook in December 2010. > > The OCR determined that Ms. Abdeljaber had not been the outreach > coordinator, but only a student, at the time of the 2009 incident; that an > administrator who witnessed the exchange said Mr. Marcus had acted > aggressively and had not been threatened; and that Ms. Abdeljaber’s remarks > to Mr. Marcus had involved political views, not national origin. > > "In the university environment," the OCR’s letters said, "exposure to such > robust and discordant expressions, even when personally offensive and > hurtful, is a circumstance that a reasonable student in higher education > may experience." > > In the December 2010 Facebook incident, Ms. Abdeljaber, who had by then > taken the outreach-coordinator position, responded to a friend’s Facebook > post with a comment calling Mr. Marcus a "racist Zionist pig" and urging > people to speak out against him. The OCR’s investigators determined that > the comment did not amount to harassment because it had not been posted on > Mr. Marcus’s Facebook page, and that Ms. Abdeljaber’s supervisor had > responded appropriately by giving her a verbal warning that prompted her to > delete the comment. > > The ZOA’s second allegation also involved Facebook. It accused the > university of failing to respond appropriately to a student’s January 2011 > post about Mr. Marcus that said, in part, "I’d be happy to see him beat > with a crowbar." > > The OCR accepted the Rutgers administration’s determination that the > remarks did not violate the university’s student-conduct code because they > were not posted on Mr. Marcus’s page and lacked anti-Semitic language. The > OCR concluded that the university had handled the incident appropriately by > giving the student who posted the remarks a verbal warning. > > The ZOA’s third charge involved a January 2011 incident in which Jewish > students said a student organization, Belief Awareness Knowledge and > Action, or Baka, had discriminated against them by charging them each a $5 > entry fee for a campus event others could attend free. The OCR determined > that the event had been sponsored not by Baka but by outside groups, and > that Jewish students had been treated no differently than others who wished > to attend. > > Part of a Pattern? > > The ZOA’s Ms. Tuchman called the OCR’s decision "extremely disappointing > but frankly not surprising." > > Ms. Tuchman said her organization had been heartened when the OCR signaled > its intent to more aggressively fight anti-Semitism in a 2010 letter to > schools and colleges. Since then, however, "we have seen virtually no > evidence that the Office for Civil Rights is enforcing this policy, > particularly when the anti-Semitism is expressed as vicious anti-Israel and > anti-Zionist sentiment." > > The civil-rights office last year dismissed a separate anti-Semitism > complaint that the ZOA had brought against the University of California at > Irvine, and similar anti-Semitism complaints about the University of > California’s Berkeley and Santa Cruz campuses. > > Citing the ZOA’s failure to produce students willing to be named as > victims, the OCR had refused, in the Rutgers case, to investigate the > organization’s complaints that Baka had created a hostile environment for > Jewish students by holding anti-Israel events and forums. > > The civil-rights office similarly cited a lack of named victims, as well > as the ZOA’s failure to specify dates when alleged harassment had occurred, > in refusing to investigate the organization’s allegations that Rutgers had > failed to properly deal with complaints that Jewish students are subjected > to a hostile environment in Middle Eastern-studies courses and generally > face anti-Semitism on the campus. > > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/ > options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
