BUZZ
He’s ‘a really nice guy’ who’s got a 4.9 rating on RateMyProfessors
University of California Berkeley faculty and students are miffed at the discipline meted out to pro-Palestinian computer and engineering lecturer Peyrin Kao.
Earlier this month, Kao officially was suspended without pay for the spring semester for violations of UC Regents Policy 2301 which, among other things, states “misuse of the classroom by, for example, allowing it to be used for political indoctrination, for purposes other than those for which the course was constituted […] constitutes misuse of the University as an institution.”
But according to The Daily Californian, the Berkeley Faculty Association (a “progressive group that represents about 20% of the university’s tenure-track faculty,” according to Berkeleyside) expressed “concern” that it was the type of political advocacy to which the university objected: pro-Palestinian.
“It is hard to escape the judgment that this appears to be another instance of the ‘Palestine exception’ to free speech,” the group said. “We believe that discipline on this basis threatens the faculty’s fundamental political freedoms as citizens.”
Although Kao previously had been warned about politicking to students (such as giving the URL to a pro-Palestinian website), the BFA’s Celeste Langan said Kao “tried very hard to obey the rules, and then he was accused of violating their spirit.”
(Back in 2011, Langan had participated in an “Occupy Cal” protest “in defiance” of a no-encampment policy and “to resist the conceptual and practical attenuation of the ideal of education as a res publica.”)
The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom zeroed in on the university’s contention that the “physical toll” from Kao’s 38-day “hunger strike” (he had consumed an alleged Palestinian-like 250 calories per day consisting of “plain pasta”), wondering if such actually could be interpreted as a form of political advocacy.
“[W]e’re open to the idea that under certain circumstances, nonverbal expression could potentially violate Regents Policy 2301, but if we’re going to be interpreting it that way, I think we need much clearer guidance for faculty,” Committee Chair R. Jay Wallace said.
A letter from the group Berkeley STEM4Palestine, which Kao helped found, has over 1,400 signatures and “more than 20 endorsements,” including from former NFL running back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch and radical feminist professor Judith Butler.
One student pointed to Kao’s 4.9 rating on RateMyProfessors.com, saying he’s “a really nice guy” who’s “genuinely loved by the students.”
The Friday before Christmas, members of STEM4Palestine “taped a copy of the petition” outside the chancellor’s office after being informed they would not be allowed to deliver it in person.
Kao’s union, the University Council-AFT, filed a grievance on his behalf claiming UC Berkeley had no “just cause” to suspend him.
On December 23, The Daily Californian published an editorial titled “UC Berkeley has reached a new low by suspending lecturer Peyrin Kao” in which it called the school’s actions “a gross misuse of power” designed “to quell pro-Palestine speech on campus.”
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin noted in a December 19 letter that “the conversation around academic freedom and free speech will continue,” and he plan meetings with the Academic Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom and the Task Force on Free Speech and Campus Climate on January 27 and February 20 respectively.
MORE: UC Berkeley lecturer ‘exhausted but committed’ after four weeks of pro-Gaza ‘hunger strike’
