A UCLA professor who received criticism for posting a controversial link on his class website was concluded to have done no wrong by the UCLA Academic Senate’s Academic Freedom Committee last week.
David Shorter, an associate professor of world arts and cultures, posted a link on the webpage for his course, “Tribal Worldveiws,” which led to a site petitioning for the boycott of Israel. Shorter was listed on the website as an endorser of the boycott. The AMCHA Initiative, a University of California faculty organization that fights anti-Semitic feelings on college campuses, complained about Shorter’s promotion of the site to the Academic Senate in late March.
Shorter said the link was a resource for his students for an optional research paper on Gaza. But members of the AMCHA Initiative said they thought that it was a way for Shorter to spread his political agenda.
“The link was posted for Shorter’s winter quarter course. In the spring, the issue became publicized after the Academic Senate asked Shorter to remove the link.”
Now, the Committee has determined that posting the link on the class page did not violate any UCLA policy as long as no student felt obligated to adopt Shorter’s political views, according to a letter the committee sent to Shorter last week.
The letter also outlined the committee’s reservations about the handling of the complaint by Academic Senate chair Andrew Leuchter, concluding that classroom ethics complaints should come from students or teaching assistants directly affected by the content of a course. The committee also concluded that Leuchter should not have issued an apology to the AMCHA Initiative on Shorter’s behalf, according to the letter.
In handling the incident, Leuchter told the AMCHA Initiative that Shorter had realized his wrongdoing and would remove the link. But Shorter said he never agreed to take down the link during what he thought was a casual discussion with a member of the senate about the issue.
Compiled by Erin Donnelly, Bruin senior staff.