Brandeis University, Which Notoriously Excluded Ayaan Hirsi Ali From Speaking There Due to Her Allegedly Extremist, Intolerant Comments, Runs a Secret Listserv In Which Leftwing Israel-Haters Slur the Jews and Call Obama a "Chicago Schwartze"

First, let's step into the time machine and journey back to yesteryear, to times lost in the primordial mists.

Let's journey all the way back to ten weeks ago.

Following a discussion today between President Frederick Lawrence and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ms. Hirsi Ali’s name has been withdrawn as an honorary degree recipient at this year's commencement. She is a compelling public figure and advocate for women’s rights, and we respect and appreciate her work to protect and defend the rights of women and girls throughout the world. That said, we cannot overlook certain of her past statements that are inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values. For all concerned, we regret that we were not aware of these statements earlier.

Okay, so that's a clear statement, I guess: When someone makes statements which are contrary to Brandeis University's "core values," they must be excluded from any official association with the school.

To do otherwise would be to dirty Brandeis' reputation.

Which, by the way, doesn't really even exist. Brandeis is not exactly Harvard.

But fair enough -- they want to pretend they have a reputation and people all over the globe frequently ask themselves, "Does this particular action or belief conflict with Brandeis University's core values?"

And they feel they need to exclude anyone whose "previous statements" -- and, presumably, current statements -- would cast disrepute on this institutional reputation that doesn't exist at all except for the idiots who run the Alumni magazine.

You can well imagine, then, that Brandeis University is taking a firm position on the hardleft anti-Israel professors/political agitators who are disparaging Jewish leaders and calling Barack Obama a "Chicago schwartze" for his (get this!) allegedly over-enthusiastic embrace of Israel.

Brandeis University officials are working to distance themselves from a virulently anti-Israel internal listserv that shows a group of professors lashing out at the Jewish state in bizarre terms and attacking Brandeis' Jewish leadership.

Professors on the faculty listserv shared false stories about Israel harvesting organs, claimed the Benghazi attacks were "not terrorism," and used staunchly anti-Semitic terms to describe Brandeis’s Jewish leaders.

Campus activists exposed portions of the "Concerned" listserv on Tuesday, but those releases just scratch the surface of a voluminous email cache that shows longtime Brandeis professors engaging in vitriolic attacks on Jews, Israel, and even the Obama administration, according to a large number of emails provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

Brandeis officials sought to distance the school from the listserv when contacted Wednesday by the Free Beacon.

"The opinions expressed by individual faculty members do not reflect the opinions of Brandeis University," Ellen de Graffenreid, the university’s senior vice president for communications, told the Free Beacon in a statement.

However, Brandeis encourages its professors to engage in a robust discourse.

"Brandeis University--like our peer institutions--upholds the principles of free speech and academic freedom for our students and faculty, which means that members of the community may hold many different opinions on a variety of topics and express them in ways that do not reflect the university’s official position on a given issue,"Graffenreid said.

Well that's awfully strange, because just a very short time ago you claimed that Ayaan Hirsi Ali's statements were contrary to the values of Brandeis, and this required her exclusion so as not to sully the (nonexistent) reputation of Brandeis University.

Seriously I have no idea where this school even is. I think it's Boston but I'd have to Wikipedia that.

Click on the article to read what these professors -- who will not face exclusion, because now Brandeis says that "robust debate" is what matters and that a professor's hateful/racist does not reflect the University's official position, so there is no need for the university to take any action regarding these statements -- really believe and say when they think no one's listening.

Brandeis University

We don't really have a reputation but when we get one we want it to be "leftwing and unprincipled."

So...

So Hirsi Ali's speech would reflect on Brandeis but the statements of their own faculty do not?

Gotcha!

-- Lizzzie

posted by Ace at 03:35 PM

| Access Comments