JRsec
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RE: Professor Agreed, Then Refused to Give Student a Recommendation Letter When He...
(09-20-2018 12:52 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote: Quote:A professor from the University of Michigan agreed to write a letter of recommendation for a student — until he realized it was for a study abroad trip to Israel.
The student, Abigail Ingber, snapped a screenshot of the message in which her professor, John Cheney-Lippold, told her that he would no longer be able to write her a recommendation letter.
A student group on the Michigan campus, Club Z, obtained the email and posted the screenshots.
Club Z was outraged by the professor's boycott. It linked to the U.S. Department of Education and highlighted its new policy on universities related to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel. The new policy forbids universities from applying a double standard on Israel compared to other democratic nations.
The professor responded to Club Z's post during an interview with The Michigan Daily.
“I support the boycott because I support solidarity," Cheney-Lippold said. ”[...] The idea is that I support communities who organize themselves and ask for international support to achieve equal rights, freedom and to prevent violations of international law."
Cheney-Lippold also denied that his decision was tied to anti-Semitism in any way, telling the Michigan Daily:
“I have no bad will against the student, and I would have very gladly written a letter for any other graduate program or study abroad. The idea is that I am just one person, and by refusing to write that letter or at least rescinding it, I tried to keep to my conscious and to the fact that I believe that the boycott is a good tactic to enhance human rights.”
“It is disappointing that a faculty member would allow their personal political beliefs to limit the support they are willing to otherwise provide for our students,” the Univesity of Michigan said in a statement. “We will engage our faculty colleagues in deep discussions to clarify how the expression of our shared values plays out in support of all students.”
The professor stated that he felt he couldn't breach his political beliefs to write the letter:
“As a professor, I'm not just a machine writing things for people. I have opinions and even though a letter of recommendation is about the student, a lot of thought goes into them. It's not a blank check where I'm signing for them to go to any place they want, it is a dialogue.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO for the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted his concern with the professor's decision:
Link
The hyphen in his name gave it away! Every left leaning whack-o I ever met in grad school didn't have the balls to ask his wife to take his name. The hyphen worked for most of them because they didn't stay married anyway. No name to change just a hyphen and another name to delete.
I would say that the University of Michigan should let him go, but they sanction this and the State Department is rife with the same, policies or not.
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09-22-2018 02:37 AM |
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Fo Shizzle
Pragmatic Classical Liberal
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RE: Professor Agreed, Then Refused to Give Student a Recommendation Letter When He...
To not give the student the recommendation based upon ones political view instead of academic qualifications is despicable. This type of vermin needs purging from our nations academic institutions.
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09-22-2018 08:30 AM |
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