April 12 2012
On the use of academic freedom for a political agenda
We deeply appreciate your careful inquiry into the question we raised about whether Professor Shorter's promotion of the academic and cultural boycott of Israel on his official UCLA class website is protected by the University of California's rules of academic freedom.

We are very pleased you have clearly stated that it is not appropriate for a faculty member to post a political petition on which he is a signatory as part of a course research.

May we therefore assume that the general principle underlying your statement is that the University of California's rules of academic freedom do not protect a professor who uses his or her class resources to engage in political activities?

Thank you for considering this additional question. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Lecturer, University of California at Santa Cruz
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
[email protected]

Leila Beckwith
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
[email protected]

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 12:31 AM, Andrew Leuchter wrote:

Dear Ms. Rossman-Benjamin,