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Last update - 11:40 09/11/2009
Tel Aviv students afraid to challenge leftist professors
By Or Kashti
Tags: Israel education, Israel News 

Tel Aviv University students are hesitant to express their political views in class, lest lecturers perceived to have left-wing political views penalize them with lower grades, the head of TAU's Department of Curriculum and Instruction wrote in an internal memorandum last month. Prof. Nira Hativa's comment in the faculty memo ignited controversy among professors, with some declaring that her sentiments should not be made public.

Hativa wrote: "There are no small number of students of lecturers with left-wing views who complain bitterly that they are extremely offended by the presentation of materials that oppose their views, but are fearful of expressing contrary viewpoints in class, lest it harm their grades."

In response to the uproar, Hativa, who is currently abroad, wrote Haaretz this weekend that "the things I wrote in the context of an internal disagreement are based on intuition and my personal impressions."
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The chair of the university's students' union, Shahar Botzer, said his organization receives a number of complaints each year from students dissatisfied with what they view as lecturers' biased portrayal of material in favor of left-wing positions. He said that such complaints are the exception, however, rather than the rule.

"If lecturers express their views in class in a way that makes it illegitimate to express contrary views - that is inappropriate and unacceptable to us," Botzer said. "This university is founded on pluralism and on the ability to express a variety of opinions."

Hativa's statements were prompted by a story in the Haaretz English Edition on rightist activists monitoring lecturers who are considered to have leftist views, as well as an article in Maariv on what it described as the right-wing views of Daniel Schueftan, deputy director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa.

"At the end of each semester, I read comments from several hundred students on the teaching they receive," Hativa wrote on October 23. "I have come across many complaints from students about a small number of lecturers in various fields, who express radical left-wing opinions in their classes - that they are lashing out at the State of Israel, the army, the Zionist movement and worse."

TAU said in response that "informal discussions are held frequently on controversial issues, and people feel 'at home' in expressing opinions based on their understanding and intuition. The university is an institution where pluralism is a guiding principle."
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  1.   Parroting Professors Prejudices 10:30  |  Mark of Lewiston 09/11/09
  2.   Reminds me of Tanya Rheinhart 10:43  |  James 09/11/09
  3.   And in the West it`s the exact opposite 10:44  |  Peter Williams 09/11/09
  4.   Mistaken Title! 10:57  |  Logic 09/11/09
  5.   The worse it gets the better 12:28  |  Censor this 09/11/09
  6.   The militant right has long been trying 13:16  |  r cummings 09/11/09
  7.   It started with Arafat`s worshippers Yossi Sarid and Yuli Tamir 13:23  |  Absolute Sweden 09/11/09
  8.   Hebrew University 13:56  |  Sylvie 09/11/09
  9.   leftist professors` teaching 13:58  |  Paulo Freire 09/11/09
  10.   Branding teachers as "left" 14:50  |  EG 09/11/09
  11.   Professors 15:02  |  Jay 09/11/09
  12.   I have 4 Years Worth of Liberal `Backwash` Essays to show for it! 15:53  |  David P. 09/11/09
  13.   Here is a solution... 16:19  |  Vladimir 09/11/09
  14.   Students are just reacting emotionally to new points of view 16:56  |  Pssd Off American 09/11/09
  15.   My friend 17:21  |  Mike 09/11/09
  16.   Don`t believe the hype. 17:37  |  Jacob 09/11/09
  17.   Poor little picked upon woosies 17:56  |  Mark Lincoln 09/11/09
  18.   Student at Tel Aviv 17:59  |  Lion 09/11/09
  19.   Socialism is a mental illness 18:06  |  Montrealer 09/11/09
  20.   absolutely true for brazilian universities 18:22  |  vladimir 09/11/09
  21.   yet another attempt to delegitmize 18:44  |  Sam 09/11/09
  22.   Er...Doesn`t this work both ways??? 19:11  |  Ari 09/11/09
  23.   The better ones like it Mark of Lewiston 19:18  |  Mark Lincoln 09/11/09
  24.   Intimidation of students 20:12  |  RfaelMoshe 09/11/09
  25.   Tel Aviv students afraid to challenge leftist professors 21:16  |  Meir 09/11/09
  26.   It is the same everywhere . 21:21  |  TOMY 09/11/09
  27.   Rarely with Undergrads, Mark Lincoln 21:46  |  Mark of Lewiston 09/11/09
  28.   In my time it was davka the right-wing profs who organized 22:07  |  Esther 09/11/09
  29.   Supposed to be unbiased 22:42  |  Former Student 09/11/09
  30.   I studied at TAU - it`s 100% TRUE!!! 22:55  |  David 09/11/09
  31.   News Flash! Leftie-fascist professors discriminate. 23:16  |  Alan 09/11/09
  32.   leftist professors are only ones who make any sense over there! 23:46  |  american observer 09/11/09
  33.   It`s not true - I studied at TAU 01:48  |  David 10/11/09
  34.   Leftists in control? And being totalitarian about it? No way! 02:24  |  Ari 10/11/09
  35.   Yes, it`s true. And it extends beyond nation`s borders 03:24  |  Raymond in DC 10/11/09
  36.   yes, it is true 04:06  |  ronald 10/11/09
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