A committee set up to investigate alleged faculty misconduct found no cause to take disciplinary action against professor William Robinson, according to a letter sent to the professor on Wednesday from Gene Lucas, the university’s executive vice chancellor.
“I have accepted the findings of the charges committee,” Lucas wrote in the short, straightforward message. “Accordingly, this matter is now terminated.”
In the wake of the decision, an organization established to defend Robinson criticized UCSB for not clearing his name earlier, while critics of the professor called the decision “disturbing” and called for greater protection of the academic rights of students.
Robinson has been at the center of a whirlwind of discussion surrounding academic freedom and allegations of anti-Semitism since January, when he sent an email to students in a course on sociology and globalization that included a photo essay comparing images of Israeli abuse to photos of Nazi atrocities.
Two students dropped the course and issued formal complaints against the professor, saying they felt intimidated by the emailed material, which Robinson countered was designed to prompt open discussion and debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A student-led group calling itself the Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB jumped to the professor’s defense and questioned the lengthy investigation into what it deemed a clear-cut case of academic freedom.
“University officials might believe this case is closed, but we will pursue the matter until full justice is achieved,” Yousef Baker, a spokesman for the group, said in a news release yesterday. “Unless those that violated university procedures and effectively politicized this case are held accountable and punished accordingly, this episode will have set a precedent for impunity and will leave in place a chilling atmosphere of censorship on campus.”
Although he could not be reached yesterday, Robinson said in the same statement that he is waiting for a public apology from the university to clear his name, adding that university officials acted “deceitfully and shamelessly.”
Paul Desruisseaux, vice chancellor of public affairs for UCSB, said the university couldn’t comment on the specific case, citing privacy policies surrounding personnel matters.
“We would like to underscore that the university places great importance on the defense of academic freedom,” he said. “That isn’t incompatible with an inquiry into whether the Faculty Code was violated.”
The Anti-Defamation League, which called on the university to look into possible faculty wrongdoing on the part of Robinson, expressed disappointment with the decision to drop any possible disciplinary action against the professor.
Cyndi Silverman, the ADL’s regional director, said the issue was improperly cast as a discussion of protecting academic freedom when it should have been approached from the viewpoint of student rights being violated.
“Not pursuing this issue by conducting a further investigation, as the committee decided, sends a disturbing message that only the rights of faculty are to be respected, not the rights of individual students,” she said in a news release. “If students who are understandably feeling intimidated and excluded by actions such as these by a faculty member — this was not a mere difference of opinion about what happened in Gaza — conclude that there is no recourse for their concerns, it will create a climate in which true academic freedom will not be able to endure.”
The email in question went out to students in Robinson’s Sociology of Globalization course on January 19.
One of the students who dropped the course and filed a complaint stated that she found the material “intimidating,” “disgusting,” and “horrific,” particularly one passage that stated, “Gaza is Israel’s Warsaw.”
The ADL also sent a sternly worded message to Robinson and the university in the weeks after the professor sent out the email, calling the juxtaposition of Nazis and Israelis “offensive” and arguing that no accurate comparison can be made between the two groups.
“We also think it is important to note that the tone and extreme views presented in your email were intimidating to students and likely chilled thoughtful discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” according to the ADL statement.
However, Robinson responded to the official complaint and corresponding inquiry into any possible misconduct by noting that his classes are designed to spark open debate on global affairs, even if the views expressed by students are contrary to his own.
He called any the investigation “a grave an ominous threat to academic freedom on this campus and in the University of California, with potentially chilling effects not only on said academic freedom but as well on the ability of the university community to engage in open debate and exchange of ideas on contemporary matters free from intimidation and the threat of sanctions.”
Robinson said he plans to file his own grievance with the university’s Academic Senate for alleged violations of his faculty rights.