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Saturday, February 17, 2024

Maybe There Needs to Be More Direction as We Shovel Out $7 Million

A news report indicates that UC-Santa Cruz has its share of the $7 million that UC president Drake set aside ostensibly for some kind of "neutral" education in history related to the current Middle East conflict. 

With an increase in hate speech and anti-Semitism on campuses, UC Santa Cruz has received a grant to eliminate discrimination on their campus. The university confirmed that they will be receiving a $500,000 grant from the University of California Chancellor's office as they are looking to eliminate discrimination throughout UC campuses. 

UC Santa Cruz reported multiple incidents on and off campuses where students allegedly celebrated Adolf Hitler's birthday cake and hate symbols along with anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQIA+ filer on their windsheld. Anju Reejhsingshani who is the vice chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the University says the funding is not just about safety and security but building a stronger community.

"The goal is to bring in specialists who can talk to our community members around antisemitism, Islamophobia, forms of hate that affect, different religious and ethnic and racial minority groups," Reejhsinghani said.

As a system wide imitative, $7 million will be going to various UC campuses in total. The funding will be directed towards mental health and trauma support plus leadership training for students and staff.

Source: https://kion546.com/top-stories/2024/02/13/uc-santa-cruz-receives-grant-to-tackle-anti-semitism-and-hate-speech-on-campus/.

This is all very nice but doesn't sound like what the money was supposed to fund. As we have noted in earlier posts, Dartmouth seems to have pioneered programs in which there are dialogues directed specifically toward the Israel-Gaza situation by experts with different perspectives but who can hold a civil discussion and can engage rather than make statements.

UCLA, before any UCOP money arrived, had such a dialogue for the med school:

https://archive.org/details/ucla-med-school-dialogue-12-20-2023.

Hopefully, there will be more, with or without the money.

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