To the Editor:
Emma Pettit’s May 21 article (“At UC Berkeley, the Faculty Asks Itself, Do Our Critics Have a Point?”) resonated with my own experiences of illiberalism and intolerance for diversity and value pluralism at UC Berkeley. UC Berkeley needs to be much more intentional, invested, and conscientious in efforts to build a genuinely inclusive university community that welcomes and inspires original and independent thought, critical thinking that is truly critical and nuanced rather than dogmatic and frequently reductionist and partisan, and perspectives that challenge orthodoxies and hegemonic ideologies that often contribute to prejudice, exclusion, and a stunting of the quality, depth, and diversity of intellectual activity and creativity on campus.
Concurrently, the university must attend to the ways in which it economically and socially marginalizes diverse communities on campus including low income faculty and faculty who identify as ethnic and racial minorities who frequently experience differential discriminatory treatment in their employment status, salaries, and health and pension benefits as non-tenure track lecturers, creating structural discrimination across the university and indeed the entire UC system.
Finally, as a Jewish faculty member, I have experienced extensive and painful discrimination, harassment, exclusion, and abuse on account of my Jewish identity, beliefs, heritage, and practices as have many of my fellow faculty, staff, and Jewish students for almost two years. The university’s callous and woefully inadequate response throughout this time — while beginning to improve under the leadership of our new chancellor who has shown conscience and care — seriously harmed and further marginalized and isolated Jewish members of our community. Many university policies and practices were and still are characterized by willful indifference to our civil rights, welfare, and repeated requests for equal treatment, access to justice, physical safety, and freedom to teach and learn without harassment and discrimination. The lasting consequences of these violations of our rights and welfare need to be addressed urgently in a reparative way in the context of commitment to universal civil rights protections and their fulfillment and enforcement for all.
Noam Schimmel
Lecturer, Global Studies
The University of California, Berkeley
