Ben Gurion University
Isracampus Special Report:
Yediot Ahronot Reports that Ben Gurion University's Political
Science Department is about to be Closed
http://www.isracampus.t15.org/BGU - Pol Sci Dept to be closed -
yediot ahronot 120906 - source.htm
[in Hebrew]
Isracampus Special Report:
6/9/2012
Israel's daily Yediot Ahronot reports on Sept.
6, 2012 that the Department of Political Science at Ben Gurion
University is on the verge of being forcibly shut down by the
Israeli State Commission on Higher Education, the public body that
oversees and regulates (and funds) Israeli universities.
According to the news story, an independent
balanced international panel of experts investigated the department
and found it extremely politicized (meaning uniformly far leftist
and anti-Israel) and with abysmally low academic standards. The
Council on Higher Education adopted and approved the panel's
proposals. Among these was the demand that mainstream ideas and
methods also be taught in the department, in contrast with the
current situation in which only Marxism and "post-colonialist"
post-Zionist rhetoric are the main forms of analysis. The panel
spoke out most forcefully against the open political activism (most
of it anti-Israel) that dominates the activities of the department.
The panel expressed skepticism over whether the students were
actually learning anything scholarly besides being indoctrinated in
"activism." And it also expressed doubt that the "activism" was
being balanced by exposure of students to alternative points of
view. (I think we all know that these "doubts" are well founded!)
The international panel proposed that no new
students be admitted for studies in that department in the 2013-14
school year unless serious reforms are first undertaken. The panel
also appointed an inspections committee to follow any reforms taken
by Ben Gurion University. (To date, the only reforms proposed by BGU
president Rivka Carmi have been cosmetic. Some wags have suggested
that perhaps Carmi should change jobs and sell Avon cosmetics!) In
the absence of such reforms, no new students will be admitted to the
department starting in the next academic calendar year.
The paper reports that students currently
enrolled in the department will be permitted to complete their
degrees.
========================================
Articles appearing on IsraCampus.Org.il are those of the writer and
do not necessarily represent the opinion of IsraCampus.Org.il
|
