Courtesy of UCSF
Courtesy of UCSF

The UC Regents held a public forum on Monday, Oct. 26 to discuss the UC Statement of Principles Against Intolerance, which addresses policies regarding discriminatory behavior. Nine UC Riverside students, including Marcela Ramirez, the UC student regent designate, attended the meeting.

The UC Statement of Principles Against Intolerance is under review after a draft was rejected by the regents, a majority of whom felt it was too weak. Certain groups such as the AMCHA Initiative want the UC to adopt the controversial state department definition of anti-Semitism which critics claim is used to delegitimize any criticism against the state of Israel.

Two students, ASUCR President Pro-Tempore Corey Willis and student A’isha Saleh spoke at the conference regarding their views on the issue. Saleh spoke about discrimination against Middle Eastern students, recalling an incident when a graduate teaching assistant had used the phrase “towelhead,” unaware that the phrase was considered offensive.

Saleh also spoke in regards to the R’Course controversy, in which a class titled “Palestinian Voices,” was accused of being anti-Semitic by the AMCHA Initiative. According to Saleh, this class led to a harassment campaign by several groups across the nation against the student instructor Tina Matar.

Other issues that were brought up included websites such as canarymission.org, which Saleh asserted is used in an attempt to blacklist students from future career opportunities. The website claims that it is a “database (that) was created to document the people and groups that are promoting hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on college campuses in North America.”

Ramirez presented a recap of the issues she had heard from students at the forum. “UC students and ethnic minorities across the board have collective struggles with discrimination, hate and bias not just on our campuses but in society in general. Today we have heard the call to broaden the conversation about campus climate issues for multiple racialized and minoritized communities,” Ramirez stated.

In response Ramirez called for training such as “hate bias prevention,” to reduce prejudice across the UC system, elaborating that “the preventive work is just as important as the punitive sanctions.”

Arman Azedi, a third-year undergraduate student and part of Ramirez’s staff spoke about the issue as well. “The Statement of Intolerance should be broad in that it recognizes prevailing intolerance against many historically marginalized and oppressed communities, but specific in identifying these communities,” Azedi explained.

In addition, Azedi elaborated that the statement “serve(s) as a foundation for practical steps toward greater equality, diversity and justice for students in the UC. Otherwise, it runs the risk of being a feel-good resolution that exists just to absolve UC administration of complicity in intolerance without taking any concrete steps to alleviate existing intolerance on campuses.”

Corey Willis presented a resolution to the ASUCR Senate after the forum on Wednesday Oct. 28.