_ If you help UCLAProfs.com expose the professor, we'll pay you for your work._
It seems that the farther away we get from the initial tsunami of fear and anger that swept through the U.S. after 9/11, the more hotter the campaign to police thought on U.S. campuses becomes. What explains this counter-intuitive reverse relationship? Many things, I suppose, but one element is clear: the above quote is part of several national, well-funded campaign operating outside the academy. These campaigns are similar to (and often intimately connected with) other campaigns targeting a free press, civil liberties, separation of church and state, and other pillars of a democratic society, such as the checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches of government. I have sent you emails previously on the mounting campaign against academic freedom in California. The following update on the California scene was prompted by letters from two of my colleagues, Lisa Hajjar and Saree Makdisi. Take a look if you have time at the following two web sites dedicated to UCLA.
http://www.bruinalumni.com/ http://www.uclaprofs.com/
The first is the "parent" web site, and the second is a black listing web site. The latter includes long dossiers peppered with phrases such as "anti Bush hatred" and "vicious anti-semite." Three running themes seem to dominate: virulent hostility to affirmative action and African-American studies, stigmatizing as "anti-semite" anyone not to the right of Ariel Sharon, and labelling as subversive anyone not fully supportive of the Bush administration and war on Iraq.
This is all familiar by now, including the pattern of cross fertilization between a variety of national right wing/pro-Israel campaigns. In this specific case, people such as Leila Beckwith, are involved with the Horowitz folks promoting the academic bill of rights in California (SB5), Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), the petition to the Governor that I sent to you last time, the Bruin Alumni Association, and so on. Same people, but a multitude of 501C organizations. These organizations, in turn, are fronts for larger U.S., international, and Israeli organizations. For example, see the list of organizations cited by SPME as "encouraging" its work at: http://www.spme.net/
The strategy is also the same: information gathering, media blitz, then specific political demands on the state and university administration levels. See, for example, the fund raising letter of Bruin Alumni Association below.
The organizers of this campaign may have crossed a legal and political red line in that they openly call on students to provide them with information about professors in return for monetary compensation.
>From the UCLAprofs.com website:
*UCLA students:* Do you have a professor who just can't stop talking about President Bush, about the war in Iraq, about the Republican Party, or any other ideological issue that has nothing to do with the class subject matter? It doesn't matter whether this is a past class, or your class for this coming winter quarter. _ If you help UCLAProfs.com expose the professor, we'll pay you for your work._
To see if we need information on the professors you've already taken, or will be taking this winter quarter, call 310-210-6735, or email* bruinalumni (AT) bruinalumni.com* today, and you could be paid tomorrow.
The following are materials we need for past or ongoing classes, along with rates of compensation. * * Full, detailed lecture notes, all professor-distributed materials, and full tape recordings of every class session, for one class: $100* (Note: lecture notes must make particular note of audience reactions, comments, and other details that will properly contextualize the professor's ideological comments. If the class in question is ongoing or upcoming, UCLAProfs.com will provide (if needed) all necessary taping equipment and materials.)
* * Full, detailed lecture notes and all professor-distributed materials, for one class: $50* (Advisory: without tape recordings, detailed note-taking is crucial. Particular care must be taken in transcribing the professor's non-pertinent ideological comments as closely as possible to direct quotes.)
* * Advisory and all professor-distributed materials: $10* Even if you didn't take detailed notes or attend class regularly, you can still help UCLAProfs.com by alerting us to a problem professor not already in our database or target list (below). This is a particularly attractive option for students wanting to report past classes in which their notes and attendance did not match UCLAProfs.com's high record-keeping standards. Simply provide us the name, your notes from the class (or substitute your current recollections), and any other materials you still retain, and we'll pay you $10 for the tip. _ NOTE: The foregoing advertised rates for future, ongoing or past classes are contingent upon Bruin Alumni Association approval of both the particular professor, and student materials. For ongoing classes, payment will be tendered only upon timely delivery of all needed material._
All payments are contingent upon Bruin Alumni Association pre-approval, and all decisions are final. Email bruinalumni AT bruinalumni.com for full details._ _ * Targeted Professors* UCLAProfs has a special interest in the notes and/or voice-recordings for upcoming or recently taught classes by the following professors: _* ALL PROFESSORS ALREADY PROFILED...*_* AND: Philip Agre* - Information Studies * Walter Allen* - Education * Edward Alpers* - History * Maylei Blackwell* - Chicano Studies * Sue-Ellen Case* - Theater * Mary Corey* - History* Alicia Gaspar de Alba* - Chicano Studies * Raul Hinojosa* - Chicano Studies * Darnell Hunt* - Sociology * Arthur Little* - English * Reynaldo Macias* - Chicano Studies * Ruth Milkman* - Sociology * Chon Noriega* - Film and Television* * * Victor Narro* - Labor Studies * Jeannie Oakes* - Education * Jonathan F. S. Post* - English * Jorja Prover* - Social Welfare * William Rubenstein* - Law * Otto Santa Ana* - Chicano Studies * Miriam Silverberg* - History * Clyde Spillenger* - Law * Stephen Yenser* - English * Maurice Zeitlin* - Sociology
Fundraising letter of the Bruin Alumni Association from the BAA website: http://www.bruinalumni.com/aboutus.html
The BAA has a three-part plan to turn our campus around:
* Step 1:* Fully document the overwhelming policitization of the undergraduate experience - by professors, radical student groups and leaders, partisan academic centers and majors, and the administrative offices which tolerate these abuses. It's not going to be enough to talk in anecdotes. Only methodical, comprehensive documentation can fully pinpoint the problems and their solutions. * Step 2:* Publicize the problems, and our proposals for solving them. While it's tempting to keep UCLA's problems 'in-house,' we've tried that, and it doesn't work. Instead, we will take our case public - to alumni like you, to Los Angeles residents, and to all Californians, whose tax dollars are directly supporting UCLA.
After enlisting the support of concerned alumni and members of the public, we will?
* Step 3:* Undertake a reform campaign. Several issues - politicized undergraduate education, campus anti-Semitism, and a corrupt undergraduate student government - are already being documented and attacked. However, the majority of the campaign will be based on issues pinpointed and clarified during the initial research phase. In addressing these issues, we expect cooperation, not condescension, from UCLA's decision makers. If the issues are not addressed on the campus level, we will take our case to the University of California Board of Regents and the State Legislature.
The Bruin Alumni Association's plan is reasonable, and desperately needed. But it faces an entrenched set of status quo interests. As an intelligent and generous supporter of UCLA, you've already made at least one financial commitment to UCLA's future. Now that you know what's really happening on campus, we're asking for another investment.
_ Can we count on you for a donation?_ Any amount you could give would make a huge difference in pursuing our common goals, and would be deeply appreciated.
Thanks again for your consideration, and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have.
Sincerely,
Andrew Jones, B.A. '03 President, Bruin Alumni Association P.S. All donations are fully tax-deductible and, per IRS regulations, are kept strictly confidential. Please give today!_
"...everytime we move it ahead, it's thrown back. But the base camp has been made, and the next wave will come and find your wreckage, and they'll be encouraged to go beyond that."
-Timothy O'Leary
"I want to do something with my life; I want to be a cyborg."
-Kevin Warwick
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