Allegation: Carnegie Mellon Prof to Jewish Student: Time on Jewish-Related Project “Would Have Been Better Spent” Exploring “What Jews Do To Make Themselves Such a Hated Group”
Some excerpts from Canaan v. Carnegie Mellon Univ., decided Tuesday by Judge Scott Hardy (W.D. Pa.); the opinion is 15,000 words, so this can only give a flavor of the matter. First, the allegations from plaintiff’s Complaint (which, at this stage of the case, the court assumes to be factually accurate in determining whether the plaintiff has a legal basis for her claim):
Ms. Canaan was taking one of her required studio classes where students receive hands-on, practical instruction in architectural design, making models and applying lessons learned in their other classes. These studio classes typically involve small groups, open discussions, and one-on-one meetings with professors. Students receive critically important feedback individually as well as in small group and class-wide settings. On May 5, 2022, Ms. Canaan had the final review for her semester-long studio class project, which was a model she designed depicting the conversion of a public space in a New York City neighborhood into a private space through an eruv (i.e., an integral feature of neighborhoods with large devout Jewish populations). {Plaintiff’s Complaint describes an eruv as a “small wire boundary that symbolically extends the private domain of devoutly religious Jewish households into public areas, permitting activities within it that are normally forbidden in public on the Sabbath.”}
In response to questions, Ms. Canaan was explaining the concept of an eruv to Mary-Lou Arscott, Professor and Associate Head for Design Fundamentals at the School of Architecture …, when Professor Arscott cut Ms. Canaan off and told her that “the wall in the model looked like the wall Israelis use to barricade Palestinians out of Israel,” and that the time Ms. Canaan had used to prepare her project “would have been better spent if [Ms. Canaan] had instead explored ‘what Jews do to make themselves such a hated group.'” …
[Discussion of Canaan’s complaints to CMU, and CMU’s allegedly dilatory and inadequate responses, omitted. -EV] [A]pproximately six months after Professor Arscott had directed offensive comments at Ms. Canaan in Ms. Canaan’s studio class[, ]CMU’s administration finally scheduled a meeting with Ms. Canaan and Professor Arscott over Zoom on November 2, 2022. The Complaint describes this Zoom meeting as an unproductive endeavor: the meeting took place, but Vice Provost Heading-Grant said and did nothing as facilitator, Professor Arscott refused to apologize and showed no remorse, and, further, Professor Arscott referenced and subsequently emailed contents of a blog titled “The Funambulist” to Ms. Canaan and Vice Provost Heading-Grant. Professor Arscott urged Ms. Canaan to read the contents of The Funambulist that she linked in the email because it provided her with “insightful … perspective.”
According to the Complaint, The Funambulist contains anti-Jewish and anti-Israel content, including, among other things, the promotion of pictures of terrorist organizations throwing Molotov cocktails at Jewish people and articles with titles such as “Israeli Apartheid” and “Israeli Police: The Daily Practice of Collective Punishment Against Palestinians.” A sample passage from one article, dated April 8, 2022, that could be considered particularly pertinent to Ms. Canaan’s circumstances and Professor Arscott’s refusal to apologize reads: “[Y]ou never make concessions to the oppressor. If you’re going to get punished, and you might, if you piss off Zionists, it’s always a possibility, right, then stare the oppressor in the face, and take whatever punishment is coming. Don’t concede, don’t start apologizing …. The Palestinians aren’t backing down, nor should we … [we] do not make concessions
Article from Reason.com
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