Dear Colleagues,

As some of you may know, the University of California, Santa Barbara, has brought charges against one of our colleagues, William Robinson, following complaints by two students in his class and by the Anti-Defamation League regarding an email he sent to his students criticizing Israeli actions in Gaza.  The charges accuse him of being anti-Semitic, in effect equating criticism of Israel and its policies with anti-Semitism,  and of sending students material irrelevant to the course he was teaching on Global Studies.
The Committee for Academic Freedom at Santa Barbara has asked that letters be sent protesting this attack on academic freedom and requesting that the charges against Prof. Robinson be dropped.  Detailed information about the case, as well as an email that can be sent to officials at UC Santa Barbara, can be found on the Committee’s website:  http://sb4af.wordpress.com.
Those wishing to send separate letters should address them to Prof. Joel Michaelsen, Chair, Academic Senate (joel.michaelsen@senate.ucsb.edu) and to Chancellor Henry Yang (henry.yang@chancellor.ucsb.edu).  Copies may be sent to:: ‘mgscharl@math.ucsb.edu‘; ‘gene.lucas@evc.ucsb.edu‘; ‘moliver@ltsc.ucsb.edu‘; ‘mazer@lifesci.ucsb.edu‘; ‘joel@geog.ucsb.edu‘; ‘sarah@isber.ucsb.edu‘; ‘butler@chem.ucsb.edu‘; ‘scott@theaterdance.ucsb.edu‘; ‘hcallus@music.ucsb.edu‘; ‘gaulin@anth.ucsb.edu‘; ‘spieker@gss.ucsb.edu‘; ‘stemmer@mrl.ucsb.edu‘; ‘caselle@lifesci.ucsb.edu‘; ‘goulias@geog.ucsb.edu‘; ‘amar@lawso.ucsb.edu‘; ‘Stephanie.smagala@senate.ucsb.edu‘; ‘ettenberg@psych.ucsb.edu‘; ‘hualee@ece.ucsb.edu‘; ‘mithun@linguistics.ucsb.edu‘; ‘zok@engineering.ucsb.edu‘; ‘cdaf.ucsb@gmail.com‘; ‘wirobins@soc.ucsb.edu‘
For those wanting to contact Prof. Robinson, his email is wirobins@soc.ucsb.edu.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Best,

Nora Hamilton