Oberlin College can’t seem to decide how to handle Prof. Joy Karega and her anti-Semitic Facebook posts, which have accused Israel of sponsoring 9/11, ISIS and the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo.
After defending the social-justice instructor’s right to free speech, the school has taken a U-turn and put Karega on paid leave while an investigation into her “professional fitness” continues.
Here’s the Oberlin statement, courtesy of Tablet, which has much deeper background on Karega’s years of statements on Israel:
For the past several months, Oberlin College has been considering carefully the grave issues surrounding the anti-Semitic postings on social media by Oberlin faculty member Dr. Joy Karega.
In March, in consultation with President Marvin Krislov, the Trustees of Oberlin College asked the administration and faculty to “challenge the assertion that there is any justification for these repugnant postings.” The College initiated its faculty governance process to review Dr. Karega’s professional fitness in light of these postings.
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The faculty governance process that began thereafter is ongoing, and the Oberlin administration will continue to respect this process as it plays out. Until that process is complete, Dr. Karega has been placed on paid leave and will not teach at Oberlin.
In recognition of the sensitivity of this review process and the privacy of the individuals involved, we will have no other comment until the conclusion of the process.
This statement alarmed the free-speech watchdog Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which often defends controversial faculty speech and tweeted today that it’s “looking into” the punishment.
We are concerned by news that @oberlincollege placed a professor on leave for her speech. We are looking into it. https://t.co/ru76QXKvza
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) August 4, 2016
It’s not clear what triggered Oberlin to act now, according to Inside Higher Ed: A spokesman said Oberlin had received “some inquiries” about Karega.
An official Oberlin statement and President Marvin Krislov initially defended Karega’s right to speak her mind without punishment in February, but various forces within the school denounced her and called for an investigation – the board of trustees, Karega’s dean and a majority of faculty.
Read the Tablet story and Inside Higher Ed coverage.
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