UNC Provost Office Supports Sanctions for Instructors Who ‘Improperly’ Withhold Grades in Protest of Suspended Students in Anti-Israel Protests
“Three dozen protesters were either detained or arrested at a “Gaza solidarity encampment” April 30 and charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor.”
Faculty members at UNC Chapel Hill are demanding that students who have been suspended for participating in antisemitic protests be reinstated and are even threatening to withhold grades until it happens.
These people should be fired.
BREAKING: A professor at UNC Chapel Hill is apparently going to withhold grades from students if the administration does not unsuspend students who were part of protests last week #ncpol #ncga pic.twitter.com/AdeBA3qca8
— Nick Craig (@nicholasmcraig) May 6, 2024
The News and Observer reported:
UNC faculty criticize discipline for demonstrators. Will they withhold grades in protest?
A group that organized pro-Palestinian protests on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus last week is calling on faculty and teaching assistants to withhold grades to “demand amnesty” for students facing disciplinary actions.
It was unclear Monday morning how many instructors are joining the call to withhold grades, though university leaders told deans and department chairs that they had received “concerns from students whose instructors have informed them they will withhold grades as part of a protest.”
But in another effort to have proceedings dismissed against students, hundreds of faculty are now speaking out against university administrators’ actions.Three dozen protesters were either detained or arrested at a “Gaza solidarity encampment” April 30 and charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor. The 30 demonstrators who were detained — 10 of which were UNC students — were given citations and released on campus. The six demonstrators who were arrested — three of whom were UNC students — face additional misdemeanor charges, including resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer.
More from the Carolina Journal:
UNC faculty to withhold final grades for all until suspended protesters are re-instated
Some UNC students got a message Monday that after a semester of work and a week to go before graduation, they will not be getting some final grades.
A group of faculty members say they will withhold their scores until the university re-instates fifteen suspended students who were arrested along with 36 other non-students during last week’s campus demonstration. While the number and names of faculty committed to withholding grades is unclear at this time, the message went out to a group of students Monday. The anti-Israel, pro-Palestine, four-day encampment was organized by the UNC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and drew hundreds of protesters, counter-protesters, and national media.
In a press conference on campus Tuesday afternoon a group of faculty said that they want to “correct the record” on what happened on campus during the “Gaza-solidarity encampment” saying it was a “peaceful and inclusive” space for learning and discussion.
However, according to UNC administration, some protesters in the encampment in Polk Place on campus saw participants breaking into academic buildings after hours, propping doors open to locked buildings, tearing down barricades, pushing through officers to forcibly enter campus buildings, hitting police and other vehicles, throwing furniture in front of police vehicles injuring officers, entering classrooms during finals to cause disruptions, and throwing water bottles and fluids at University workers, police and administrators.
Provost Chris Clemens and Graduate School Dean Beth Mayer-Davis reminded instructors that students depend on those grades and support sanctions if any improperly withhold them:
Dear Deans and Department Chairs,
We are hearing concerns from students whose instructors have informed them they will withhold grades as part of a protest. These students depend on the timely submission of their grades for graduation, jobs, and athletic eligibility, and it is part of the required duties of all faculty and graduate TAs to submit grades by the registrar deadlines.
We are asking you to please work with your faculty and graduate students to ensure that we follow exemplary practice in our work as educators. We strongly support the right of faculty and graduate students to express their opinions freely but there are better ways to do this than hurting our students and abrogating our contract with the people of North Carolina who support our university. We are counting on your leadership in this matter.
The provost’s office will support sanctions for any instructor who is found to have improperly withheld grades, but is our hope we can resolve this matter amicably and without harm to students.
Excellence in the classroom and in research are a credit to the institution and a vital service to the students and people of North Carolina. It would be a disservice to all of you and to the institution if a minority of instructors were to damage the trust we hold with our students by withholding grades. Thank you for your support.
Here’s a local video report:
lol Hamas professor takes Hamas students' grades hostage https://t.co/arITlk2Va9
— NeverTweet (@LOLNeverTweet) May 6, 2024
UNC Chapel Hill is a Marxist stronghold. It is 13th largest research university in the U.S. and ranks **FIRST** for federally funded social and behavioral sciences research and development.
Why are taxpayer dollars being used to indoctrinate and radicalize young people? https://t.co/vSaKuiI9E5
— Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) May 6, 2024
This appears to be driven by Students for Justice in Palestine and their faculty supporters.
BREAKING: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine is calling for all faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants to withhold grades until all arrested and suspended students are given "complete amnesty." pic.twitter.com/qyEIJU1D9Z
— Stu (@thestustustudio) May 5, 2024
It’s time to start firing and expelling people.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Any Professor that doesn’t turn in grades because of this should not be paid. If you don’t do your job you shouldn’t be paid.
If they don’t do their job, they should be fired for cause.
Seems like a good opportunity to get some leftist radicals, esp. those with tenure, off the faculty. Call their bluff, give all legally required warnings promptly, and institute HR actions to ensure that all employed faculty submit grades for their students.
Once they’ve been fired, they have no excuse not to submit grades on the way out, perhaps in exchange for their final payouts.
The Provost’s should have remained quiet and let the faculty withhold grades then terminated them. Those students that engaged in the riot, taking over of a building and trespassing should be expelled. Those that have completed classes and are ready to graduate should be denied a diploma. They can transfer and graduate next year from some other institution.
Keeping records and producing grades is part of their contract.
I know, because I was faculty at one point.
But but…. Tenure!
Seems fair to me. Provided they are suspended without pay pending firing.
The affected students should also file lawsuits against these “professors.” Hold them personally responsible for their personal decision to withhold grades.
Any professor that doesn’t turn in grades because of this should not have a job. If you chose not to do your job then you should not have that job.
The students who were arrested should be kicked out of school and get all F’s.
This will make all the difference. Give them a Nobel. Then they can back slap each other.
Many in academe believe that university discipline replaces the law, which suggests that any campus has a law unto itself. Not so. Administrators and faculty need to obey and support the law just like the rest of us. “I’m a professor” is not a good answer to “you’re under arrest.”
Protestors – did they exceed their semester ‘skip’ limit? Did they bother to take finals? Then at a minimum they just peed away a semester’s worth of tuition and expenses.
Profs – refuse to turn in grades and you are violating your contract, which at a minimum should derail your tenure track. It also provides all the evidence needed to make you unemployed.
Does nobody teach cause and effect, action and reaction, etc. anymore?
Consequences for actions are forbidden in American academia.
Subotai Bahadur
Neither Provost Chris Clemens nor Graduate School Dean Beth Mayer-Davis appear to be able to adequately address the faculty or the situation, generally. Not surprising for UNC.
They’re doing more than administrators five years ago would have done. This is some progress. Now they need to back the words with actions. If fear is needed to get the faculty to comply, then it’s needed.
Simple solution:
Expel the idiots from the camp, then their grades don’t matter.
Inform the “Professor” that if he doesn’t release the grades they will be fired and the students whose grades they withheld will simply receive an “A”.
If the Professor still pushes, then fire them for cause and give out the “A”‘s.
Somewhere former UNC Charlotte Professor Mike Adams is eating popcorn, smiling and thinking “told ya’.”
Don’t play their game. No one was disciplined for protesting. It’s perfectly lawful to protest even when the protest is antisemitic..
It’s not lawful to take over property, assault police, block traffic etc. That ain’t a peaceful protest.
Correct — always reframe the argument away from the framing imposed by the progressives. Always, always, reframe (note how well our host does this in his interviews).
The provost’s office will support sanctions for any instructor who is found to have improperly withheld grades, but is our hope we can resolve this matter amicably and without harm to students.
This is the hellish landscape of modern higher education: university administrators are reduced to begging Marxist faculty to honor their contractual obligation to submit grades.
Real leaders would have flatly stated that deliberate refusal by faculty to submit grades on time is grounds for discipline and dismissal.
Boy, they are sure teaching these children some useful values, such as you don’t have to pay for a loan you took out, you don’t have to actually do your job, riot (or temper tantrum) for a cause you demonstrably don’t understand, violence is the answer, it’s easier to censor than intelligently debate, and how to succumb to political manipulation.
I weep for the future.
Fire the instructors who fail to fulfill their contractual responsibilities. There are many underemployed young academics who would love to take their places. In most cases, they could upgrade to a newer, younger, better instructor and researcher.
grab the popcorn
this is getting good
Academentia