UC Berkeley Responds to Assignment Offering Extra Credit To Attend Anti-Israel Protest

A teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, is offering students extra credit to attend an anti-Israel protest Wednesday, The New York Sun has confirmed, but the offer has been modified by the administration to include additional options.A graduate student at the school, Victoria Huynh, sent an email to students in her course offering an extra five points to attend “a national walkout against genocide, settler colonialism, and the siege on Gaza” or to “watch a short documentary on Palestine and call/email your local California representative.” To receive extra credit, Ms. Huynh said, students were required to upload photos proving their attendance. Although attending the protest or watching the documentary were the only extra credit options in the original email, Berkeley’s administration changed the requirement upon learning of it, a spokesman for the university, Dan Mogulof, tells the Sun.“As soon as the administration was made aware of the assignment it moved quickly to ensure that it would be changed,” Mr. Mogulof says, noting that the administration remedied the assignment by allowing a number of extra credit options. Students can still receive extra credit for attending the protest, Mr. Mogulof notes.“Students can now attend any local event they wish — such as a book talk or a panel discussion — related to the course’s subject, including the protest … or they can watch any documentary they wish about the Middle East,” he says.The walkout is to demand “an immediate end to Israel’s siege on Gaza” and U.S. funding to Israel, its organizers say. The students are also demanding that the school “recognize that Israel’s onslaught on Gaza is part of a historical and systemized genocide, backed by the United States.”The university is prohibited by state and federal law from commenting on personnel issues or information on a specific student, he says. “What I can say is that, generally speaking, the university responds quickly to violations of policy,” Mr. Mogulof adds, “and is committed to imposing appropriate consequences when policy is violated.” Ms. Huynh could not be reached immediately by the Sun for comment.

UC Berkeley Responds to Assignment Offering Extra Credit To Attend Anti-Israel Protest

UC Berkeley Responds to Assignment Offering Extra Credit To Attend Anti-Israel Protest

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