Academic senate disassociates itself from Professor MacDonald

Tiffany Rider
Managing Editor

Published: Monday, October 6, 2008
Updated: Monday, October 6, 2008

The Cal State Long Beach academic senate finalized a document disassociating the senate from the works of professor Kevin MacDonald on Thursday.

The senate voted on the document to disassociate the senate from MacDonald’s work. MacDonald, a professor of psychology, has published written works that have been called racist and anti-Semitic. The psychology department and the university have already published documents that disassociate them from MacDonald’s work.

The document was a motion made by professor of linguists Alexandra Jaffe. Although Jaffe was not present, the senate decided that the document needed to be discussed Thursday.

The senate debated whether or not it was the job of the academic senate to get involved in the matter. It ultimately voted to publish the document, but only after making some key adjustments to its wording. The senate decided to leave out the phrase “condemns and” from the following portion of the document:

“While the academic denate defends Dr. Kevin MacDonald’s academic freedom and freedom of speech, as it does for all faculty, it firmly and unequivocally condemns and disassociates itself from the anti-Semitic and white ethnocentric views he has expressed.”

History professor Albie Burke argued at the meeting that if the senate decided to disassociate itself from MacDonald that it was the same thing as shunning him and his work.

Vincent Delcasino, the chair of the geography department, said that if the senate passed the document it would be huge.

“It’s a small thing but I think it’s a powerful thing,” Delcasino said.

The senate decided that it was not appropriate to use “condemns” because it contradicts its defense of MacDonald’s rights to free speech.

MacDonald responded to the passing of the document by saying via email that, “I am glad that they simply dissociated themselves rather than condemned me. As I’ve said many times on faculty forums at CSULB, everyone has ethnic interests. This is an absolutely respectable scientific proposal. European Americans are the only group whose ethnic interests have been pathologized. No one disputes that Koreans, say, have ethnic interests and have a right to keep Korea Korean. Quite a few of the people who voted to censure me are ethnic activists on behalf of their ethnic group. The College of Liberal Arts is full of these people. Yet only I am censured.