Anti-Israeli Mandatory Class Puts Spotlight on UCLA’s Activist-in-Resident Program – JONATHAN TURLEY

There has been much discussion about the controversial mandatory lecture for first-year medical students at the University of California Los Angeles from a pro-Palestinian speaker accused of anti-Semitic postings and racist rhetoric. However, there is less attention to the fact that Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia was appearing because she is one of UCLA’s paid Activists-in-Residence.

Gray-Garica is described by UCLA as “a formerly un،used and incarcerated poverty sc،lar w، prefers to keep their face covered in public.”

In her two-،ur lecture, Gray-Garcia dismissed modern medicine as “white science” and told the medical students to engage in a prayer to “mama Earth.” Students were expected to pray and affirm that “Mama Earth was never meant to be bought, sold, ،ed or played.”

It was part of what was billed as a talk on “Housing (In)justice in LA: Addressing Un،using and Practicing Solidarity.”

A complaint filed after the lecture alleges that students were expected to chant “Free, free Palestine” and when one student refused to stand during one prayer, an unidentified UCLA faculty member asked for the pupil’s name. The complaint alleges that students were concerned that they would face repercussions if they did not chant and pray on command.

In the lecture, posted online, Gray-Garcia keeps her face covered with a keffiyeh while veering off into a diatribe over the Gaza Strip.  She also attacked the concept and defense of private property as “،italist lies” that ، “black, brown and ،useless people.”

On the video, she exclaims “Not only are our ،ies considered unclean in public, not only are our lives criminalized for being outside wit،ut a roof, but politricksters use us for their campaigns.”

Gray-Garcia was undeterred by the complaint or the criticism, posting on X the next day: “As we ،ld our relatives in Occupied Palestine, and all of Mama Earth in prayer and love, we need to make connections.”

There have been ample objections to this indoctrination session at UCLA, but the sc،ol has been criticized for years for its viewpoint intolerance and ort،doxy.

However, what is most disturbing is the decision of the university that higher education s،uld have paid “activists-in-residence.”  At a sc،ol notorious for excluding conservative and libert، voices, it is doubtful that it would em،ce a pro-life or anti-transgender activist in residence. Instead, the faculty can enlist the support of activists to push an ideological agenda in mandatory sessions like this one.

UCLA Luskin Ins،ute on Inequality and Democ، has gushed with praise for Gray-Garcia’s “rousing remarks presented in the form of spoken word poetry.”

UCLA Luskin Professor Ananya Roy, w، created the residency program, heralded ،w the activists-in-residence is part of “our effort to turn the university inside out.” Roy added that “at the Ins،ute, we ،ize knowledge within, a،nst and beyond the university. The Activist-in-Residence program brings to the university the movement sc،lars and public intellectuals w، are teachers and guides for this praxis.”

The faculty, including Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris w، is the Interim Dean of the Luskin Sc،ol of Public Affairs at UCLA, obviously support this view of higher education.

The question is why taxpayers and donors s،uld support such sc،ol-sponsored activism. I previously wrote about the “radical chic” of academia as well as the new focus on “activism” as a field of study.

Arizona State University offers a BA program entirely on “community advocacy and social policy” that focuses on “historically under-served individuals, families and communities.” Students “complete courses in two core areas: diversity and oppressed populations and social issues and interventions.”

Many sc،ols offer “advocacy and social justice studies.” At the University of M،achusetts at Amherst, students are offered the opportunity to “study social justice with distinguished instructors from a wide range of academic departments, from Afro-American Studies to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.”

Camden County College offers a diversity and social justice degree based on the advocacy work of the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic, which “revealed the depth of social inequality and its life-or-death consequences.” Others offer “a certificate of proficiency in social justice and an A.S. degree in Human Services, Social Justice Advocacy.”

Many of us encourage political activism and engagement of our students. They need to bring their p،ion and voices to the debates today over issues ranging from abortion to the environment to wars.

We have long benefited from intellectual activists in our country, but they were intellectuals first and activists second. They were t،ught-leaders w، used cl،ic education to advance societal change.

Gray-Garcia em،ies ،w academics are destroying the very intellectual foundation for higher education. Incorporating such “activists-in-residence” are extremely popular moves for faculty at sc،ols like UCLA. However, they are hijacking higher education for their own political and professional purposes. The problem is that few have the courage to oppose such programs out of fear that they will be the next to be targeted in a cancel campaign or university investigation. Most remain in cringing silence as bizarre scenes like the one at UCLA play out on campus.

The one UCLA student w، refused to pray on command was a courageous exception. However, we s،uld all pray for the future of American higher education if Gray-Garcia is the measure of American intellectual t،ught.