To: Libo Msengana – Bam
Head: Alumni Relations UCT
Dear Ms. Msengana – Bam,
I received your invitation to take part in the Golden Graduation ceremonies at UCT that are to take place in December. I wish to express my appreciation and to thank you kindly, for my years at my alma mater were filled with many good memories.
Its more about destruction than construction
During my years of study, the university was imbued with the spirit of disinterested intellectual enquiry and critical thinking together with the qualities of open mindedness, toleration, and a willingness to accept, listen to and debate conflicting and opposing opinions. Mutual respect, courtesy and civilized discourse were a sine qua non that was reflected in the behavior of both the academic staff and the student body.
I still recall candidates for the SRC standing by their booths outside Jammie, explaining their manifestos while canvassing for votes. There was an atmosphere of tolerance where people agreed to disagree. The SRC itself was active in both student and national affairs and not afraid to speak out to criticize and express opposition to government policy when it ran contrary to principles of academic freedom.
Graduating with a B.A. in 1967, I then completed a Secondary Teaching Diploma the following year. Among my lecturers was the late Clive Millar who went on to become professor of adult education. Clive’s openness to ideas and his critical analysis of them while striving to remain objective and unbiased, was to me the embodiment of the spirit of UCT. His inspiration and example then led me in due time to complete an M.Ed. in Management in Education at an English university.
I left UCT, proud to be a graduate of a fine university with its long tradition of high standards where every student gained his/her degree solely based on academic merit. Throughout the years via the alumni organization, I have remained in contact, happy to see it grow and adapt to the new and welcome post-Apartheid era.
Unfortunately, the UCT of today is not the hallowed institution that it once was. It has deteriorated and lost the spirit of academic openness and toleration. I viewed with dismay the riots of the previous years where students descended to the level of self-debasement by smearing Rhodes’ statue with excrement. I previously thought that this practice was restricted only to simians! The acts of wanton arson, destruction of university property, historic artworks and statues thought not politically correct are anathema to me. Furthermore, these criminal actions have seen the perpetrators/criminals go unpunished by an acquiescent and mollycoddling senate. A half century may have passed since my graduation, but to my possibly antiquated way of thinking, punitive action should be taken against perpetrators of criminal actions.
To my distress, I note that violence has not been restricted to property. The vice chancellor and staff have been physically attacked and students who voice their disapproval of current campus trends have suffered from the same ugly phenomenon of bullying, intimidation, verbal violence, and vicious assault.
There is an atmosphere of intolerance, bigotry, mindless mob rule and neo-fascist techniques adopted by groups of students that is reminiscent of the ruthless cultural revolution of Mao Tso-Tung. They think nothing of disrupting the regular functioning of the campus, cancelling examinations and graduation ceremonies. Opposition is shouted down, lecturers are victimised and empty slogans are bandied about. There are demands to “decolonialize the sciences and mathematics” – reverse the centuries old tradition of disinterested scientific enquiry to fit in with current vacuous populistic trends – arousing echoes of the sciences once having had to conform to Stalinist ideology.
Students attacking Jameson Hall, UCT
Racism is racism, no matter what its source or who its protagonists. It makes no difference what their color, background or creed is. Absolutely nothing can excuse or justify it. When a black student goes on stage during a lecture and demands that the whites leave – that is racism. When students are denied the right to speak in a seminar because of their light skin color – that is racism. When a black student attacks a white one with a sjambok and wishes he “had whipped the white apartheid settler colonial entitlement out of the bastard!” – echoes of Germany in the 30’s, destroying the very foundations on which the university stands.
When a student who has failed because of his/her mediocrity/unacceptably low level and/or lack of seriousness and then has the unabashed effrontery to write the lecturer: “it is people like yourself that perpetuate black academic exclusion in UCT because you have a personal vendetta against black people” this can only lead down the road to UCT’s academic erosion. I then have to ask myself how many students got passing grades due to their backgrounds and pressure from above? What is the worth of those degrees? It saddened me to read that the Council of Higher Education no longer recognizes law degrees from UCT. What a shame! What a disgrace! Which faculty shall be next? As you sow, so shall you reap!
I read with utter dismay and voice my condemnation of fascist trends among certain senior staff and deans who when views of faculty members do not accord with those of their own, mercilessly hound and persecute them.
I wish to stress that all the above accusations are based on articles written by reputable UCT professors and from viewing videos of protesters demanding changes in the curriculum – itself a most unpleasant and frightening experience!
The SRC itself has a singular virulent obsession with Israel while willfully turning a blind eye to the many injustices that exist around it. Where are its protests against the endemic corruption and misappropriation of public funds that infest this fair country? Where is its concern for universal women’s rights and their inferior status in many Muslim countries? In Syria, over half a million people have been slaughtered. Has the SRC spoken out? Has it condemned and called for the punishment of those who have assaulted fellow students, academic staff and willfully destroyed university property? Has it spoken out against the verbal violence on the campus? I fear that there has not even been one plaintive bleat!
Nevertheless, the SRC hurried to support the BDS movement whose aims so clearly defined by its leaders are to destroy the State of Israel. The council also promotes the so-called “Israel Apartheid Week” with its vitriolic web of lies, distortions and slander that cloaks a rabid anti-Semitism and that seeks to besmirch and delegitimise the Jewish state.
I am a citizen of Israel and am proud to be one. I live in a democracy and at times do not agree with certain policy decisions of my government and then openly voice my views. This is a sign of a democratic state. There is freedom of worship and speech, equal rights and unlike in the Middle East the lesbian/gay/ transgender community is open and unmolested. Some time ago, I sent an open letter to the SRC explaining the blatant misuse of the term “apartheid” and calling for an open dialogue in which our views could be expressed and opinions exchanged. I also invited its members to visit my country to see for themselves. Sad to say, an answer was never received, and my letter must have been sent to the delete bin. When a distinguished lecturer is disinvited from giving the T.B. Davie memorial lecture because his views do not dovetail with what is politically correct, then how can I expect the SRC to reply to a mere alumnus!
The University of Cape Town has now become part of a movement to boycott all Israeli universities. It is shocking that my alma mater is even considering such steps – a move that runs contrary to all principles of academia and undermines the very foundations upon which this university stands. The last time such discriminatory steps were taken against Jews was in Germany of the 1930’s. Has blind hate and bigotry trampled underfoot all remaining vestiges of academic honesty? Has this obsession and hateful fixation with the Jewish State blinded the university to so many other relevant issues that it should address itself to?
Has UCT sunk to this?
Dear Ms. Msengana – Bam, I sincerely thank you for your kind invitation. I would love to be with you on graduation day. However, due to the present lamentable situation at UCT, in all honesty and with a heavy heart, I cannot accept it. I fear that my old alma mater is losing its moral compass and is sliding down that slippery path to academic perdition. I cannot, with equanimity, walk in the procession and be part of the façade to hide the decay. I will not allow myself to be part of the window dressing obscuring unethical behavior that is the antithesis of the spirit of everything that a university should stand for.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Schulman
Ramat HaSharon
Israel
Video clip of exams disrupted by protesting students at UCT
About the writer:
Stephen Schulman, is a graduate of the Jewish socialist Youth Movement Habonim, who immigrated to Israel in 1969 and retired in 2012 after over 40 years of English teaching. He was for many years a senior examiner for the English matriculation and co-authored two English textbooks for the upper grades in high school. Now happily retired, he spends his time between his family, his hobbies and reading to try to catch up on his ignorance
