Once designed simply to familiarize students with campus and each other, orientation has become a forum for imparting information about some of the most pressing issues in higher ed. New student orientation: it’s when students tour their new campus, learn about its policies, make new friends and … debate the ethics of ChatGPT.
University leaders are fielding demands to remove a book, deemed antisemitic by some and a legitimate criticism of Israel by others, from a course syllabus. A book included on a course syllabus at Princeton University has sparked controversy on and beyond the New Jersey campus. Some Jewish campus community members and onlookers contend that the book peddles antisemitic tropes and false assertions about Israeli policy and should be removed from the course. Others—including some academic freedom advocates and a non-Zionist Jewish student group—say the book raises valid concerns about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and scrubbing the text from the course would infringe on the professor’s rights.
