Would Lisa Simpson arrange a tent at New York University to protest the war in Gaza? How would Principal Skinner react if she did?
It’s hard to say, but some NYU students who faced disciplinary motion for his or her behavior during pro-Palestinian protests this spring were assigned a 49-page workbook that features a “Simpsons”-based module on ethical decision-making. Some were asked to put in writing an apologetic “reflection paper” and submit it “in 12-point Times New Roman or similar font.”
Like colleges across the United States, NYU was Scene of protests against Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attack in the ultimate weeks of the spring semester.
More than 100 NYU students were arrested as police cleared an encampment on the university’s Manhattan campus April 22, and a couple of dozen others were arrested at a smaller camp on May 3.
NYU school yr is finished, But the university is requiring some student protesters to undergo a disciplinary process that features answering questions like “What are your values?” “Did the decision you made correspond to your personal values?” in double space Reflection paper.
Others must complete a 49-page “Ethos Integrity Series,” which asks students to rank their values from 1 to 42 and completes tasks akin to “Write about how your values affect your daily life and the decisions you make.” “ have an effect, to be done.
One segment is predicated on an episode of The Simpsons, through which Lisa uncharacteristically cheats on an exam and is wracked with guilt. Meanwhile, Principal Skinner wants to maintain the fraud a secret in order that the college can receive a scholarship. Questions within the Ethics Workbook include, “What, if anything, could Lisa have done or thought about to make better decisions?” and “What are the potential and actual consequences of Principal Skinner’s decisions?”
An NYU group called Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine criticized the assignments in a press release.
Sara Pursley, associate professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, noted that students completing the reflection paper are told that they have to not try and justify their actions or “challenge a code of conduct.”
“Unable to write anything that justifies their actions, students appear to be prohibited from writing about personal values that might be relevant here, such as belief in freedom of expression, the responsibility to resist genocide, or the Duty to engage in non-violent civil disobedience in certain circumstances,” Pursley said. “That seems rather ironic in an essay about integrity.”
NYU spokesman John Beckman said the disciplinary process was instructive.
“The purpose of these essays is to consider how the way a student expresses their values might impact other members of the NYU community,” Beckman said. “We think this is a worthwhile goal.”
He added: “But that does not mean that the specific tasks cannot be improved.”
Faculty and staff from NYU’s Office of Student Conduct will meet in the autumn, Beckman said, to think about “what could be done to improve the quality of the prompts for the reflection papers as well as the other educational assignments.”
