Skip to main content

Two graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin were recently dismissed from teaching assistant roles after sending a message to students titled “mental health and violence in Gaza.” In the Nov. 16 message, Parham Daghighi and Callie Kennedy wrote that they wanted to acknowledge “the mental health implications of the current escalation of violence in Gaza” and clarify that they do not “support the university’s silence around the suffering many of our students, staff, and faculty are experiencing on campus.”Less than a week later, on Nov. 22, both graduate students received a letter from a dean letting them know that they were “effective immediately … relieved of this work assignment” and “will not be reappointed as a TA next semester.”


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I remember when I first arrived in the US due to the different culture I was brought up in, the folks in town teased me and considered me "not right" and implied slight mental illness or simply being different. I was in a relationship of some kind with this girl in town. She once told me, “Everybody thinks I should be afraid of you, but I’m not.” The town's sheriff would take photographs of us and follow one or both of us in his vehicle. Eventually I caught her making love to an unidentified person. Shortly afterwards the sheriff also arrived and spotted me. I fled, leaving my scarf behind on the branch of a bush. My girlfriend disappeared under suspicious circumstances and was later found dead. Shunned by many, I was immediately considered the main suspect. While in the interrogation room, I was shown a white cloth, which the sheriff identified as the item used to strangle the girl. I denied that the girl and I were romantically involved. Locals vandalized o...
Post a Comment
Read more
At 12:00 PM on Saturday, October 28, 2023, in honor of Cyrus the Great Day, you are invited to our unveiling of a monumental statue of Cyrus the Great at the Millennium Gate dedicated to liberty, justice and peace. Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid empire, upon liberating Babylon, freed the slaves, established racial equality and rights for women, declared that all people had the right to choose their own religion and returned their various gods to their shrines. He also helped the Jews build The Second Temple. According to the Book of Isaiah, Cyrus was anointed by God as a messiah for these actions, the only non-Jewish figure to be revered in this capacity. Iranian and Jewish peoples share an ancient bond of friendship that modern Islamic fanaticism has tried (and failed) to destroy. Remembering the past is a powerful perspective for shaping the future; one where diverse peoples and cultures live together in freedom and harmony.  Cyrus the Great’s decrees...
Post a Comment
Read more
I saw him after the 1998 World Cup where he had called a controversial penalty kick against Brazil for Norway. This was a friendly at Foxboro on September 12, 1998 between the US and Mexico's women's team that the US won 9-0 although he wasn't the ref but rather was there for some kind of award. I shouted out to him as he walked by "اسی چاکریم!" but he either didn't hear me or chose not to respond. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/...-builder-award Esfandiar "Esse" Baharmast, a former referee, player, coach and current instructor who has been involved in more than a dozen World Cup tournaments and Olympic Games, has been named the 2020 winner of U.S. Soccer's prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award. The Iranian who officiated the first MLS match and first MLS Cup, and won the inaugural MLS Referee of the Year award in 1997, is the second referee to receive U.S. Soccer's highest honor after Gerhard Mengel in 2005. The Wern...
Post a Comment
Read more