‘Boycotting 101’ Prof Forced To Pass Student Who Boycotted Course

Professor Failim devoted extensive attention to the BDS movement and encouraged her students to support it.

Tel Aviv, August 3 – A Tel Aviv University faculty member who gave a failing grade to a student who boycotted his course on how to conduct a political boycott was forced to revise the mark in favor of the student after an appeal to the administration, a student group reported today.

Guy Avek, 23, claimed victory today in his weeks-long campaign to force Professor of Political Science Wanda Failim, following a ruling by the Academic Standards Committee that Mr. Avek’s actions demonstrated mastery of the course material that warranted at least a passing grade. The committee, composed of faculty and two student representatives, voted 11-2 to overrule the instructor’s claim that the student had not shown commitment to the course by attending even a single class during the spring-summer semester.

“I feel vindicated,” gushed Avek after he emerged from the committee session, where he argued his case. “There is technically no requirement to attend any of the classes – you just have to get your hands on the material somehow, and complete the assignments. I argued, and the committee of course agreed, that my boycott of the course qualified as a project for purposes of the course requirements, and should therefore be accepted.”

Avek registered for the course in How to Conduct a Political Boycott before the semester began, but then sat outside the lecture hall and specifically refused to enter it while the class was in session. Inside, Professor Failim devoted extensive attention to the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement aimed at pressuring Israel, and encouraged her students to support the movement, according to course participants who did attend the classes. She assigned a project, to constitute 90% of the grade, outlining a boycott campaign in keeping with the course content.

Despite his absence from the lecture hall, Avek managed to obtain the necessary information from other students. He stood or sat outside the room whenever Professor Failim was lecturing, and held a sign proclaiming his boycott of the teacher over vaguely articulated offenses. According to the Academic Standards Committee decision, the professor could not be forced to award a grade higher than passing, given the vagueness of the campaign’s goals.

Professor Failim plans to protest the committee’s decision. “I cannot accept this outcome – the committee has no legitimacy,” she declared. “They are impinging on my academic freedom to wield absolute power in my classroom. I urge my colleagues on faculty, and the student body, to boycott them, in the name of that academic freedom. I won’t bow to this political pressure, and it is unbecoming to subject anyone to such tactics. Of course my cause is a special exception, so I will do just that.”