David Klein (mathematician)
David Klein is a professor of Mathematics at California State University in Northridge.[1] He is an advocate of increasingly rigorous treatment of mathematics in school curricula and a frequently cited opponent of reforms based on the NCTM standards. One of the participants in the founding of Mathematically Correct, Klein appears regularly in the Math Wars.[citation needed]
Klein, who is a member of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel,[2] supports the BDS movement which seeks to impose comprehensive boycotts against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.[3] Klein hosts a webpage supportive of the BDS movement on his university website and, starting in 2011, it became the target of numerous complaints from the pro-Israel groups AMCHA Initiative, Shurat HaDin, and the Global Frontier Justice Center who claimed that it constituted a misuse of state resources.[4][5] The complaints were dismissed both by the university's staff and by legal authorities as baseless.[6]
Concordant with his support for the BDS movement, Klein defended University of Michigan associate professor John Cheney-Lippold's decision to decline to write a letter of recommendation to a student who planned to study in Israel.[7]
Klein is the director of CSUNs Climate Science Program.[citation needed]
References
Citations
- ^ Klein 2015.
- ^ Kredo 2015.
- ^ Tripp 2013, p. 125.
- ^ Kredo 2015: The controversy over Klein’s public university-funded website first received attention in 2011, when pro-Israel legal experts with the AMCHA Initiative, the Israel Law Center, and the Global Frontier Justice Center petitioned Harris to take action.
- ^ Tugend 2013: AI has accused CSU of allowing Klein to violate various sections of the California Education Code by misusing the university’s server to promote boycotts
- ^ Tugend 2013: Over the course of the last two years, AI’s appeals have been consistently denied by authorities, starting with California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, whose staff determined that Klein had not misused CSUN’s name and resources. Last month, on Sept. 23, CSU’s interim general counsel, G. Andrew Jones, wrote Rossman-Benjamin that, while both he and CSUN President Dianne Harrison disagreed with Klein’s views, the contents of his Web site do not violate California law and count as “constitutionally protected speech.”
- ^ The College Fix 2018: California State University-Northridge Prof. David Klein, who opposes study abroad programming in Israel, told Inside Higher Ed a professor can refuse to write a letter “under any circumstances” and it’s “ethical” to refuse:
Sources
- Tripp, Charles (25 February 2013). The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80965-8.
- Kredo, Adam (January 14, 2015). "California Dem Senate Candidate Under Fire from Pro-Israel Activists". Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Tugend, Tom (October 9, 2013). "Two academicians challenge anti-Israel professor from CSUN". Jewish Journal.
- "Professor group criticizes UMich prof who refused letter of recommendation to Israel program". The College Fix. September 19, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Klein, David (February 18, 2015). "Professor David Klein's campus home page". csun.edu. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
External links
- Open Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger and Members of the California Legislature in support of California's Standards System for K-12 Education
- Why Johnny Can't Calculate by David Klein and Jennifer Marple, Los Angeles Times, September 26, 2005