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The course description of a UC Berkeley English class titled “The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance” was recently changed to make it more politically correct, with the most notable difference being the omission of the words “conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections.”

Understandably appalled at such an exclusionary stance, University of California President Richard Atkinson wrote a letter to the UC Regents protesting the description. The president, however, should not have involved himself beyond ensuring all students feel equal access to university courses. It was wrong of him to force the description into acknowledging the creation of the Israeli state, when most of the content of the class, even its title, focuses on how Palestinians view themselves as occupied.

Neither the regents nor the president have any business involving themselves in determining individual course descriptions. They are administrators in charge of determining university-wide policies and ensuring the long-term well-being of the system. As such, they should be protecting the ability for academic discourse to occur at universities, not trying to define what academic pursuits or interpretations of history are appropriate.

This responsibility belongs to the faculty at each UC; they already have an organized means of addressing these issues in the form of the Academic Senate. And though Atkinson is allowing the Senate to conduct its own review of the course description approval procedures, it should stop there. He should not levy his pressure as president to change policies so they’re reflective of his own beliefs.

The foundation of a university is to promote new insight, even if its on sensitive subjects. Unless students and professors are allowed to challenge popular beliefs and introduce new knowledge, the concept of academics itself is lost.