Welcome to the first TAU international Volunteers-managed blog! This blog has been created to give complementary information to the graduated students of TAU and to create a community where we can share thoughts and information. This blog is not affiliated to any of the TAU services or bureaucratic apparatus and it is meant to be an informal tool where people can be updated, alongside the Whatsapp group and the informal word-of-mouth. Each student or post-doc is more than welcome to approach and participate in the creation of this blog, acting as a volunteer (with a little basic commitment) but also as an user, where they can collect any sort of information. All of the content posted on this blog is under the responsibility of the person who wrote it and posted it. UPDATE 06.11.23 Guidelines for the WhatsApp group 1.Respect & Kindness: Treat all members with respect and kindness. Be mindful of your tone and language. 2. Stay On Topic: Keep discussions releva...
THINGS HAPPEN
Academia is virtuous. Or at least this is what we are used to thinking, and what is appealing about it. But we know that reality is way much more complicated, and things happen, no matter where or when.A while ago we had a first conversation with the International Office (The Lowy International School) representatives, hinting to the unexpected (or expectable?!) happenings that got to us with a whispering word of mouth, where discrimination and offensive behavior or words were displayed and condoned as they were normal.
Let's take for example that time in 2020-2021 when in the Life Sciences faculty we all received an email from the dean, condemning the behavior of some people who disrespectfully told our Chinese fellows that they are to blame for the virus and that they are spreading it across the University.
Or - something happening repetitively - the comments from some PI towards the Asian students, stating that they should work day and night, implying that they should do so because they are Indian or Chinese, and therefore they are used to be exploited.
Around the same time, we sent out a survey, asking the in our WA group to let us know whether this issue is felt in general or not. In particular, we asked whether they have ever felt discriminated or harassed. And among the respondents to those questions (a sample of approx. 10 people), more than the 30% said yes. Ok, it is not statistics, but it is a red flag.
Furthermore, we were notified about personal detailed stories, where people are willing to share but too uncomfortable to tell what's going on in loud voice.
We also assisted at some unfortune episodes of public intolerance, mostly due to the lack of understanding of other cultures: a few years ago, when the International Office organized the German week and brought Christmas trees and winter market (items that are not so religious) on campus, they had a backlash by a group of proud Israelis saying that this is an attack against the Jewish culture. Or when some other of these folks saw the Indian spiritually related swastika (abundantly present in Hinduism) and started condemning the people who were holding a religious ritual, calling them 'Nazi'.
And here there is the dilemma: to talk, or to stay silent?
If one talks, they highlight the problem and create opportunities to delve into causes and solutions. If someone stays silent, then nothing dangerous to their dignity, routine life, career or sociality happens. But the problem perpetuates.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
There is no easy solution to this. And it is NOT our intention to shake the ground of single individuals or disclose specific stories, or disturb specific people. We rather think that the missing point is the way to frame the problem in general.
After having accumulated the stories about these incidents, we decided to meet the International Office representatives on 17th of September to discuss about this topics and later with the prof. Neta Ziv, the Vice president for Equity, Diversity and Community at Tel Aviv University (https://en-law.tau.ac.il/profile/zneta).
The idea is to get some help to better frame and improve the situation, by giving tools to our international fellows (males and females) to protect themselves and be assertive towards these shameful occurrences, whenever they wish to do something about their situation.
By filling our ANONYMOUS survey, you can give us your opinion, your ideas or your testimony (also about your fellows and surroundings) to strengthen our case and participate in our initiative. Of course, feel free to reach out and to join us in the meetings if you want to support us at best.
Later on, we will update the community with the output of the meetings.
Valentina and Bhavana
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IMPORTANT: we are not acting on the behalf of single people, but we are trying to provide the whole community with tools and information helpful to protect a person and take action.
If you experienced directly any kind of abuse and discrimination, you can reach out the source that TAU (and TAU Lowy International School) offer, below.
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WHAT TAU SAYS ABOUT HARASSMENT, SAFETY AND HEALTH?
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