Vanderbilt University has confirmed it has launched an investigation into one of its maths professors after he allegedly asked students to calculate the rate of the expansion of Israel’s “occupation” in Palestine.
The private college, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is assessing whether a calculus exercise, brought to light by StopAntisemitism and reportedly set by Professor Tekin Karadağ, broke its academic rules.
According to a purported screenshot of the question shared on social media, it read: “Assume Palestine as a state with a rectangular land shape. There is the Mediterranean Sea on the west and the Jordan River on the east.
"From the river to the sea, Palestine (…) was approximately 100 km. in 1946. The land decreases by 250 sq. km/year, due to the occupation by Israel. How fast is the width of the land decreasing now?”
A maths exercise reportedly set for students at Vanderbilt University by Professor Tekin Karadağ (X/StopAntisemitism)[Missing Credit]
It was apparently posed as part of a segment on “examples related to popular issues” in slides used by Karadağ, a Turkish national and senior lecturer in the university’s mathematics department.
A spokesperson for the college told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “The university has received reports alleging a member of the faculty engaged in unprofessional conduct related to content shared during course instruction.
"The content in question has been removed, and a formal inquiry has been initiated consistent with relevant university policy.”
It comes after Vanderbilt was among the universities affected by a wave of anti-Israel campus protests in March 2024.
In the aftermath of the demonstrations, which drew complaints from many of the school’s 1,100-strong Jewish student body, it was one of the first higher education institutions to expel dozens of students who participated.
This saw the Anti-Defamation League increase Vanderbilt’s rating on its response to antisemitism from a “C” to an “A” grade earlier this year.
The JC has contacted Karadağ for comment.
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