Ylvisaker Cancels Education School UNESCO Forum

Paul N. Ylvisaker, dean of the Graduate School of Education, said yesterday he cancelled a UNESCO-sponsored conference on reading motivation, after the head of the Ed School's Reading Programs told him that she would not participate because of UNESCO's exclusion of Israel.

Ylvisaker told the conference's organizers on January 16 the Ed School would not host the event after Jean S. Chall, the professor of Education who heads the reading programs, wrote him to say she had moral objections to participating in the conference.

Ylvisaker had told Chall earlier he would cancel the conference if she objected to taking part.

"The feelings among our reading staff were quite strong, and I felt that it would be best not to hold the conference," Ylvisaker said yesterday.

Chall told The Crimson Sunday that she had consulted the other members of the reading section, Carol Chomsky, lecturer on Education, and Helen Popp, associate professor of Education, before sending the memorandum.

Chomsky said Sunday that she had personally favored holding the conference and expressing a protest at UNESCO's exclusion of Israel during the event.

"I didn't feel strongly about this position though, and since my colleagues felt they shouldn't take part, I was willing to go along," she said.

UNESCO voted last November at its annual meeting in Paris to exclude Israel from membership in its European Regional Group. Belonging to a regional Group is a prerequisite for participation in the organization.