During SDSU’s fall 2025 semester, the School of Journalism and Media Studies brought in an Israeli professor who generated enough student complaints to warrant more rigorous vetting for future visiting professors and fellows.

The professor, Roni Kuban, is a prominent journalist in Israel, known for his television interviews and documentary-style work. He taught two classes in the fall: Storytelling and Art of the Interview (JMS 527) and Media and Culture in Israel and the Middle East (JMS 552).

I enrolled in JMS 527 under the impression that it would be a learning opportunity to see what international journalism looks like, but in reality, it was a class structured so poorly that nobody knew what was going on. My classmates and I often referred to the class as the “fever dream” class.

Students enrolled in 527 and 552 did not have access to a syllabus or full Canvas for the entire semester and had to communicate with Kuban via email, which he often did not respond to. Simultaneously, he was so technologically challenged that he regularly had to call on other students or faculty in the department to set up Zoom meetings, which were integral to class assignments.

“I understood that maybe he would have some difficulties with emails or Canvas, since he’s not from here, but I didn’t expect those problems to last pretty much the entire semester,” JMS student Cindy Avila said. “Because we didn’t have a real Canvas, I found out my grade when I checked my audit during winter break. I got an A, even though I stopped showing up halfway through the semester.”

A course centered on storytelling and interviewing repeatedly veered into politically charged discussions that felt disconnected from the curriculum. 

Specifically, in JMS 527, I remember an instance where Kuban began talking about Israel and the land surrounding it; he referred to the people living there as “Jews and non-Arab Jews,” failing to mention Palestine or Palestinians. 

This wasn’t a structured examination of media framing or bias. It felt, to many of us, like being exposed to a one-sided narrative without context or critical discussion.

“We at one point were watching an animated film where Palestine was never directly mentioned, but they referred to a group as ‘the enemy,’ and it was fairly easy to infer who they were talking about,” said Miguel Cortez, a student who dropped the class early in the term.

“There was no structure, and it just felt like Israeli Defense Force propaganda,” Cortez said.

I repeatedly reached out to Kuban across multiple platforms to request a comment on these allegations, but he did not respond. 

To be clear, discomfort in a classroom is not inherently a problem. Journalism, especially, requires engaging with difficult topics. But there is a difference between challenging students and subjecting them to your personal narrative. A university classroom should foster critical thinking, not present a single perspective without room for interrogation. He would frequently talk over or interrupt students if they had a difference of opinion or perspective when it came to classroom topics.

What’s most frustrating is that these issues were both discussed and not discussed by students. There were many whispers among students and even staff in the department about Kuban’s content and capabilities as a professor, to the point that most people knew what was going on to some extent; however, nobody ever made a formal complaint. According to Temple Northup, the director of JMS, nothing could be done because there wasn’t a formal complaint.

But if it’s your job to monitor the well-being of the department, and you’ve heard problems about a professor through the grapevine, shouldn’t you investigate?

Kuban isn’t someone they pulled off the street; he has some extremely notable work to his name, including a famous interview with Israeli politician and journalist Yinon Magal. A fact which makes this all the more confusing.

Kuban won two Israeli Television Academy Awards: one in 2018 for Best Interview Program and one in 2024 for Best Cultural Program.

Kuban was brought into SDSU via the Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative’s (MGSDII) Visiting Faculty Program. The Visiting Faculty Program places tenured Israeli professors in various San Diego colleges to “teach contemporary Israeli Studies on San Diego campuses,” according to their website.

SDSU has partnered with Murray Galinson’s Visiting Faculty program since 2017. Its parent company, the Jewish Community Foundation, has been a prominent donor to SDSU. Specifically, SDSU’s Technion: Aerospace Engineering and Modern Israel History are two programs that are featured prominently on the MGSDII website. 

I also reached out to both the institute’s director and program manager to ask about the qualifications of visiting professors, but did not receive a response.

Although different schools within SDSU use the Visiting Faculty Program, this is the first time a visiting professor has been brought into the JMS department.

When asked for comment on SDSU’s wider relationship to the institute, SDSU’s media relations deferred all comment to the director of JMS, Temple Northup.

“I would be hesitant to bring another professor into the JMS department without more vetting,” Northup said.

Editor’s note: One person interviewed for this story, Cindy Avila, is a member of The Daily Aztec.