[The following is an announcement from Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine Chapter at New York University launching the tribunal on academic freedom and repression at the university targeting pro-Palestine speech and activism. If you would like to share a testimonial for the tribunal, email nyutribunal@proton.me.]
There is a crisis of academic freedom at NYU, centered on the repression of pro-Palestine speech and activism. Over the last three years, dozens of students who have raised their voices against the genocide in Gaza have faced harsh sanctions, including suspensions, for expression of their opinions. There are faculty who have not had contracts renewed and many others who have been investigated or threatened with disciplinary processes. NYU invited the NYPD to arrest more than one hundred of its students and faculty for political expression. In this area, as in others, students, staff and faculty of color and non-zionist Jewish students, staff and faculty have faced heightened repression. NYU’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and student code of conduct has been revised to punish pro-Palestine activism and anti-Zionist speech, and hearings are held behind closed doors. Student events have been banned or forced to move off campus, and at some NYU schools faculty-organized events are censored through unprecedented vetting mechanisms. Graduation ceremonies have been transformed, with the censorship of clothing and other forms of political expression and, starting this year, the banning of live student speakers. The administration has refused transparency and accountability for these egregious actions. This tribunal seeks to change that.
On 22nd April, the anniversary of the Gould Plaza arrests, NYU’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) will launch a public tribunal on academic freedom and the culture of campus repression that has become institutionalized at NYU in relation to Palestine solidarity speech.
The tribunal will convene hearings and solicit testimony from members of the NYU community; it will invite testimony from those who have been victimized by NYU policies and actions as well as those who have developed these policies and authorized these actions. As some students graduate, and new students come in, it seeks to develop community awareness and build an archive for our collective institutional memory. It will develop procedures for public testimony for those who want everyone to hear what they experienced, as well as procedures for in-camera or other testimony for those who want to speak confidentially. The tribunal will undertake its work over the next academic year.
While the measures seeking to suppress protests of genocide in Gaza since October 2023 have been egregiously repressive, Palestine-focused speech has long been policed at NYU. The tribunal will seek to trace the history of that repression and situate the factors enabling this McCarthyite terrain of institutional policies by NYU administration. It will also seek to understand how the university has compromised its academic and educational mission and accountability to students, staff and faculty on campus while accommodating donors, trustees and influential external actors. The tribunal will be guided by norms and codes regarding academic freedom at NYU as well as those developed by other institutions of higher education such as the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). It will also be guided by the culture of constitutional free speech protections and the right to assembly and the rights of education, free association and free expression outlined in international human rights instruments. We will invite experts in these fields to contribute to the tribunal, which will produce a report that shares findings and recommendations for future actions.
Those who would like to contribute and share testimony, documentation or a written statement – be it as an individual or as a campus group – please contact us at nyutribunal@proton.me. You can also express interest (anonymously if you wish) through this secure form.