Students have reported mobile billboard trucks from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression circulating Washington Square Park, directing passers-by to an email template criticizing NYU President Linda Mills for her crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests. 

The buses, which read statements such as “NYU IS SILENCING PRO-PALESTINIAN VOICES” and “HOLD NYU ACCOUNTABLE,” have been spotted around Bobst Library and Washington Square East. 

“NYU’s policies claim that it views ‘[f]ree inquiry, free expression, and free association’ as vital to the purpose of the university,” the email template reads. “If you truly hold to these values, you will respond to FIRE’s letters and seek to recommit your institution to freedom of speech for everyone, regardless of whether your administration agrees with their viewpoint.” 

In September 2024, NYU earned an “abysmal” score on FIRE’s College Free Speech Ranking, placing third-to-last out of 251 universities, only above Columbia University and Harvard University. Following the ranking, FIRE filed an accreditation complaint against NYU, citing student and faculty sanctions, suspensions and arrests. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education closed the complaint in December. 

“We’ll keep holding them accountable and shining a spotlight on the university’s refusal to live up to its stated policies,” FIRE Faculty Legal Defense Fund Fellow Graham Piro said in a statement to WSN.

Over the last month, NYU suspended at least 13 students for their participation in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Bobst Library last semester. The move has been met with widespread criticism, including a petition condemning the sanctions that has garnered nearly 4,000 signatures from students, staff and community members so far.

FIRE has criticized NYU for several years. In the fall 2023 semester, the organization ranked the university No. 224 in free speech and identified it as one of 14 universities that sanctioned students for protest activity — having ranked it No. 62 the year prior.

“NYU can begin to improve its poor standing in FIRE’s rankings by actually protecting speech on campus,” Piro said in the statement. “When an administration signals that it will protect free speech during times of controversy, that can have a very positive effect on the campus climate and can start to give university members confidence that their institution will have their back.”

A university spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Contact Dido Trowell at [email protected].