Two councils representing faculty at NYU echoed an official statement from the university condemning a message from the People’s Solidarity Coalition in a memo to Provost Georgina Dopico earlier this month — a message which the faculty groups claim “strongly advocates violence, hatred, university destabilization and disrespect for any and all authorities, in the context of a political agenda.”
In the Aug. 5 memo, signed by the Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty Senators Council and Full-Time Continuing Contract Faculty Senators Council, the faculty said the PSC’s message — a link to which was previously deactivated but is now publicly available — contradicts the “basics of diversity, equity and inclusion” and effects “the university as a whole.” The message includes a “Statement of Intention” with a section labeled “We embrace a diversity of tactics,” listing armed struggle as one of many anti-colonial methods.
The two faculty groups released a memo in May on recent demonstrations on campus against the war in Gaza — which have led to the arrests of dozens of students, faculty and alumni — that called on NYU to “exercise leniency” toward students who had not been alleged to have violated university policy “based on substantial evidence” of vandalism, assault or threats of violence.
“What’s important here is that the elected representatives of the university’s full time faculty jointly expressed an abhorrence and disavowal of violence and threats, and that their statement gives a good indication of the center of gravity of campus opinion on this matter,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement to WSN. “The university repeats its condemnation of the statement of intent and once again calls on the PSC to publicly forswear violence on campus and retract the statement.”
Beckman also told WSN in a separate statement that the original document containing the PSC’s message included “names of organizations ‘signing’ it,” noting the absence of such names on the now-public link. He claimed that some of the organizations “had not authorized their group’s name to be attached to it.”
“The movement for people’s liberation is not a monolith; we recognize and welcome the diversity of tactics that lead to victory,” the PSC’s message reads. “Resistance takes many forms, including armed struggle, non-violent direct action, cultural production, and world building.”
In July, Beckman had condemned the PSC’s message, claiming it embraced armed struggle as a “valid ‘tactic’ in achieving its aims on campus.” A representative for the group had told WSN that they believed Beckman “intentionally misread” the section and that the university’s condemnation was “hypocritical,” noting that President Linda Mills’ administration authorized the New York City Police Department to sweep two pro-Palestinian encampments in the spring.
Since the NYPD arrested dozens of students and faculty at the Gaza Solidarity Encampments last semester, the PSC and several other on-campus groups have called on NYU to remove police from campus, pardon students facing disciplinary action, divest from companies with ties to Israel and shut down its study away site in Tel Aviv. In May, some faculty and staff threatened to withhold administrative work for the fall semester if the university does not fulfill the group’s demands by Aug. 15 — a deadline which has now passed. In a statement to WSN, Beckman called FSJP’s ultimatum “unproductive in an academic institution where we engage in robust debate and dialogue.”
“The faculty vote on and release statements from time-to-time on issues that are impactful to our community,” Ryan Hartman, chair of the T-Faculty Senators Council, said. “We feel as though our joint statement speaks for itself on behalf of both councils who represent the faculty of the university.”
Update, Aug. 22: This article has been updated with a statement from a university spokesperson regarding the potential service strike.
Correction, Aug. 22: A previous version of this article previously misstated the status of the Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty Senators Council and Full-Time Continuing Contract Faculty Senators Council. They are not administrative councils. The article has been updated and WSN regrets the error.
Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected].
