A committee of tenured faculty reintroduced concerns regarding a change in university policy that transfers jurisdiction over disciplinary proceedings from faculty committees to school deans at a meeting Thursday. The group alleged that the change undermines faculty authority and rights to fair hearing processes, a growing concern since NYU updated its non-discrimination guidelines.
At the meeting, NYU’s Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty Senators Council said that under the faculty handbook’s previous guidelines, complaints and sanctions directed at professors would be handled by an elected universitywide committee. The handbook’s updated policy leaves sanctioning procedures up to individual deans, who are advised — but not governed — by a committee from their respective schools.
“The overriding point is that no single element of the university should have unchecked, arbitrary power over any other element,” NYU Liberal Studies clinical professor Heidi White said in a statement to WSN. “But now, if the administration wants to punish a professor arbitrarily, the faculty can be largely bypassed.”
The T-FSC first called for a reversal of the handbook’s changes in April. In response, Provost Georgina Dopico stressed that faculty committees could still offer their input regarding the disciplinary processes and said that the change had been made to expedite disciplinary hearings.
“Use of a standing school disciplinary committee that is charged directly by the dean makes it less cumbersome to implement the disciplinary procedure, compared to convening an ad hoc committee of faculty from across the university,” Dopico wrote.
The faculty committee said the issue became more pressing after NYU updated its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment guidelines, which now cite “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” as examples of potentially discriminatory speech. The group also said that the provisions could subject faculty to further disciplinary proceedings, making the process by which the proceedings are handled — and whether the outcome is determined by the dean or a faculty committee — increasingly relevant.
The university has said that the updated guidelines did not change NADH policy, and were instead made in response to “calls for greater clarity” during listening sessions over the summer. Professors, however, have expressed concern that these changes could affect the way they teach. In an agenda document ahead of the meeting, members of T-FSC also said the faculty councils should have been consulted when making the changes.
“The new guidance clearly affects faculty in both educational and administrative policy, as it affects what is, and what is not, tolerable speech in their classrooms,” the T-FSC report read. “The T-FSC and C-FSC should have been consulted on this important change.”
The meeting took place between T-FSC, the University Senate and NYU administrators, including Dopico and President Linda Mills. Mills did not discuss the handbook changes, but directed those with concerns regarding the NDAH policy to the university’s new FAQ section on the topic.
Last semester, NYU’s Full-Time Continuing Contract Faculty Senators Council similarly criticized updates to the faculty handbook that reassign responding to complaints from an elected committee to administrators. The provisions specifically address grievances — complaints faculty submit about an administrator’s conduct — which are now solely governed by school deans.
White, the LS senator of the Continuing Contract Faculty Senators Council, told WSN that the move was part of the administration’s goal to remove unionized faculty from committees, which she said “makes it easier to cover up administrative conduct.” She cited former NYU contract faculty Maitland Jones Jr.’s 2022 termination following student petitions for higher grades in his organic chemistry course — an incident she said was based on “downright fraudulent” claims that he was not contract faculty.
“The administration now seems to be doubling down, making it easier to do such things in the future by limiting who can see what really goes on,” White said. “Deans will ultimately control almost everything, and this opens the door to further abuse.”
Contact Audrey Abrahams at [email protected].