NYU will suspend its 30-second sanctions and halt its persistent email reminders to students who have not agreed to the university’s updated student conduct policies.

Prior to the change, students who did not complete the agreement — which was part of NYU’s new Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment modules — faced a 30-second delay while logging in to NYU Home, Albert and Brightspace. University spokesperson John Beckman told WSN that the delay was removed because administrators were “mindful” of the upcoming course registration period. 

“The university suspended the 30-second delay for that small percentage of students who still haven’t completed the required NDAH training,” Beckman said. “All students are subject to NYU’s NDAH and student conduct policies, and all students are responsible for being familiar with the material in the training.”

At an Oct. 24 meeting between faculty and administration, President Linda Mills said 88% of all NYU students — over 50,000 individuals — had completed the required training. Students who did not complete it continually received messages warning them of several other penalties they could face, including extended wait times, obligatory password resets and “other administrative actions.” Beckman did not clarify whether students would still be subject to such actions.  

In the module, students are prompted to agree to NYU’s updated student conduct guidelines, which cite “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” as examples of potentially discriminatory speech. Several on-campus organizations, including the People’s Solidarity Coalition and the graduate student union, have called on students to refrain from completing the modules in protest. On Tuesday afternoon, the union said in an Instagram post that it had filed a complaint this week over the login delays, calling on NYU to halt the action and begin bargaining efforts over the NDAH policies. 

Jonah Inserra, an organizer for the union, said that the updated guidelines complicate what teachers can discuss in the classroom regarding the Middle East and Zionism. Inserra added that the issue was exacerbated by the modules and the university’s enforcement that students affirm their understanding of the policy. 

“We still would have been grieving this with the university and demanded bargaining over it, which we’ve been doing,” Inserra said in an interview with WSN. “But it might not have had the same kind of public dimension that was kind of foisted on us by the fact that the university was making a big stink about making sure everyone agreed to and certified this.” 

The graduate student union’s post came after history Ph.D. candidates received an email telling them that the administration was “satisfied” with the completion rate and would “end the reminders and the annoyances.” The email, which was from Robyn d’Avignon, the director of graduate studies for NYU’s history department, said that Lynne Kiorpes, the dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Science, took the concerns voiced by students against the NDAH training “very seriously.”

Kiorpes told WSN that administrators said at the Oct. 24 meeting there would be “no further or continuing consequences” for students who hadn’t completed the module. 

In the email, d’Avignon also said that the administrators would review and “revise” the training before next year, after consulting faculty “with expertise in areas relevant to the training and the current conflicts.” At the Oct. 24 meeting, Mills also said that the university will reconsider training processes and how to “train well” in the future. Since the delays, students have echoed dismay and said that requiring people to complete the modules does not effectively enforce the policies.

“Making the module optional gives people a sense of agency on its completion, which means they’ll be more likely to complete it,” Tisch junior Kiran Arain told WSN. “However, it doesn’t matter much when NYU has consistently shown a disregard for anti-discrimination and instead opted to place religious-driven political views on a protected stance.”

Contact Mariapaula Gonzalez at [email protected].