Over 40 faculty from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study signed a “symbolic pardon” for students facing suspension for up to a year for participating in a pro-Palestinian sit-in last semester, accusing NYU of violating academic freedom.

In the letter, posted online Monday, Gallatin faculty wrote that the university’s sanctions had been “blatantly discriminatory” and unfairly inhibited pro-Palestinian speech. They said that NYU’s move to suspend at least 13 students who staged a Dec. 11 sit-in in Bobst Library was contrary to university policies and indicated a lack of due process, with allegedly no input from faculty or students.

“We see these students as leaders,” Gallatin faculty members Valerie Forman, Hannah Gurman, Ritty Lukose and Eve Meltzer wrote in a statement to WSN. “If our students are suspended unjustly, and they can no longer participate in the classes we are currently teaching, our role as educators and teachers are compromised.”

The faculty said they hope the university would repeal the suspensions and other related sanctions against students, and that it would undergo investigations into the administration’s ties with pro-Israeli organizations. They referenced President Linda Mills’ alleged correspondence with a parent who had publicly called for the deportation of pro-Palestinian protesters. 

In a petition posted the next day, more than 900 members of NYU’s chapter of Alumni for Justice in Palestine sent letters pressuring administrators to remove sanctions against the students. A template on the organization’s website — which drafts emails to Mills, Provost Georgina Dopico and other senior administrators — calls for the university to lift students’ sanctions, shut down NYU’s Tel Aviv site, remove police from campus, and disclose and divest all of its funding in companies with ties to Israel. 

Both letters criticize NYU’s implementation of its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policies, which were updated in August to cite “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” as examples of potentially discriminatory speech. The letter from alumni also notes that protests at Bobst have been a part of on-campus activism for years, despite previous student movements not leading to similar sanctions. 

“We wholeheartedly condemn the decision to collectively punish disproportionately marginalized students,” the letter from alumni wrote. “This decision has resulted in substantial and severe consequences, including the loss of scholarships and campus jobs and potential damage to future career prospects.”

In December, a group of students staged a sit-in on the 12th floor of Bobst — where Mills’ and other administrators’ offices are located — while dozens more held signs and flyers in the library’s lobby. The group chanted for about 15 minutes total at the beginning and end of the five-hour demonstration. In the weeks following, 13 were suspended and at least 20 more were put on probation for “engaging in behavior that substantially disrupts” university operations. 

The majority of full-time Gallatin faculty voted that they “have no confidence in the leadership” of Mills last April, when an uptick in pro-Palestinian protests on campus resulted in the arrests of more than 100 students, faculty and community members. Less than a week later, more than 5,000 alumni also signed an AJP petition condemning the arrests.

Contact Amanda Chen and Amelia Hernandez Gioia at [email protected].