NYU’s chapters of the American Association of University Professors and Law Students for Justice in Palestine issued letters on Thursday condemning the university’s sanctions on 30 students who on Tuesday, staged a pro-Palestinian sit-in in Bobst Library. The letters call for administrators to rescind the retributions, claiming that they undermine freedom of speech.

After the demonstration outside President Linda Mills’ office on the top floor of Bobst, the law students received emails informing them that they were persona non grata and barring them from campus buildings — with the exceptions of their scheduled classes and residence halls — and they were “under investigation” by the law school’s Executive Committee. The students had been calling for Mills to meet with them to discuss university investments in companies with ties to Israel, immigration policies amid the Trump administration and NYU’s handling of previous demonstrations. 

The emails, sent from Associate Dean of Students Craig Jolley, stipulated that the students “did not comply with the directives of Campus Safety officers” but did not specify which actions violated university policy. In an interview with WSN, CAS Professor Sonya Posmentier, who is also a member of AAUP, said the demonstration aimed to publicly question how students were supposed to reach administrators with their concerns. 

“The hallway the students were standing in is the symbolic heart of the university,” Posmentier said. “So if students are not allowed there, that should itself be a source of significant concern.”

NYU Law students said that shortly after they began the sit-in at 10 a.m., Campus Safety officers “monitored and intimidated” the group until they left at 6 p.m. When around 20 participants tried to enter Vanderbilt Hall immediately after, a group of Campus Safety officers lined them up and barred them from entering the building, according to videos obtained by WSN.

Posmentier also said the pattern of administrative actions stood in violation of freedom of expression, primarily because they lacked specificity and did not clearly identify why students are sanctioned. AAUP has long articulated concerns that disciplinary action taken against pro-Palestinian protests have inhibited academic freedom — rhetoric that has been reemphasized amid the Trump administration’s calls to cease on-campus demonstrations. 

“The university is afraid of what might happen under the Trump administration,” David Hogg, CAS professor and another member of AAUP, told WSN. “That doesn’t mean that we have to abandon our principles of academic freedom. It doesn’t mean that we have to be cruel to our most engaged students.”

In a statement to WSN, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the students “ignored the directions of Campus Safety officers” and “knowingly caused a disruption to operations in the library.”

“This is a matter of behavior and violations of University rules, not freedom of speech,” Beckman said.

Specific responses to disciplinary actions are currently pending review by the law school, which has previously handled similar cases more thoroughly than the broader university, holding longer disciplinary hearings and more specifically itemizing conduct violations. At a Dec. 11 sit-in — which resulted in 13 student suspensions and also took place on the top floor of the library — a law student was the only participant whose supposed conduct violations were explicitly discussed in their hearing. 

Following the December demonstration, around two dozen professors from NYU Law sent a letter concerning the disciplinary proceedings, expressing concern that administrators did not take due process to evaluate students’ conduct. The letter said that declaring students persona non grata without formal hearings — such as what happened on Tuesday — violated the university’s standard of holding hearings prior to administering disciplinary actions. It said that while the university’s policy allows it to discipline students without hearings in “emergency situations,” nonviolent demonstrations would not justify bypassing regular processes. 

In interviews with WSN, law students also noted that while previous emails had listed at least one specific example of their conduct violation, Tuesday’s only said the participants “did not comply.” Students said they could not offer further details regarding the administration’s response because of pending hearings. 

“We wanted to show solidarity with our undergrads who have been through the same thing,” said Taylor, an NYU Law student who did not share her last name due to ongoing proceedings. “No matter how strictly they want to punish the undergraduates, another group will always show up with the same list of demands.” 

Update, March 7: This article was updated with a statement from a university spokesperson.

Contact Amelia Hernandez Gioia and Dharma Niles at [email protected].