NYU’s chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said Tuesday that it will investigate the university’s disciplinary actions against students, faculty and staff who have protested Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza since October 2023. 

In a press release, FSJP said a one-year tribunal, comprised of legal experts on academic freedom, will hold a series of hearings probing into the different ways administrators disciplined pro-Palestinian speech on campus. The tribunal will officially launch on Wednesday — two years after NYU authorized the New York City Police Department to arrest dozens of community members at a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Gould Plaza. 

“NYU upholds academic freedom as a bedrock principle and a core value for a free society,” university spokesperson Wiley Norvell said in a statement to WSN. “That’s not what this is about. Division can’t replace dialogue. This is no service to the cause of free expression on campus.”

FSJP said its members will collect public and anonymous testimonies describing conduct procedures from students, faculty, staff and administrators who were arrested, suspended or censored after Oct. 7, 2023. Vasuki Nesiah, a Gallatin professor and FSJP member, said the tribunal will also investigate “those who have administered sanctions” against community members. 

In a mandate for the tribunal, members said NYU’s crackdown on campus protests — including the deployment of police and erection of barriers around campus — has cultivated a “crisis of academic freedom,” claiming the university did not renew contracts for adjunct faculty and postdoctoral instructors who opposed Israel’s military actions. The committee, which will abide by free speech laws and protections stipulated by groups such as the American Association of University Professors, will hold hearings over the 2026-27 academic year.

“There’s a question about institutional memory,” Nesiah said. “Many students have suffered the sanctions in private. There are some who are still suspended. Some have been declared persona non grata, some have faced other kinds of consequences. This is a way for people to know what people have sacrificed.” 

Faculty also said they will evaluate NYU’s “weaponization” of Title VI — a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity or religious affiliation — and its 2024 decision  to include “code words, like ‘Zionist’” to its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policy. The hearings will also address changes to graduation policies, including attire restrictions last year and the recent cancellation of live student speeches. 

In an interview with WSN, an FSJP member and organizer of the tribunal — who requested to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation — said that after the investigation, the committee will issue a cumulative report including recommendations for how to approach future actions.

“There has been very little transparency and accountability for the disciplinary processes that have been undertaken over the last two-and-a-half to three years,” Nesiah said. “We are hoping that this will be a way for people to give testimony, be it in public or on camera. We will set up procedures for confidential submissions.”

Nesiah said that since much of the university’s disciplinary matters have “taken place behind closed doors,” the tribunal will be an opportunity for people to publicly pressure NYU to address its crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech or activity. She added that the university has not communicated with FSJP since the group announced the initiative, but that it would be “fabulous” if administrators participated. 

On April 22, 2024, President Linda Mills authorized the NYPD to arrest more than 100 of students, faculty and alumni at a pro-Palestinian encampment in Gould Plaza, who protested NYU’s ties to Israel and investments in weapons manufacturing companies. Though lawyers said all criminal charges brought against demonstrators were dropped, it is still unclear what charges they specifically faced. 

NYU’s Office of Student Conduct required students arrested at Gould Plaza to complete “dozens of writing assignments” and “reflection papers” to avoid receiving a sanction for a “violation of university policy” on their academic transcript. Police arrested 14 students in May 2024 after sweeping another pro-Palestinian encampment, which had been outside the Paulson Center for two weeks. That month, NYU suspended nine students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Bobst Library’s atrium. 

In December 2024, 13 students and faculty staged a sit-in on the 12th floor of Bobst — where Mills and several other administrators work — with dozens more organizing a sit-in in the building’s lobby. The group demanded that NYU revisit a spring 2024 agreement to disclose its investments and withdraw from companies with ties to Israel. The next day, around a dozen protesters blocked the library’s entrance with the same demands, leading to the arrest of eight protesters, including two faculty members. The following month, NYU suspended 13 students involved in the sit-in and put at least 20 others on probation. 

“Things are not getting better — they’re getting worse,” the FSJP member said. “There is a group of new students who don’t know enough about this, and we want to keep that information in the system.” 

Contact Leena Ahmed and Yezen Saadah at [email protected].