More than 150 City University of New York faculty and staff rallied at Brooklyn College Thursday to demand the reinstatement of four faculty members in what the union says was due to their public advocacy for Palestinian rights.
Organized by the Professional Staff Congress, a union representing 30,000 faculty and staff at CUNY and the CUNY Research Foundation, speakers at the rally said the dismissals represent a repression of political speech at CUNY and is part of the Trump Administration’s campaign to dismantle and defund higher education.
Three Brooklyn College adjunct faculty were not reappointed and a fourth was terminated, almost simultaneously in June, according to the union. In each case, the appointments committee and department chair had approved the instructor’s reappointment. In no case was the job performance of the instructor evaluated as unsatisfactory, the union said.
What the four have in common is their public advocacy for Palestinian rights, according to the union, which has filed a formal grievance and passed a resolution calling for the reinstatement of the four adjuncts.
“CUNY administrators have investigated faculty for the terms in which they discuss the war in Gaza in their classes, limited the time, place and manner for exercising the right to free expression on campus, invited police violence against non-violent student protestors, and even fired faculty in apparent retribution for their political activism," James Davis, president of the Professional Staff Congress said in a statement. "Universities must stand against fascism, not accommodate it. Our fired colleagues have been denied due process and must be reinstated immediately."
"Brooklyn College does not make personnel decisions based on political belief but based on conduct. As this is an ongoing personnel matter, we are unable to comment further," a spokesperson for Brooklyn College said in a statement.
About a dozen individuals were taken into custody by the police during a pro-Palestinian protest at the college in May.
Mobina Hashmi and Joseph Entin, co-chairs of the Brooklyn College chapter of the union, said the adjuncts, who generally lack job security to begin with, were denied their academic freedom.
“The fight to reinstate our four fired colleagues is a crucial struggle for these four instructors, who are talented and dedicated teachers; for adjuncts as a group, who teach the majority of classes at CUNY, but lack job security; and for academic freedom and higher education, which are under direct political assault," the pair said in a statement. "The Trump administration is using threats of withdrawing federal funding to try to bring colleges and universities into ideological conformity with its right-wing agenda. As faculty and staff, we will stand together to defend our colleagues and the integrity of our beloved CUNY.”
