NEW YORK, NY – Across the U.S., according to the New York Times, scholars, professors, and academics are feeling the strain from increasing pressure by universities to penalize faculty members for expressing their views on the Palestine-Israel conflict, and this trend is raising concerns about academic freedom and the boundaries of free speech on college campuses.
A recent incident highlights this issue, wrote the Times, noting in May, Maura Finkelstein, an anthropology professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, was dismissed due to her frequent social media posts supporting pro-Palestinian positions.
Her case is part of a broader pattern where faculty members face disciplinary actions for expressing personal opinions on contentious topics, noted the Times.
Federal civil rights investigators and the college began investigating Finkelstein after reports arose of her using social media to rally support and donations for Palestine, and her termination subsequently came after Finkelstein reported Palestinian American poet, Remi Kanazi’s Instagram statement “Do not cower to Zionists.”
Dr. Finkelstein admitted in an interview that a Jewish student in her class reported feeling uncomfortable and unsafe in the ensuing days, stating, per the Times, “Once the administration called me into meetings, I realized…being Jewish was going to protect me, and it didn’t
According to Anita Levy, senior program officer for academic freedom of the American Association of University Professors, Dr. Finkelstein, up until that point, had been the only tenured professor known to be fired for involvement in the war in Gaza, the NY Times story added.
As protests surrounding the Israel-Palestine engulfed the nation’s college campuses, more and more professors have started to highlight and publicly shame the growing assault on the ideals of academic freedom opposed by institutions, the Times said, adding, academics from more than a dozen major universities have been publicly shamed and dismissed for any actions that can be construed as antisemitic or pro-Isreal activism.
Attempts to punish faculty members have been an increasing trend in the past two decades jumping from four a year in 2000 to 145 a year in 2022, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Some believe that these disciplinary actions come with a degree of merit as professors have been criticized for creating a hostile school environment that skates the line between the professors’ First Amendment rights and blatant discrimination, the Times wrote.
Lawyers, alumni, and advocacy groups are outraged by certain cases of professors silencing the voices of students with opposing views.
Alison Byerly, the president of Carleton College in Minnesota, said, according to the Times, these external voices have played significant roles in influencing university presidents to increase their efforts to punish these types of professors.
At UCLA, several faculty members have faced criminal charges for being involved in the protests that occurred on campus, the NY Times noted, citing a political science professor arrested at the UCLA encampment who thinks the University gave away his promotion for his involvement in campus protests.
