Dec 7, 20223

 We write again to express our concern with the Administration’s failure to protect academic freedom and freedom of speech as demonstrated in the campus-wide email on November 9, 2023 from Provost Ritter and Chief Student Experience Officer Allen Groves, in which they rebuked a student speaker at a peaceful rally who argued that the actions of specific student groups and members of the administration had, according to the Daily Orange, “promoted the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.” The email labeled those comments as “reprehensible,” and characterized the speech of the student as “putting a group of our students, based on their identity, at risk of harassment, retaliation and potential violence.” The administration’s equation of criticism of the actions of student groups to attacks on their identityprovided a skewed perception of this student’s claims. The email further intimated that there would be an institutional investigation and potential sanctions for that student speaker and said that the administration was in touch with “law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, to monitor for any specific threats.” In its promise of sanctions and invocation of the FBI, the November 9 email clearly goes beyond the pale. To invoke the coordination of the administration with the FBI in response to a peaceful protest communicates a chilling message about the right to peaceful protest and the expression of controversial views. 

            This recent communique is part of a larger pattern of Administrative attacks on academic freedom and freedom of speech at this university. We believe that the various communications from the administration  – signed by the Provost but coordinated with others in leadership – have done great harm to academic freedom at the university while also purporting to defend it in those same communications. 

The AAUP wishes to affirm that the right to criticize entrenched power structures is at the heart of academic freedom and freedom of speech, and faculty see our role as defenders of academic freedom as protecting the speech of students themselves as a pedagogical imperative. Speakers will vary in their characterization of perceived injustices and will choose for themselves how to give voice to their views. Deeming critical speech as threatening or hostile and thus subject to investigation and sanction by the university is censorship and constitutes the denial of freedom of speech rights central to university life. In the current geopolitical crisis in which we find ourselves, members of our university community with diverse perspectives will continue to highlight and magnify critical issues, and it is essential that all members of the community are able to speak to the events that they observe in their own voices and with their own perspectives. It is not the role of the Administration to adjudicate such speech or, most importantly, to threaten sanction for speech that they disagree with.

The AAUP’s 1994 statement “On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes” defends the need for the greatest possible tolerance of controversial speech acts on campus, asserting:

 “…while we can acknowledge both the weight of… concerns [regarding provocative speech] and the thoughtfulness of those persuaded of the need for regulation, rules that ban or punish speech based upon its content cannot be justified. … Indeed, by proscribing any ideas, a university sets an example that profoundly disserves its academic mission.”

When it comes to speech some find objectionable, the AAUP maintains university leaders rely on, “suasion rather than sanctions.” With this guiding principle in mind, the AAUP maintains that contrary to recent statements from the Administration at the University Senate, we cannot condone sacrificing academic freedom to “student safety” in the absence of a clearly articulated, and mutually agreed upon, definition of “safety,” as well as a tangible threat in terms also agreed upon by the community as a whole. The atmosphere of fear and silencing is what is actually making students and faculty alike feel unsafe in expressing their views. The SU Chapter of the AAUP will continue to fight to ensure these vital principles are protected on our campus even in times of political crisis and polarization.