Published in the Daily Orange

May 1, 2024

Syracuse University’s AAUP Executive Committee supports and defends students’ rights to free speech, free assembly and free expression in creating a peaceful Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the Shaw Quadrangle at SU. We realize that members of our university have varying positions on the wider issues in the Palestine-Israel conflict, but regardless of differences across campus, we are overwhelmingly united in defending the rights of students to speak, assemble and protest, especially in the face of the threats of police and state violence, political interference and suppression of free speech on other campuses across the United States. We are particularly impressed that the protestors at SU have placed protecting academic freedom at the core of their demands, as the AAUP believes this vital principle, so central to university life, is under attack both at SU and across the nation. We stand in solidarity with the April 24 press release “In Defense of the Right to Free Speech and Peaceful Protest on University Campuses” signed by many AAUP chapters across the country.

We urge the administration to adhere to the recommendations put forth by the American Civil Liberties Union in its Open Letter to College Universities and Presidents on Student Protests, which calls on universities not to “single out particular viewpoints — however offensive they may be to some members of the community — for censorship, discipline, or disproportionate punishment.” We support the ACLU in defining “harassment” narrowly so as to avoid viewpoint censorship — it is unacceptable for the university to wield unfounded charges of harassment against protestors as a silencing tactic. We also call on the administration, in keeping with the ACLU’s statement, not to involve the police in matters of student protest “except as a last resort.”

SU AAUP Executive Committee,
Matt Huber – President
Joanna Spitzner – Vice President
Diane Grimes – Treasurer
Matthew Mulvaney – Secretary
Ivy Kleinbart – Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Representative
Eileen E. Schell – Member-at-Large
Crystal Bartolovich – Past President

This Letter to the Editor was written by multiple members of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Executive Committee. They can be reached at mthuber@syr.edu