NY Democratic Governor Hochul's attack on the first amendment. Acts like a DeSantis.
Prodded by the reactionary pro-Trump sensationalism of the New York Post, New York Democratic governor Kathy Hochul decided to dive into the hiring practices of the City University of New York (CUNY) on Tuesday.
She ordered the public system to take down a job posting for a professorship in Palestinian studies at Hunter College.
Hunter administration very quickly complied.
Attacking pro-Palestinian students and faculty has become the new McCarthyism.
Wearing keffiyehs in solidarity with Palestinians, students chanted a series of anti-war slogans amid a heavy New York police department (NYPD) presence outside the sister schools, where only students and faculty with ID cards are allowed in.
“Free, free Palestine!” they yelled as some held up handwritten signs that read: “No more Zionist occupation” and “Reinstate our students now!” Others yelled: “Don’t cross the picket line! We must honor Palestine! Students, students, you will rise! Gaza is by your side!”
Thursday’s protest came after a sit-in by anti-war students at a Barnard College building on Wednesday evening to protest against the two students’ expulsion.
Tensions across Columbia and Barnard have been simmering – and periodically erupting – since last spring’s anti-war campus protests when students demanded that American universities divest from Israel.
The job posting at Hunter was for “a historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality.”
The NY Post went ballistic.
In response, Kristen Shahverdian, Campus Free Speech program director at PEN America, said “Government officials cannot be in the business of regulating academic job postings. Such overreach jeopardizes the autonomy of higher education and undercuts fundamental tenets of academic freedom – the rights of a scholarly department to determine courses, to contribute to and critically analyze cutting edge research and trends, and to determine the content of their courses. The posting may have been offensive to some, but it is the right and responsibility of the academic community to confront challenging areas of inquiry through independent research, teaching, and publishing. It is up to the academic experts in a field, not government officials, to determine the limits of any area of academic study. Leadership at CUNY should reverse their decision and reaffirm their commitment to academic freedom.”
The professional staff union at CUNY responded, comparing Governor Hochul to Florida’s Governor DeSantis.
Governor Hochul and Chancellor Rodríguez:
The Professional Staff Congress is committed to protecting the rights of our members and the free exchange of diverse ideas that is essential to a college education. We strongly object to your removal of a job posting for a Palestinian Studies faculty position as a violation of academic freedom at Hunter College. We oppose antisemitism and all forms of hate, but this move is counterproductive. It is an overreach of authority to rule an entire area of academic study out of bounds.
Academic freedom is “the freedom of a teacher or researcher in higher education to investigate and discuss the issues in his or her academic field, and to teach and publish findings without interference from administrators, boards of trustees, political figures, donors, or other entities” (AAUP). It is fundamental to the operation of a university and essential to quality education. Teaching is not indoctrination, it is exposure to analytical frameworks for students to make sense of the world and is the province of academic professionals.
The issue of Israel and Palestine has roiled our CUNY community for decades and has been particularly fraught and painful since the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack and the ensuing Israeli war on Gaza. While we all hope for peace, members of our union, CUNY students, and many in the communities we serve have deeply held opposing opinions about the conflict and even how to speak about it. The “divisive concepts” standard for universities is something devised in Florida that shouldn’t be exported to New York. What’s needed are inclusive ways of teaching, not canceling concepts and areas of study.
An elected official dictating what topics may be taught at a public college is a line that should not be crossed. CUNY Colleges are already seeking to limit the rights of assembly and speech on their campuses. CUNY faculty are being investigated when a student objects to a classroom topic or a choice of words. What will be next on the list of unacceptable topics?
Students, faculty, and staff have a right to feel safe, welcome and respected at CUNY, regardless of their religion, ethnicity or identity. Rigorous education means sometimes engaging uncomfortable ideas and having disagreements. One of CUNY’s great strengths is its diversity–of peoples, cultures and ideas. We are all here to be challenged and interact with people who may not share our backgrounds or opinions.