CSULB professors say the university is targeting them for participation in pro-Palestine rallies, investment criticisms
The ACLU sent a letter to the university alleging the school’s “restrictive” protest policies are unconstitutional.
The decades-long debate over Israel and Palestine hit a fever pitch over the past year, spurring thousands of pro-Palestinian protests at universities across the U.S. Now, five Cal State Long Beach faculty members are accusing university officials of targeting them with policy violation warnings for their participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the spring semester.
Two protests in May drew more than 1,000 students calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the university to divest from all defense contractors. During both events, numerous professors spoke about the history and current events of Palestine. During the events, speakers — students, teachers and others — used microphones and bullhorns to ensure they could be heard throughout the crowd.
“We were all hired because of our academic training in questions of race and racism both in the U.S. and abroad and we are now being targeted for drawing on our expertise to take a stand against militarism and genocide in Gaza, suggesting that our viewpoints are only welcome if administrators agree with us,” Professor of English Araceli Esparza said in a statement.
The university says the use of an amplification device is the issue. Under the university’s “Time, Place, Manner” (TPM) policy — which regulates on-campus free speech, demonstrations, rallies and more the use of such devices is restricted to certain times on certain days unless otherwise approved. Such equipment must also be provided by the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) or the university.
The California State University system implemented an interim TPM policy effective Aug. 15 of this year and Long Beach implemented an addendum six days later on Aug. 21. The policy only covers students and non-unionized employees until bargaining related to the new policy is finalized, according to a university spokesperson.
Long Beach, however, already had a campus-based policy in place prior to the systemwide TPM. The previously existing policy also only applies to non-union workers.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California voiced their support for the professors in a Sept. 5 letter to Associate Vice President and Faculty Affairs Patricia Pérez. The organization says the university’s policy is “unconstitutional” as it is written.
“We respect the perspectives expressed in the letter from the ACLU but disagree with several of the characterizations made,” university spokesperson Jeff Cook said in an email Monday. “As our review of the letter continues, we also reaffirm that campus policies related to ‘Time, Place and Manner’ are viewpoint-neutral.”
Cook added that the school would not comment further on “specific personnel matters.”
While the five professors — Jake and Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson, Azza Basarudin, Esparza and Steven Osuna — acknowledge their use of the microphone and speaker (supplied by student organizers and ASI or the university), they noted that other teachers spoke during these and other demonstrations throughout the last academic year. The difference, they claim, is that they are the authors of a widely circulated op-ed that lambasts the university’s deep ties to defense contractor Boeing.
The sixth author of the op-ed, Associate English Professor Dennis López, did not speak during the demonstrations. But one other faculty member was initially given a warning for their participation in the same event, according to Osuna, but it was later “rescinded when [officials] realized they had no videos or pictures of her using the mic/megaphone.”
The small group, which is predominately people of color and disproportionately Muslim, alleges the violation warnings are part of a “concerted attack” on freedom of speech as it relates to Palestine and the university’s ties to the military-industrial complex.
“While CSULB’s university president Jane Conoley has used her platform for many years to freely express her pro-Israel perspective without any fear of retaliation or harassment, unfortunately, this has not been the case for pro-Palestine faculty and students,” Professor of Sociology Jake Alimahomed-Wilson said.
A history of pro-Israel support
In April 2017, ahead of a vote on an ASI resolution regarding CSULB’s divestment from seven companies with ties to Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Conoley wrote a letter to the Daily 49er, now the Long Beach Current, stating her opposition to the proposal.
In her letter, Conoley argued that the resolution would spur a rise in on-campus anti-semitism and that divestment would not support a two-state solution in the conflict between the two nations. The resolution also wouldn’t impact the situation in the Middle East, she added.
Conoley also claimed the Jewish state is regularly the target of investment policies, while other countries carrying out human rights violations are not.
“My intent in mentioning other countries was to ask the question, ‘Why the Jews?’” Conoley wrote in a follow-up email to the student newspaper. “There’s a case to be made that even in the USA we have witnessed gross violations of human rights, voting rights and educational rights to name a few. Why not mention other countries in addition to Israel?”
Conoley’s remarks caught the attention of Chicago-based Palestine Legal, an advocacy group that supports Palestinian rights. In a May 3, 2017 letter to Conoley, Staff Attorney Liz Jackson accused the university president of “conflating criticism of Israeli policy with anti-Jewish hate,” which “undermines efforts to combat bigotry.”
By aligning Palestinian rights activism with anti-semetic acts on campus, Jackson argued that Conoley was encouraging restrictions on protected speech and that her letter had a “chilling effect because students and scholars are likely to act in ways to avoid the specter of being officially labeled as anti-semitic.”
Jackson also accused Conoley of inaction after an anti-Muslim death threat was made on campus. The silence from Conoley regarding that incident stood in stark contrast to Conoley’s outspoken support for Israel, Jackson said.
Later that year, Conoley was honored by the Anti-Defamation League Orange County/Long Beach for “years of dedication to creating a world without hate.” On its website, the ADL specifically notes Conoley’s letter against the ASI resolution, which ultimately passed with a supermajority 15 to 7, with one member abstaining.
Now, seven years later, with the Israel-Palestine debate more controversial than ever following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Jackson’s concerns have become a reality across the country — and the world — as Palestinian advocates have been broadly been labeled as anti-semetic for their criticisms of Israeli government actions.
“The ability to explore and discuss diverse ideas is fundamental to higher education and ultimately serves the public good,” Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson, a professor of sociology, said in a statement. “These recent actions by the CSULB administration undermine the very essence of what it means to be an academic where part of our job is to pursue research and teaching that at times can call into question unethical relationships between universities and private corporations, in this case, weapons manufacturers, and we should be able to do so without retaliation.”
The ACLU pushes back
The ACLU urged the university to stop enforcing its TPM policy, claiming it could be easily abused to target people based on the personal biases of those enforcing it.
The organization further argues that the policy is unconstitutional in a number of ways, including the need for permission to use amplification equipment. The ACLU notes there may be circumstances where such limitations would be acceptable as to not disrupt classes, but to require permission for all forms of amplification across the entire campus is a step too far.
The strict time limitations also appear to have no justification, according to the ACLU.
“It is difficult to imagine how the University could justify preventing any use of amplified sound in an open plaza for 22 hours of a weekday – a period of time that surely includes hours where no classes are in session and there is no possibility of disrupting any university business,” the letter reads.
Overall, the ACLU claims the policy lacks clarity, making it hard for students and teachers to know when they are in violation of it.
The warnings, issued on Aug. 19, came days before systemwide emails to Cal State University students and faculty, which outlined the TPM policy ahead of the fall semester. The Aug. 22 email to students, signed by the CSU chancellor and all campus presidents, stated freedom of expression “is not an absolute right.”
CSU maintains that the policy and emails are viewpoint neutral and not the result of recent pro-Palestinian actions. Others, however, including Jason Whitehead, an associate professor of political science and constitutional expert at CSULB, think the timing is more than a coincidence.
Whitehead recently told the Watchdog that it is “obvious” the university system was attempting to “head off pro-Palestinian human rights protests.”
“Censorship in the name of academic freedom, as demonstrated by CSULB administrators, disrupts our ability to foster a rigorous academic environment that promotes justice, freedom, and public good,” Azza Basarudin, an associate professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies, said in a statement. “There cannot be a Palestine exception to academic freedom.”
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify when the TPM policy was implemented.
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