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The Political Science Graduate Students Association (PSGSA) at Syracuse University is deeply concerned about the recent disciplinary proceedings initiated against several students, including some of our members, in relation to the Gaza Solidarity Encampment (GSE). Hundreds of students and dozens of faculty engaged in peaceful political action through participation or observation of the GSE and endured well-documented instances of verbal abuse and harassment throughout. Several organizations on campus, including but not limited to the SU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, Syracuse Graduate Employees United and the Student Association issued statements of support for members of the GSE. The university’s decision to selectively target a small number of students who engaged with or observed the GSE risks permanently damaging students’ and faculty’s trust in the administration’s commitment to fair governance. We are deeply troubled by the arbitrary enforcement of university policies and the initiation of proceedings against targeted individuals.

These actions have far-reaching implications that extend beyond individual cases and negatively affect our academic community. In mobilizing the student conduct process as a means of suppressing academic freedom and retaliating against institutional critique, the university has weaponized a system they insist is designed to be educational rather than punitive. The selective nature of who have been sanctioned, the lack of transparency throughout the proceedings and the presumption of guilt that has underwritten the conduct processes have all had a chilling effect and culminated in creating a hostile work environment. The bureaucratic miscarriages of justice throughout these disciplinary proceedings generate stress and uncertainty that have disrupted our collective academic focus and collegial atmosphere, stoked long-term anxieties about future career opportunities and created a palpable chilling effect on academic discourse and research within our department and beyond. Many of our members report increased hesitation in engaging with politically sensitive topics, fearing potential repercussions. This atmosphere of self-censorship is antithetical to the principles of academic freedom and open inquiry that are fundamental to our scholarly pursuits.

The effects of this hostile environment disproportionately impact students with minoritized identities and who work in the margins of our discipline. We are specifically concerned about the implications of such actions on the academic freedom of targeted Ph.D. students who study social movements, Middle East and North African politics, security studies and international relations. Academic work cannot be limited to data collection and publication. Praxis, as a means of understanding, theorizing and intervening in the world around us, is not a mere appendage to academic freedom, but an integral and indissociable part of the academic enterprise. Any attempt to suppress or penalize praxis is a direct assault on the foundational principles of higher education. Many have lost faith in SU’s commitment to inclusivity and have taken action to protect themselves from SU’s hostile action.

We as academics are not meant to merely collect data and report findings — we have a responsibility to interpret their novelty and interrogate and challenge the status quo to improve the world around us. Attempts to suppress or penalize these challenges run counter to the principles of academic freedom. This damage to our academic community, wrought by the imposition of these sanctions on GSE participants and observers, is both unjustifiable and counterproductive to our educational mission. Graduate students are invaluable members of the university’s knowledge production ecosystem, and threats to their disciplinary records unjustly affects their ability to contribute to this knowledge production. In initiating these proceedings, the university sends a message to its broader community that it is more responsive to external political pressure than to members of its own student body. This is antithetical to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s (MSCHE) policy on Political Intervention in Education, which disavows administrative action that “creates pressures against dissent on important policy issues.”

Academic governance should be insulated from external political pressures, including but not limited to, those from government representatives and other domestic and international political actors who have misrepresented the nature of the GSE’s goals, levied Islamophobic attacks on our students and directly called for the university to punish those associated with the GSE. In a moment in time when there is increased pressure on universities nationally to curb academic freedom through cultures and policies of censorship, it is increasingly important for SU to reaffirm its commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and willingness to protect students in that pursuit.

According to its vision statement, Syracuse University “aspires to be a preeminent and inclusive student-focused research university, preparing engaged citizens, scholars and leaders for participation in a changing global society.” Participants and observers of the GSE embody this vision. Through these retaliatory disciplinary proceedings designed to punish and prevent student activism and scholarship, Syracuse University is punishing students for the very global engagement it claims to aspire to.

Hannah Radner is the president of the Political Science Graduate Student Association. She can be reached at hlradner@syr.edu.

Published on August 25, 2024 at 9:18 pm