Barnard College's restrictions on political speech are causing outrage
Three weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College in New York posted a statement about her departmental website in support of the Palestinian people.
Below the statement, the professors posted links to academic work supporting their view that the Palestinians' struggle against “colonial war, occupation and apartheid” was also a feminist issue. Two days later, they discovered that part of the web page had been removed without warning by Barnard administrators.
What happened next has led to a crisis over academic freedom and free speech at Barnard, at a time when the conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to tense protests on American college campuses and heated debates over what constitutes acceptable speech.
Asked to explain why the page was removed, university officials told the department that the statement and links were “inadmissible political speech.” said a statement from the department.
The Barnard administration then rewrote its policies on political activity, website management, and campus events in late October and November, giving itself wide latitude to decide what was and was not permissible political speech on campus, as well as the final say to provide information about everything posted on campus. Barnard's website.
The moves caught the attention of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which wrote a letter to Barnard's new president, Laura Rosenbury, in December, warning that the website and political speech policies violated fundamental principles of free speech and were “incompatible with an understanding of academic freedom.”
“Such a regime will inevitably serve as a license for censorship,” the letter said.
In a statement, the Barnard government said it had barred university resources from being used for political activities for at least a decade. Another policy banning the posting of political signs on campus was not against any ideology, it argued.
“Barnard supports the academic freedom of our faculty and the free expression of our faculty and students,” Kathryn Gerlach, a spokeswoman for Barnard, said in an email.
Janet Jacobsena professor of women's, gender and sexuality studies, said the removal of her department's pro-Palestinian material was just one of the new free speech challenges facing students and faculty.
Faculty members who posted pro-Palestinian signs on their office doors have been asked to remove them or place them indoors, they and other faculty members said. And about two dozen students who attended a peaceful, but unauthorized, pro-Palestinian campus protest in December have been summoned to appear before a university disciplinary committee.
“The purpose of academic freedom and free expression is precisely to contribute to democratic discussion,” said Dr. Jacobsen. “And so to treat our students as if their participation in participatory democracy is so deeply dangerous that a demonstration that does not involve disruption must be disciplined is a very strong statement.”
Since the October 7 attacks, administrators have faced pressure from some donors, alumni, students and faculty to restrict certain pro-Palestinian expressions, on the grounds that opposition to Zionism or the State of Israel could lead to anti-Semitism and those who Supporting Israel can make you feel uncomfortable.
Universities of applied sciences often defend the measures as necessary for safety and to create a calmer climate. (For example, at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Columbia last Friday, some Barnard and Columbia students said someone sprayed them with a foul-smelling chemical, and several sought medical attention afterward.)
At both Columbia and Barnard, an all-women university that is formally part of Columbia University but has its own leadership and policies, administrators have asked the community to refrain from slogans and words that others might find offensive. Both institutions have also issued reformulated administrative rules that officially apply to everyone. But critics say they are actually used to limit views that the council does not want to be heard.
For example, under the new rules that Barnard emailed to faculty on Nov. 6, all academic departments must submit changes to the content of their websites to the Office of the Provost for review and approval. All content on the College website may be changed or removed without notice related policies states.
Arthur Eisenberg, executive counsel at the NYCLU, said the policy gives the administration discretion to determine what is permissible academic discourse on the website. “And that's the problem,” he said.
For example, while the pro-Palestinian statement was removed, a rack from the Africana Studies Department, which decried anti-Black racism and state-sanctioned violence in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd, was allowed to remain.
Barnard also issued a policy on November 13 political activity in a way that many faculty members felt was broader than previously understood. Rather than simply banning partisan activities such as rallies from campus, the policy now defines this as “any written communication that comments on specific actions, statements or positions of government officials or agencies at the local, state, federal and international levels.”
Faculty can make such statements, as long as they make it clear that they speak for themselves, but not for the college. But political statements cannot be posted on Barnard's website without permission, and “no member of the council may post signs containing political statements” on the council's property.
A newly articulated one event policy also requires 28 days' notice before holding most public demonstrations on campus.
In response to the administration's actions, more than 1,000 Columbia and Barnard faculty, students and alumni have signed a letter say academic freedom is under attack at Barnard. More than a hundred Barnard faculty members also signed a letter sent to President Rosenbury on Sunday expressing concern about the recent summons of about two dozen students to “investigative meetings” over allegations that they violated the code of conduct.
A new group, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, published a letter Monday on the school newspaper's website, promising to take back Barnard and Columbia. The letter states that the group will oppose efforts to “curtail speech that is critical of the actions of the State of Israel, that sympathizes with the Palestinians, or that attempts to place the current conflict in a longer historical context.”
Barnard faculty also held a vote in December in which the “Chicago Principles,” a commitment to free speech, several professors said.
In its letter to President Rosenbury, the NYCLU suggested that, rather than blocking academic speeches on Barnard's website, faculty members should be allowed to publish freely, provided they make clear in disclaimers that their views are not necessarily those of the college.
The Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies now has it's own website which is not run by the college, and has posted its pro-Palestinian statement and resources there. Over the past two months, there have been discussions with Barnard's provost office about allowing a link from the official website to this website, said Dr. Jacobsen.
Only two of the resources — including a newly published book chapter by a faculty member — have been allowed to be published on Barnard's main website so far, she said.