University of California Accused of Trying to Silence Faculty Speech About War in Gaza

Updated 3:51 p.m. Thursday

University of California faculty members across the state are accusing the UC system of carrying out an illegal campaign to repress academic freedom in the wake of pro-Palestinian campus protests, according to an unfair labor practice charge filed Thursday.

According to the allegations filed with the California Public Employment Relations Board, UC administrators have started investigations and disciplinary proceedings against faculty for supporting on-campus student encampments, backing a related strike by student academic workers in the spring, or even teaching about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In a summary of their charge, the faculty members accuse administrators of sending several “vague but threatening communications warning faculty that they could be disciplined for violating the faculty code of conduct, including by purportedly ‘indoctrinating’ students or teaching coursework outside the scope of their course material.”

Members of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations gathered at UCLA on Thursday to announce the charge, which was not far from where the UC Board of Regents was meeting.

In addition to the systemwide council, the charge was also brought by faculty associations at seven UC campuses, including Berkeley and San Francisco.

“There’s just been a systemwide attack on faculty, staff and students who have chosen to be vocal about the war in Gaza,” said Jess Ghannam, chair of UCSF’s faculty association.

Two faculty members at UCSF, a medical school, faced intense pushback for speaking out about the health consequences resulting from the destruction of hospitals and other infrastructure in Gaza, Ghannam said.

That falls within the purview of health-related academic discussion at the university, Ghannam argued, but he said those faculty members were “either written up, counseled, or had their material taken down.”

One UCSF staff member, Denise Caramagno, said other employees filed complaints against her after she expressed support for a colleague facing criticism for questioning the impact of Zionism among doctors on health equity efforts. Caramagno said administrators told her she hadn’t violated any policies, but after she shared one of the complaints with colleagues, she was fired.

Ghannam said faculty members at UCSF have also been told not to wear pins with the Palestinian flag or with watermelons, a symbol of support for Palestinians, but they are free to wear other symbols of support, such as the LGBTQ pride flag or Black Lives Matter pins.

“It seems like different rules apply, and that has the immediate impact of putting a chilling effect on faculty, staff and students who want to speak, who want to do academic research in this area, who want to show their solidarity,” Ghannam said.

UCSF was also notably the site of the stiffest university opposition to student encampments among Bay Area campuses. Administrators at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University and Sonoma State University negotiated with student organizers and agreed to some demands. However, at UCSF, administrators called on police to clear that encampment multiple times within a week until student activists called off the demonstration.

Roshanak Kheshti, co-chair of UC Berkeley’s faculty association, said several faculty members there are under investigation for discussing the history of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in their classrooms.

Kheshti said those investigations, reportedly being run by the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, are not transparent.

“So some of the mechanisms within the institution that are designed to protect vulnerable populations against discrimination and harassment are being very cynically deployed against faculty right now,” Kheshti said. “They have resulted in faculty incurring legal fees in order to defend themselves against accusations where little to no evidence is presented. So it’s a very McCarthyist moment for us as faculty.”

UCSF officials did not immediately return requests for comment.

A spokesperson for UC Berkeley declined to answer questions about allegations specific to its campus and directed KQED to the UC Office of the President.

The unfair labor practice charge was timed “to counter the even more restrictive practices on free speech and assembly that the UC has imposed at the start of this academic year,” said Constance Penley, president of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations.

Those rules include revised restrictions on encampments and a ban on wearing masks for the purpose of concealing identity. Students and faculty also criticized the university system when the policies were announced last month, saying they are meant to deter pro-Palestinian protests.

The charge builds on a similar filing by UCLA faculty members in response to the university’s handling of the student encampment there, accusing administrators of knowingly standing by while counterprotesters attacked the camp, then sending in police days later to clear the camp and arrest participants, including some faculty.

When asked for comment on Thursday, officials for the UC’s Office of the President pointed to their response to the initial charge from UCLA faculty. In that filing, university officials wrote that they continue to allow lawful protests around the conflict, “but when protests violate University policy or threaten the safety and security of others, the University has taken lawful action to end impermissible and unlawful behavior. That is precisely what occurred at UCLA, where administrators took steps to disperse an encampment protesting conditions in Gaza.”

Thursday’s filing asks the California Public Employment Relations Board to find that UC “unlawfully discriminated against its employees for engaging in protected activity” and order UC administrators to rescind its recent policy changes and disciplinary action against faculty association members — including back pay for those who were suspended or fired — and remove the actions from personnel files.