Academic freedom is grounded in the faculty member’s qualifications for the position as reviewed by his/her peers. It consists in the freedom to teach, research, write, and to speak in our capacity as citizens without restraint by the administration. The PSC’s Academic Freedom Committee works closely with the University Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom.
Letters Defending Academic Freedom
These letters from the PSC Academic Freedom Committee seek to defend academic freedom as a professional right of all CUNY faculty.
Letter to Law School – November 20, 2024: Regarding the investigation into an alleged four-year-old time-barred discrimination complaint against Professor Chaumtoli Huq in violation of academic freedom rights. The complaint and investigation focus on material that Professor Huq presented in the classroom, a direct violation of her first amendment rights and of the PSC-CUNY Contract.
Letter to Brooklyn College – November 20, 2024: Regarding the investigation into allegations against Professor Corinna Mullin in violation of academic freedom rights. The complaint and investigation focus on material that Professor Mullin presented in the classroom, a direct violation of her first amendment rights and of the PSC-CUNY Contract.
Letter to City Tech – November 6, 2024: Given the contractual right to academic freedom enjoyed by all PSC-CUNY members, we are deeply alarmed to learn of what appears to be an act of direct censorship by New York City College of Technology management.
Letter from PSC president James Davis to Chancellor Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez and Queens College President Frank Wu – October 15, 2024: The October 9 social media attack by a U.S. Congressman on a Queens College faculty member is intolerable to the PSC and should be intolerable to the administration. We call on you to forcefully condemn the Ritchie Torres doxing tweet, which endangers your employee and your students by publicizing the location of the classroom and the zoom link for online participants.
Letter to John Jay College – April 15, 2024: Regarding the non-reappointment of Professor Danny Shaw, a long-time adjunct faculty member in the Latin American and Latinx Studies Program and a Senior Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, who has been teaching at John Jay since 2007. It has been reported to our committee that President Mason actively intervened in the reappointment process, calling for Professor Shaw to not be reappointed based on his social media activity.
1st Letter to Lehman College – February 23, 2024, 2nd Letter to Lehman College – March 1, 2024: Cancellation of a panel, “Globalize the Intifada! Mapping Struggles for Palestine from the Streets to Our Classrooms,” to have been presented at the conference “Engagement, Equity, and Antiracism” organized by the Writing Across the Curriculum program at Lehman College in collaboration with Hostos Community College.
Letter to Baruch College – December 20, 2023: Cancellation of a faculty teach-in, titled “The Gaza Crisis” organized by members of the Baruch College History Department.
Letter to Hunter College – November 28, 2023: Cancellation of a screening of the film Israelism and failure to act in the face of “doxxing” attacks by outside groups against Hunter College faculty and staff.
Letter to Kingsborough Community College – October 17, 2022: Refusal to use an image from the cover of the book Raising Racists: The Socialization of White Children in the Jim Crow South, written by Professor Kristina DuRocher and published by Kentucky University Press, in an announcement for the panel discussion “From Parent to Child? – Intergenerational Transmission of Hate.”
Letter to John Jay College – May 31, 2022: Cancellation of a student- and faculty-organized conference, “Palestine Lives 2022,” intended to be “a day-long conference to educate on Palestinian culture and speak to the issues of colonialism, imperialism, and Palestinian liberation.”
Published: March 21, 2024 | Last Modified: December 3, 2024
