The grievance process for the Fired Fourth has entered its final phase: arbitration. A union sibling who chooses to remain publicly anonymous, she is one of four Brooklyn College adjunct faculty unjustly terminated for engaging in First Amendment protected speech in defense of Palestinians in Gaza. About 100 PSC members rallied in lower Manhattan before her arbitration hearing to demand her reinstatement. A successful arbitral ruling would be another clear and decisive victory in the PSC’s fight to defend the free speech and academic freedom of CUNY faculty.
In the summer of 2025, the Fired Four lost their jobs over the objections of the department chairs who reappointed them. Three of the four had their reappointments reversed by management. The fourth was fired, ostensibly for distributing an anticapitalist pamphlet on campus, a pretext for discipline that directly echoes the McCarthy era.
The news came just weeks before Chancellor Matos Rodríguez testified before congress. The hearing was purportedly about antisemitism on campuses, but it was actually a cynical attempt to suppress non-violent activism and speech on college campuses.
The union sprang into action when the Fired Four lost their jobs, partnering with students and allies to mount a campaign involving grievances, rallies, letter writing, pressure from public officials, and media outreach. That sustained pressure has borne fruit: three of the four are back to work. But one remains barred from employment, –blacklisted on a CUNYwide do-not-hire list.
On September 25, the union argued the case for the Fired Fourth’s reinstatement before an arbitrator in Manhattan–the third and last step of the contractual grievance process. An hour before the 10:00 AM hearing, union members held a spirited picket and press conference outside the headquarters of the American Arbitration Association at 120 Broadway, where the hearing would take place.
“This is the final stage,” said Mobina Hashmi, the PSC chapter co-chair at Brooklyn College.
Citing the union’s successful campaign to reinstate three of the Fired Four, she said, “We know that we will win” because “we made it impossible for CUNY to do otherwise” for the Fired Fourth.
PSC President James Davis was confident that the union’s case in defense of the Fired Fourth would persuade the neutral arbitrator, but highlighted the Orwellian absurdity of the administration’s ongoing case against the member, who was ostensibly fired for distributing a pamphlet with the CUNY logo on campus and collecting a $5 donation. It would be bad enough, the union has said, if the Fired Fourth was terminated over circulating–heaven forbid–political materials on a university campus. But this excuse was cover, the union said, for an intention to punish faculty who spoke out about the devastation of Gaza.
“That’s the whole stupid case against them,” Davis said to the crowd. “This is not the Twilight Zone. This is the New McCarthyism.”
Earlier this year, upon the reinstatement of the other three members of the Fired Four, Davis told the Chief-Leader that the terminations were retaliation for members’ “political expression and protected activity in support of Palestinian rights.”
The stakes in this case are high for PSC members and for academics across the country. The Fired Four are just one instance of the faculty members whose speech has been stifled. At CUNY, faculty rights have been violated by an administration yielding to right-wing anti-democratic forces. At other colleges and universities, faculty have been directly targeted by either the Trump regime or their allies who are suppressing dissent on American campuses.
Adjuncts like the Fired Four are especially vulnerable to violations of their free speech and academic freedom rights because they lack the protections enjoyed by tenured full-time faculty. This case is a testament to the precarity and anti-labor nature of universities shifting the instructional workforce to contingent appointments.
Corrina Mullin, one of the Fired Four who has been reinstated, described how the termination has been devastating for her colleague.
She “remains blacklisted across CUNY, stripped of her livelihood, her health insurance, her ability to teach, after nine years of dedicated service,” Mullin said.
Lynne Turner, the PSC vice president for part-time personnel, said, “CUNY’s actions against the Fired Four were designed to send a message to all adjuncts and part-timers that as contingent workers we have to toe the line for the sake of our next semester’s appointment, which not only devalues us as workers but devalues the educational value we bring to our students.”
Assemblymember Diana Moreno
The union’s campaign for these workers has inspired the introduction of legislation by State Senator Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Diana Moreno. The Academic Freedom Protection Act would strengthen academic freedom rights of all faculty members in the state, including adjuncts. Moreno joined PSC members at the rally to stand in solidarity with PSC members and call for the passage of her bill.
The PSC’s contract includes protections for academic freedom, but many academic workers have no such safeguards.
For Moreno, a positive decision for the Fired Fourth by the arbitrator would show that the CUNY administration is on the wrong side of history. “They’re capitulating to a fascist right wing,” she said.
“New York must set a positive example for the country, not contribute to democratic backsliding. I invite all of you to reach out to your elected representatives. Ask them to join us in calling for an end to this New McCarthyism and defend your right to free speech by co-sponsoring the Academic Freedom Protection Act,” Moreno continued.
At the end of the rally, before the hearing commenced, Hashmi called the CUNY chancellor’s office and held the phone up high so the entire crowd could heard chanting on the voicemail demanding the reinstatement of the Fired Fourth.
