Universities are continuing to retaliate against staff for participating in Gaza campus protests

 

Columbia University staff are being suspended and terminated for participating in last Spring's Gaza Solidarity Encampment, even if they were off the clock at the time. Similar cases are being seen across the country.

Clara C. began working at Columbia University one month after the start of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023. She was hired in the Germanic Languages Department as a Department Assistant. Like many incoming members of the Columbia community, she had high hopes for her time at the university. Seven months later, the illusion of Ivy League ambition and a rich intellectual environment vanished when she was suspended from her post, ostensibly because of her involvement in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. By early summer, she was terminated. 

Clara pushed back. No evidence had been presented in her dismissal, and – against university protocol – there was no union representative present when she was fired on May 10, less than a month after her participation in the encampment. Together with her union, Clara filed a case arguing that she was wrongfully terminated and demanding reinstatement and back pay. 

“I wanted them to know that this was bogus and that we understood it to be a part of a targeted campaign that was, of course, already going on against students,” Clara told Mondoweiss.  

Employees often face certain restrictions on their freedom of speech. In the past year, retaliation against employees or future employees for expressions of solidarity with Palestine has repeatedly made headlines. Law firms have rescinded their offers to graduating students. Tech companies, including Google, have fired employees for organizing. Last year, Starbucks and its union sued each other over a disputed social media post by the union.

But the response of universities, with their long standing reputations of creating space for intellectual engagement and dissent, stands out. Faculty at Columbia and other universities have described a growing climate of academic suppression. And staff, like Clara, have fewer protections.  (more...)

Universities are continuing to retaliate against staff for participating in Gaza campus protests