When posters popped up last month on several California campuses, accusing specific students of having “allied themselves with Palestinian terrorists,” the students who were named expected campus officials to come quickly to their defense. Instead, administrators on some of the campuses grudgingly recognized the posters as protected speech, stoking anger among students who say they are being targeted for their activism.
The posters appeared at four campuses of the University of California — Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz — and at San Diego State University. The students named in the posters were identified first in a blog post by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a conservative foundation known for its pro-Israel stance and its willingness to wage political battles on college campuses. The group sought to single out students for pro-Palestinian activism and support of a campaign that calls for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel, accusing them of working “to perpetrate BDS and Jew Hatred on this campus.”
It was unclear whether students or outsiders had put up the posters. The Freedom Center did not respond to requests for comment.
Universities’ responses to the posters varied. Berkeley took down the posters within two days and released a statement calling them “hostile.” UCLA released a statement two days after the posters appeared on its campus, and Santa Cruz quickly took down the posters but did not issue a public comment.
San Diego State University, though, did not communicate with students until two weeks after the posters appeared. “First, we recognize and fully support the rights of all parties to voice their positions on political issues, whether supportive or critical,” wrote Elliott Hirshman, the university’s president, in an email to students. “We also understand that when parties adopt a specific political position, they become responsible for their actions, and these actions may produce criticism.”
Mr. Hirshman’s less-than-critical response prompted students to question the university’s willingness to defend them. Some of those students drew national attention when they surrounded a police car that was carrying Mr. Hirshman late in April, demanding that the president apologize.
Mr. Hirshman subsequently met with student critics and released a second statement on Monday, May 1. “We agree we are committed to the safety of all members of our community,” he wrote. “We also agree on the fundamental importance of freedom of expression.”
“Creating the appropriate balance between freedom of expression and protecting members of our community from harassment, as in the current case where students were named individually on a flier posted on our campuses, poses a significant challenge,” read the statement.
But many students remain unsatisfied. The university’s Muslim Student Association and other groups have called for Mr. Hirshman to resign.
Hassan Abdinur, a senior majoring in biology at San Diego State, was listed with six other students on the poster that appeared on the campus. He said he’s used to being targeted for his membership in campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association, so he waited for his university to take action. “We’ve seen these types of situations where something happens to someone in our community,” Mr. Abdinur said. “We kinda let the university take the lead on that.”
This time, Mr. Abdinur said, the stakes are higher. He’s applying to medical school in June. One of the first Google search results under his name is now the post on the Freedom Center blog claiming he is allied with Palestinian terrorist groups.
Mr. Abdinur sees the language on the posters as defamatory and says President Hirshman should have gone further to condemn it.
San Diego State declined to comment last week beyond Mr. Hirshman’s statement, but the president has said that he will review the university’s policies on freedom of speech and hate speech.
Degrees of Disavowal
At Berkeley, David McCleary, a graduate student in molecular and cellular biology who is a member of the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, was among the students named on posters that appeared there.
His university’s response was quicker and more forceful. “UC Berkeley remains committed to combating all forms of bias and discrimination, just as we condemn intimidation techniques that are at odds with the kind of respectful and inclusive environment we strive to create,” read a campuswide email from Nils Gilman, the associate chancellor and chief of staff, on April 21. Mr. Gilman said the posters were removed because they violated university policy.
But while Berkeley acted swiftly, Mr. McCleary said, the university should have referred to the posters as vandalism, instead of just saying their placement was a violation of policy, and should have called the posters defamatory.
The chilling psychological harm cast by such blacklist campaigns, especially when pushed into our physical campus grounds, cannot be dismissed as oversensitivity.
Berkeley’s response looked weak compared to that of UCLA, the institution whose officials most strongly condemned the posters, Mr. McCleary said.
Jerry Kang, UCLA’s vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion, wrote a letter to the campus stating that the group Students for Justice in Palestine is an officially recognized campus organization and that the posting of individual students’ names was wrong. “The chilling psychological harm cast by such blacklist campaigns, especially when pushed into our physical campus grounds, cannot be dismissed as oversensitivity,” Mr. Kang wrote.
Mr. McCleary said Berkeley should have followed UCLA’s example by officially recognizing the student groups as “in good standing” to refute the terrorism claims.
“That is something that we’ve been asking for all year and something that they have refused to do, even in the face of these most recent attacks,” Mr. McCleary said.
Protected Speech
Dan Mogulof, a spokesman for the University of California system, said administrators at Berkeley were working with students named in the posters who want the university to act further. “We cannot and will not police the content of speech, but we will act quickly and in a concerted fashion” when campus restrictions are violated, Mr. Mogulof said.
At the same time, the university has an obligation to protect all types of speech, Mr. Mogulof said.
Legal experts say there’s little universities can do. While the posters are disruptive to learning environments, administrators still have to follow the First Amendment.
That responsibility informs the responses that have struck some students as underwhelming. Jill F. Kasle, an associate professor of public policy and public administration at George Washington University, said that while the posters are disruptive to the universities’ learning environments, administrators still have to follow the First Amendment. “A university legally has no obligation to protect students in a situation like this,” Ms. Kasle said. “However, a university that ignores situations like this does so at its extreme peril.”
Though students want universities to defend them, that’s not really possible, Ms. Kasle said. As student demands at different California institutions prove, it’s not easy to come up with a statement that will please everyone.
William E. Thro, chief counsel for the University of Kentucky, said the most universities can do in this situation is call the posters inappropriate. Students may take comfort in those statements, but it’s difficult for universities to do anything to punish the people responsible for the posters, Mr. Thro said.
That’s little consolation to Mr. McCleary. Friends and family members have seen his name associated with terrorism online, he said, and he still wishes the university would come more strongly to his defense.
“I don’t have the university to back me up,” Mr. McCleary said. “All I have is my word against the word of this group.”
Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a web writer. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.
