This is an evolving story at UT. One notes the importance of faculty voice and governance for due process and democracy as this student's lawsuit cites a UT Faculty Council committee report that supports Ammer Qaddumi's case. I agree with the American Civil Liberties Union's statement that free speech rights should be "generously protected." To this, I would include university faculty, as well, together with the academic freedom we need to teach truthfully in the college classroom. I am proud of our faculty and our faculty leadership for expressing their voices.
I am also proud of the great work by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) members at UT who contributed to the Faculty Council committee report, as well. Our chapter may be among the largest in our state.
To be clear, the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Texas Faculty Association (TFA), along with their partners in other Southern states, have been leading the fight against interference in academic freedom, advocating for the protection of shared governance, due process, and tenure.
Our AAUP state leader, Dr. Brian Evans, together with other fantastic AAUP leaders at UT and statewide are currently organizing to have a voice in the upcoming 2025 Texas Legislative Session, as well.
Another important, related point that should also be abundantly clear is that when faculty fight for free speech and academic freedom at the legislature and beyond, these are student issues that both students and advocates need to vigorously support, as well. Similarly, when students and advocates fight for K-12 issues in the Texas State Legislature, these are higher education issues.
After all, the attack on academic freedom in 2023 was presaged by the attack on Critical Race Theory in 2021. Expressed differently, many of us knew in 2021 that this issue would re-appear in higher education in the following 2023 legislative session—and it did in the form of SB 16 (related to higher education curriculum), SB 17 (attack on DEI), and SB 18 (attack on tenure). of the three, the latter two bills become law.
This speaks to a tendency in policy for folks to say, "I do K-12" or "I do higher ed." I maintain that these logics make us vulnerable that extremists are happy to exploit. Not that all have to know or do everything, but rather it's important to have a little epistemic humility and to know that there is a larger policy arena out there to which we must also be mindful.
Here is where networks and partnerships matter. For example, I'm thrilled that Texas AFT and AAUP recently voted on March 30, 2024 in favor of this partnership: Affiliation Agreement Between Texas AFT and the Texas AAUP Conference. After all, censorship is an issue that affects the entire educational pipeline. I would also argue that we need to give our K-12 teachers much more academic freedom over their classrooms than they do now. The teachers we work with at Academia Cuauhtli—who are dual language/bilingually certified teachers—always tell us that what they like about our school is their freedom to impart their craft and to develop curriculum that is specific to the communities they teach.
You may join AAUP at this link. Here are several reasons to consider joining. No worries. Membership is kept confidential. You can also learn about how to start your own chapter at your own college or university, public or private, here.
Follow Texas AAUP on X @TexasAaup and @aaup_utAustin.
AAUP makes a difference. A big one.
-Angela Valenzuela
Student threatened with suspension sues University of Texas for 'unlawful retaliation'
by Lily Kepner | Aug. 30, 2024 | Austin American-Statesman
Pro-Palestine protesters hold a rally after The University of Texas at Austin’s commencement ceremony at Royal-Memorial Stadium on Saturday, May 11, 2024 in Austin. About 100 protesters, which included current and graduating students and faculty and staff, gathered to call for the University of Texas at Austin to divest from weapon manufacturers that supply arms to Israel. -Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman
The suit, filed Tuesday, alleges that UT "unlawfully attempted to prevent that speech" and is now trying to suspend the student and bar him from campus for three semesters pending a hearing Friday. In an additional motion filed Wednesday, the student seeks a temporary restraining order against the disciplinary hearing, which a federal judge denied Thursday afternoon.
"It's pretty evident that the university's actions targeting that demonstration were really just unambiguously unlawful," Brian McGivern, the lawyer representing the case from Austin Community Law Center, told the American-Statesman in an interview. "My hope is that the lawsuit will also deter them from blindly, unapologetically breaking the law."
More:Can Texas public universities remove protesters from campus? First Amendment experts explain
McGivern said the discipline threatened against the student is "unlawful retaliation."
Ammer Qaddumi, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, is a member of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the group that organized the April 24 protest and was the first person arrested by police after a dispersal order.
"The police sought out a mediator from among the crowd to communicate directives to, and Mr. Qaddumi volunteered to fill that role. At their request, Mr. Qaddumi shared with the other demonstrators the officers’ directives to disperse," the lawsuit states.
More:$5,200 for Pok-e-Jo's barbecue: A look at UT's expenses for pro-Palestinian protests
It describes Qaddumi addressing the crowd when they regathered on Speedway to listen to officers and communicating to officers about the challenges with dispersal when "at that moment, at approximately 12:49 p.m., he was arrested by UT Police Department officers on the accusation of criminal trespass."
Video evidence posted by the news service Al Jazeera, as well as reporter accounts, show Qaddumi helping police before a UT police officer arrested him. Fifty-six other people were arrested that day, though all criminal trespassing charges were quickly dropped "due to insufficient evidence."
Because of Senate Bill 18, a 2019 Texas law, all university public spaces are established as traditional public forums, affording them the highest scrutiny in free speech law, McGivern said.
This conduct would not meet the standard required to allow censorship, McGivern argues, even for a university.
"The University is a state entity, and it's one of the bedrock principles of our democracy that the state cannot casually censor speech ... except in very specific situations," McGivern said. "There's no good faith argument that they can make that what they are doing is lawful, except by relying on statements of facts that are pure fiction."
More:Analysis: UT increases limits on free speech after pro-Palestinian protests, Abbott order
On April 23, the university preemptively canceled the registered student group's plans to protest due to officials' belief the demonstrators planned to break rules and disrupt the campus. Wood, whom Hartzell announced Tuesday would return to the engineering faculty starting Sept. 1 after stepping down as provost, emailed the Dean's Council early the next morning to say UT "is working to ensure this type of disruption doesn't happen." Hartzell has said he asked outside law enforcement to meet protesters, fearing the protest would break rules and disrupt campus.
The president and provost were named and sued for damages in their personal capacity due to both parties showing their involvement in prior restraint with the protest, McGivern said.
More:UT offers deferred suspension to some pro-Palestinian student protesters, one suspension
University spokesperson Mike Rosen said the university is aware of the lawsuit and will respond in court filings, but he pointed to Hartzell's comment in April that UT followed its rules and protocols and that it protects free speech that follows those rules.
"Today, our University held firm, enforcing our rules while protecting the Constitutional right to free speech. Peaceful protests within our rules are acceptable. Breaking our rules and policies and disrupting others’ ability to learn are not allowed," Hartzell wrote then. "The group that led this protest stated it was going to violate Institutional Rules. Our rules matter, and they will be enforced. Our University will not be occupied."
The lawsuit states the Palestine Solidarity Committee was not intending to break university rules, accusing the university of conflating their intentions with national groups.
Protests largely organized by chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, which the Palestine Solidarity Committee is a part of, spread across universities nationwide last spring after more than 100 protesters in an encampment were arrested at Columbia University on April 18 when demanding their institution divest from weapons manufactures contributing to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
The UT protest was held in solidarity with others across the nation but was planned to be a gathering on the South Lawn with workshops, teach-ins and pizza, organizers said on social media. At a protest April 29 not organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, protesters did briefly set up a surprise encampment and police arrested 79 people.
More:Seventy-nine pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after setting up encampment at UT Austin
The lawsuit heavily cites a UT Faculty Council committee report that says the university broke its rules in silencing protesters' free speech preemptively, something UT denies.
The Statesman's reporting has showed the university changed its free speech rules this summer to state off-campus police can in some instances enforce university rules, something that was not present explicitly at the time of the arrests, though police have assisted the UT police before. It also changed the rules to cite drumming as amplified sound. The April protests didn't use amplified sound but they did involve drums.
More:UT faculty panel accuses school of violating its own rules during pro-Palestinian protests
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas previously raised concerns about the disciplinary process, encouraging the university in a letter to Hartzell to treat students in a content-neutral way and to protect their free speech rights generously. At least one other student protester also faces suspension, the Statesman previously reported.
The university has said disciplinary proceedings are separate from the law, though it publicly criticized County Attorney Delia Garza for dropping criminal trespassing charges because they did not meet the highest standard of evidence that protesters broke the law.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra on Thursday denied the temporary restraining order motion sought by Qaddumi, saying "no injury currently exists," as the hearing Friday will determine whether or not Qaddumi is suspended, and the university is following due process through having a hearing, according to his order.
In his lawsuit, Qaddumi seeks compensatory and punitive damages from defendants and a permanent injunction against disciplinary proceedings.
"This (is part of) a larger phenomenon that we see today with certain leaders, very publicly, very unapologetically, breaking the law in ways that they know are illegal ... and then trying to gaslight the public or lie to the public to justify it," McGivern said. "What people should know is that they deserve better leadership."
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