{"id":831,"date":"2025-03-07T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/?p=831"},"modified":"2025-03-10T14:39:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T14:39:03","slug":"law-student-faculty-groups-challenge-legality-of-bobst-sit-in-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/law-student-faculty-groups-challenge-legality-of-bobst-sit-in-sanctions\/","title":{"rendered":"Law student, faculty groups challenge legality of Bobst sit-in sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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NYU\u2019s chapters of the <\/span>American Association of University Professors<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Law Students for Justice in Palestine<\/span><\/a> issued letters on Thursday condemning the university\u2019s sanctions on 30 students who on Tuesday, staged a <\/span>pro-Palestinian sit-in<\/span><\/a> in Bobst Library. The letters call for administrators to rescind the retributions, claiming that they undermine freedom of speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the demonstration outside President Linda Mills\u2019 office on the top floor of Bobst, the law students received emails informing them that they were persona non grata and barring them from campus buildings \u2014 with the exceptions of their scheduled classes and residence halls \u2014 and they were \u201cunder investigation\u201d by the law school’s Executive Committee. The students had been calling for Mills to meet with them to discuss university investments in companies with ties to Israel, immigration policies amid the Trump administration and NYU\u2019s handling of previous demonstrations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The emails, sent from Associate Dean of Students Craig Jolley, stipulated that the students \u201cdid not comply with the directives of Campus Safety officers\u201d but did not specify which actions violated university policy. In an interview with WSN, CAS Professor Sonya Posmentier, who is also a member of AAUP, said the demonstration aimed to publicly question how students were supposed to reach administrators with their concerns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe hallway the students were standing in is the symbolic heart of the university,\u201d Posmentier said. \u201cSo if students are not allowed there, that should itself be a source of significant concern.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

NYU Law students said that shortly after they began the sit-in at 10 a.m., Campus Safety officers \u201cmonitored and intimidated\u201d the group until they left at 6 p.m. When around 20 participants tried to enter Vanderbilt Hall immediately after, a group of Campus Safety officers lined them up and barred them from entering the building, according to videos obtained by WSN.<\/span><\/p>\n

Posmentier also said the pattern of administrative actions stood in violation of freedom of expression, primarily because they lacked specificity and did not clearly identify why students are sanctioned. AAUP has long <\/span>articulated concerns<\/span><\/a> that disciplinary action taken against pro-Palestinian protests have inhibited academic freedom \u2014 rhetoric that has been reemphasized amid the Trump administration\u2019s calls to <\/span>cease on-campus demonstrations<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe university is afraid of what might happen under the Trump administration,\u201d David Hogg, CAS professor and another member of AAUP, told WSN. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that we have to abandon our principles of academic freedom. It doesn\u2019t mean that we have to be cruel to our most engaged students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement to WSN, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the students “ignored the directions of Campus Safety officers” and “knowingly caused a disruption to operations in the library.”<\/p>\n

“This is a matter of behavior and violations of University rules, not freedom of speech,” Beckman said.<\/p>\n

Specific responses to disciplinary actions are currently pending review by the law school, which has previously handled similar cases more thoroughly than the broader university, holding longer disciplinary hearings and more specifically itemizing conduct violations. At a Dec. 11 sit-in \u2014 which resulted in 13 student suspensions and also took place on the top floor of the library \u2014 a law student was the only participant whose supposed conduct violations were explicitly discussed in their hearing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the December demonstration, around two dozen professors from NYU Law <\/span>sent a letter<\/span><\/a> concerning the disciplinary proceedings, expressing concern that administrators did not take due process to evaluate students\u2019 conduct. The letter said that declaring students persona non grata without formal hearings \u2014 such as what happened on Tuesday \u2014 violated the university’s standard of holding hearings prior to administering disciplinary actions. It said that while the university\u2019s policy allows it to discipline students without hearings in \u201cemergency situations,\u201d nonviolent demonstrations would not justify bypassing regular processes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In interviews with WSN, law students also noted that while previous emails had listed at least one specific example of their conduct violation, Tuesday\u2019s only said the participants \u201cdid not comply.\u201d Students said they could not offer further details regarding the administration\u2019s response because of pending hearings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to show solidarity with our undergrads who have been through the same thing,\u201d said Taylor, an NYU Law student who did not share her last name due to ongoing proceedings. \u201cNo matter how strictly they want to punish the undergraduates, another group will always show up with the same list of demands.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Update, March 7: This article was updated with a statement from a university spokesperson.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Amelia Hernandez Gioia<\/em> and Dharma Niles at news@nyunews.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

This story Law student, faculty groups challenge legality of Bobst sit-in sanctions<\/a> appeared first on Washington Square News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NYU\u2019s chapters of the American Association of University Professors and Law Students for Justice in Palestine issued letters on Thursday condemning the university\u2019s sanctions on 30 students who on Tuesday, staged a pro-Palestinian sit-in in Bobst Library. The letters call for administrators to rescind the retributions, claiming that they undermine freedom of speech. After the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions\/834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}