July 12, 2024

To: President Linda Mills and Provost Gigi Dopico
From: NYU-AAUP Executive Committee

We write to you regarding the recent announcement of a settlement in Ingber, et al., v.
NYU. Many faculty colleagues have already written to us out of concern that the measures that NYU appears to have agreed to will further infringe on their academic freedom to teach and speak publicly on matters relating to Middle Eastern politics and history. A salient reason for this concern is that the precise terms of the settlement are confidential and have not been filed with the court.

Given how sharply and extensively this agreement may impact academic affairs, we are
writing to request that you unseal the settlement and make it available to the NYU community.

We see no reason why a document with such consequential impact for teaching and research
would be concealed from those who might be affected. Furthermore, we would point out the
obvious; concealing it from the view of faculty and students only invites suspicion. The
administration has already lost the confidence of significant portions of the NYU community on account of its repressive response to campus speech in the course of the last academic year. To introduce new measures of scrutiny and discipline under the cloak of secrecy risks further eroding the administration’s standing in the eyes of faculty and students.

Another reason for apprehension that colleagues have cited to us regards the references to
the controversial IHRA definition of anti-semitism. NYU’s public announcement declares that
the new “Title VI Coordinator will review and implement all applicable regulations and guidance from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), including OCR’s 2021 and 2024 guidance regarding the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and the accompanying examples.”

As you are well aware, the “accompanying examples” are especially contentious because
they define speech that is critical of the state of Israel as anti-semitic. We have previously written to you to clarify whether the administration has been acting in the spirit of those examples in the conduct of its disciplinary procedures this past year. We have yet to receive a clear answer on that score. We believe that the uncertainty should be put to rest. The administration should make it clear whether it has or has not adopted these “accompanying examples” in its use of the IHRA definition. Faculty and students have a right to know where NYU stands.

The first step should be to unseal the settlement, but we also urge you to issue a statement
to the NYU community that offers transparency about which version of IHRA the university has adopted. Otherwise, the faculty and students, including those at GNU sites, will be forced to begin the Fall semester under threatening clouds of censorship.

NYU-AAUP Executive Committee