The Executive Committee of NYU’s AAUP Chapter sent the letter below to Linda Mills expressing concern about discriminatory disciplinary processes in the wake of protests in the Bobst library on December 11th and December 12th, 2024. This letter was sent in light of new revelations about Mills’s direct and immediate interference to stop disciplinary processes brought against one student, on whose behalf a pro-Israel social media organizer contacted Mills. As of January 14 no other student cases or hearings had been dropped for lack of evidence. President Linda Mills did not reply to the Executive Committee’s letter (we have included Dean of Students Rafael Rodriguez’s January 15 reply below). 

To underline, we sent our letter to the administration on January 14th. On January 15 Rafael Rodriguez replied that “Where information comes to our attention that a student has been misidentified and subject to disciplinary process, NYU would not pursue disciplinary action.” Only then, on January 16 & 17, the Office of Student Conduct dropped a small number of cases against students accused of participating in pro-Palestine protests. 

Some 30 students who merely witnessed the protest by sitting in the lobby, stood holding a banner, or participated in a peaceful sit-in on for disclosure and divestment on December 11th, 2024, were all subject to the entire disciplinary process, which many students have described as an interrogation. As of this writing, 13 students remain suspended and at least as many, if not more, are on probation. To our knowledge, no students who participated in the anti-Palestine counterprotest in the lobby on Dec 11 have faced any disciplinary consequences. Finally, it is worth pointing out that this document is the third such letter from the NYU-AAUP sent to the administration within a month, all unanswered by President Mills.

To: Linda Mills, President
CC: Gigi Dopico, Provost
Evan Chesler, Chair, Board of Trustees
Angela Chou, Student Government Assembly Chair
Executive Committee, Tenured Faculty Senators Council:
Ryan Hartman, Chair
Tamar Schlick, Vice Chair
Judith Zelikoff, Secretary
David Irving, Immediate Past Chair
Steering Committee, Full-Time Continuing Contract Faculty Senators Council
Chris Dickey, Chair
Beth Latimer, Vice Chair
Thomas Blaylock, Secretary
Alberto Gandolfi, NYU Abu Dhabi
Noelle Molé Liston, Faculty of Arts and Science
Silvia Spivakovsky, College of Dentistry
Agnes Tourin, Tandon School of Engineering

Dear President Mills,

We write once again to demand that you immediately rescind suspensions and terminate other disciplinary proceedings against students who participated in or simply witnessed the recent sit-in in Bobst Library. 

AAUP-NYU has reviewed your alarming correspondence with Elizabeth Rand, the founder of “Mothers Against Campus Antisemitism” [regarding] an NYU student who was called in for a conduct hearing in relation to the December 11th actions. In the emails, which Rand posted to her social media account, you personally assure Rand that [the student’s] conduct hearing “is not an issue” and that you will have it dismissed (“dropped”) preemptively. As we have already communicated in our letter of January 11, we understand the suspensions and other punishments of student demonstrators to constitute discriminatory actions in the form of disparate treatment against Palestinian students and student supporters of Palestine. Your special treatment of Rand and [the student]  represents a flagrant instance of bias that indexes the persistent, institutional character of anti-Palestinian discrimination on our campus, while also demonstrating your own biased intent and motivation. 

The communications between you and Rand also evidence the dangerous extent to which your administration has undermined the legitimacy of the student disciplinary process, already imperiled by the unconstitutional pursuit of censoring pro-Palestinian speech and protest on our campus. Needless to say, in the wake of these public revelations, it is impossible to retain confidence in the disciplinary apparatus at our institution. All disciplinary proceedings against student protestors should, like that against [student for whom Rand advocated], immediately be “dropped.” We remind you that prior to the disclosure of your emails to Rand, AAUP-NYU had already consulted legal counsel regarding the legality of recent punitive actions taken by the Office of Student Conduct and the Office of Campus Safety.

It is difficult to imagine you are unaware that such obvious disparate treatment, coming from the president of the university herself, harms our students and damages all of NYU. While a longer conversation on this matter is necessary, we note that Elizabeth Rand regularly and publicly boasts of her own Islamophobia on her various social media accounts. That someone who openly espouses bigoted views has direct and immediate access to the President of NYU, even while you persistently refuse to speak with your own students, epitomizes the “pattern and practice” of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic bias and discrimination at our institution.

Sincerely,
NYU-AAUP Executive Committee

REPLY FROM RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ

January 15, 2025

Dear NYU AAUP Colleagues:

I write in response to your letter to President Mills.

Consistent with university policy and procedures, in addressing allegations of student misconduct, NYU reviews the allegations and makes determinations regarding how an individual case should proceed based on the facts and circumstances of the allegations and the nature of the student’s conduct.  Where information comes to our attention that a student has been misidentified and subject to disciplinary process, NYU would not pursue disciplinary action.  

Such decisions are not based on an individual student’s race, shared ancestry or ethnicity, religion, or any other protected characteristic.  Nor are those decisions based on the individual’s political viewpoints.  To the contrary, all decisions are made based on an assessment of whether the conduct in question warrants investigation as a violation of our rules. 

We are committed to maintaining a campus where all students are free from discrimination and harassment, and maintaining an educational environment where our community can pursue their academic endeavors free from disruption. 

Sincerely,

Rafael Rodriguez (he/him) 

Vice President for Student Engagement & Dean of Students

Office of the Dean of Students

Division of Student Affairs | New York University

60 Washington Square Park South | New York, NY | 10012

(212) 998-4410