February 20, 2025
On February 25, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the immediate removal of an academic job posting for a Palestinian Studies faculty position at Hunter College. The Governor’s unilateral action was directed at the specific subject area of the posting; as such, the order explicitly restricted the scope of teaching and learning at CUNY. The Executive Committee of the New York University chapter of the AAUP strongly opposes the Governor’s discriminatory targeting of an entire academic field. This order violates the academic freedom of the university, and the norms of state governance.
An intervention of this kind by an elected official in the intellectual affairs of an academic institution in New York is virtually unprecedented. It is also a clear violation of academic freedom, the bedrock principle of the AAUP, of Hunter College and the CUNY system, and of the academic profession as a whole. University departments cannot do their jobs if their teaching and research activities are subject to interference from trustees, donors, and politicians. It is the role of university teaching and research to understand, question, and criticize, even when that work makes some uncomfortable.
Governor Hochul’s action is tantamount to “cancelling” an entire field of regional study at a time when students desperately need to learn more, rather than less, about Palestine and the Palestinian people. The Governor has also provided a clear illustration of the double standard known as “the Palestine Exception.” This violation of the procedures of the university would not have happened if “Palestine” had not been in the title of the job posting.
Beyond managing generic aspects of accreditation, no government official, elected or otherwise, should be able to decree what can be taught or studied at any institution of higher education. Decisions about teaching and research are entirely the prerogative of faculty, and the departments they comprise. It is shameful that the holder of the state’s highest office has encroached on that fundamental right. The fact that the Governor felt compelled to kill a certain area of study at Hunter demonstrates the power of critical inquiry and reinforces the need to reassert the independence of our universities’ teaching and research programs.
We join other voices in calling for the Governor to reinstate the job search and reaffirm the academic freedom of New York’s institutions of higher learning.