BUZZ
‘This illustrates what scholars and legal experts call the Palestine exception to free speech,’ one complained
A pair of University of California San Diego professors may be sanctioned for their actions at an anti-Israel encampment two years ago.
According to the East Bay Times, as police moved to clear the encampment in May of 2024, various protesters “got into shoving matches” with officers. Fifty-nine UCSD students and two professors were arrested.
But following “a months-long review” all criminal charges were dropped. The university, however, followed up on its own sanctions.
One of the professors at the encampment, Environmental Physics, Ethnic Studies, and Critical Gender Studies Professor BT Werner, was notified in February he would face “disciplinary administrative proceedings” next month.
On the advice of “their” (Werner apparently uses plural pronouns) attorney, Werner declined to discuss with the Times his involvement at the encampment, but did note he is charged with violating the faculty code of conduct for “participating in an encampment that disturbed university operations.”
Werner (pictured) also referred to their possible discipline — a two-year suspension without pay — as “politically motivated.”
Any discipline is “intended to suppress protected speech not aligned with the senior administration’s political perspectives or the perspectives of their donors and political allies,” Werner said. “And to me, this illustrates what scholars and legal experts call the Palestine exception to free speech.”
The other professor, Lily Hoang of the Literature Department, may be suspended for one quarter without pay, the student newspaper The Guardian reports.
Over the last few weeks, student and faculty demonstrators have protested possible sanctions against the professors at the campus Geisel Library.
On April 2, the Council on American Islamic Relations, which has designated UCSD a “hostile campus,” along with the UCSD Faculty for Justice in Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine, held a press conference in support of the professors.
A member of the SJP said discipline of the professors “sends a message to faculty and students that they can still be targeted, a message that standing with students can come with consequences.”
Rally attendee Samar Ismail, a UCSD alumnus, said “faculty shouldn’t be in a position where they have to jeopardize their careers to protect students’ right to the First Amendment.”
Ethnic Studies Professor Tricia Gallagher-Geurtsen, who researches “decolonial theory and practice in schooling” and co-authored the paper “Yes, Critical Race Theory should be taught in your school: Undoing racism in K-12 schooling and classrooms throughout CRT,” claimed Werner and Hoang were just “attempting to protect their students from law enforcement.”
Gallagher-Geurtsen also worried that students who have a discipline record due to encampment actions may be unable to “receiv[e] professional licensure after they’ve graduated” or obtain “certain jobs.”
MORE: UC San Diego scrubs prof’s faculty page, anti-Israel course syllabus
