San Jose State University professor says she was suspended over her Palestine activism
Last month Sang Hea Kil, a justice studies professor at the San Jose State University, was placed on a temporary suspension. The school claims that Kil violated Article 17 of the collective bargaining agreement between the school and the faculty union, but she believes she was suspended over her Palestine activism.
Kil stepped down as co-chair of the Palestine, Arab, and Muslim Caucus of the California Faculty after the school placed her under an investigation for allegedly disruptive activities.
“i am resigning now as co-chair and from all committees in pam. it was an honor to fight side by side with you all against the tragic and painful silence around the genocide we experienced at our campuses,” said Kil in a statement to her colleagues. “you all inspired me to do more than i ever thought possible and i am so grateful to you all for this shared experience. i wish you the best in your battle for (boycott, divestment and sanctions) at the csu and cfa. you will be victorious!”
Kil, who is a faculty advisor for the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, spoke with Mondoweiss about her suspension, what happens next, and the current climate at universities.
Can you talk about the organizing on campus regarding Gaza and how you were involved leading up to your suspension?
Sang Hea Kil: I got activated when I visited the occupied territories back in 2015 and I saw the apartheid, the oppression, the history of genocide in the region, and I was really alarmed by the volumes of information that I didn’t know.
It really inspired me to get more involved and I started bringing speakers, movies, and documentaries to my campus as a way to. I increased my involvement, but I ran up against a lot of roadblocks particularly from very vocal faculty members who have used very harassing tactics in order to stop me from inviting people to campus.
However, that didn’t stop me and in 2020 I became the faculty advisor for Students for Justice in Palestine on campus. I started to support their activism and that’s how I got involved in doing pro-Palestinian work at San Jose State University
How did you find out about the suspension and what was the official reason the administration gave you?
The job suspension email arrived in my inbox less than 20 minutes before 5 PM on my last duty day, which is the last day of the spring semester.
The job suspension made some accusations about my influence on students and said I directed them to violate school policies. It also referenced my behavior toward “colleagues” and things of that nature, but the accusations were very vague. They didn’t substantiate any of their claims.
They cited Article 17 of our collective bargaining agreement, but that article makes it quite clear that you should have some information about your accusations, especially if it’s going to lead to something like a job suspension. I wasn’t provided with such details. I wasn’t provided any reasoning for why I wasn’t given those details. I really don’t have the ability to rebut things that are vague.
In a social media post you made reference to a threat you got from an administrator before the suspension.
I actually received a couple of warnings.
The first warning I got was on Presidents Day of this past semester. Students for Justice in Palestine organized with other student groups on campus and the greater community because our office of Diversity and Inclusion on our campus had co-sponsored an event featuring [California State University Jewish Studies Director] Jeffrey Blutinger, who has openly denied that a genocide happening in Gaza and so I did email the sponsors and asked them to withdraw their sponsorship based on this person’s problematic and public viewpoints.
They did not take my advice and unfortunately I had to witness a faculty member from the history department, Jonathan Roth, attack a Palestinian protester. He physically assaulted her in front of me and I think that they opened up the investigation on me for that, for being a witness and for being a faculty advisor to the group.
They cited three things in that particular investigation they cited Time, Place, Manner policies, they cited, campus climate and they cited professional standards.
Time, Place, and Manner restrictions were cited again in an email sent to me by the now-VP of Student Affairs. In it, she made some pretty ungrounded and unsubstantiated accusations against me.
She cited a May 8th rally speech that I gave, when the students decided to do a sit-in to protest the attack on Gaza, and I showed up to support the students. I gave an impromptu rally speech and she claimed that I ordered the students to march through the recreation center. That never happened.
She also said that I ordered the students to put down a camp, and they refused my order, but again, that didn’t happen.
So I was really surprised by the wild accusations that were in that email because there were about 50 people there at the rally and they all witnessed and heard what I said, so it would be easy for many sets of witnesses to dispute her accusations against me.
So, it was quite easy for me to reply to her email saying I categorically deny all your accusations.
What has the campus response been to your suspension?
The campus has not been very fluid with communication with me. I’ve asked about my summer grant and they refuse to respond to me about the status of that. I’ve also asked about some other matters and they have refused to respond. The communication has not been good.
The community response has been overwhelming and incredibly touching. I cannot express enough gratitude at the amount of love and solidarity I feel from the community—not just the local community but the Statewide Community.
The CSU Student Divestment Coalition has done a fantastic job releasing their own press statements and speaking to the media. Letting me know and letting the public know how much they appreciate my efforts in supporting my students right to free speech on campus. They’ve let people know how angered they are about my job suspension and how they see that as retaliation and academic suppression. I really appreciate that.
The Palestine, Muslim, Arab Caucus of the California Faculty Association, which is my faculty union of the California State University System has also done amazing work coming out, publicly supporting me and spreading the word about what’s happening to me.
I have been really overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and I’m doing my best to promote petitions people have started for me and call-in and writing campaigns that they started for me because I do think that people realize that what happened to me can happen to basically any faculty member in the California State University system if we don’t fight for our academic freedom, our free speech, and our freedom of assembly.
My case seems like it could be a test case for the California State University system in the sense of, do we have absolute freedom of expression on our campuses or do we not? Right now it feels like we don’t have the full constitutional rights of freedom of expression because of these Time, Place, Manner policies that are both at this California State University system and at the University Of California system.
What’s the next part of the process here?
My job suspension is for ninety days, which basically covers my summer.
I did get word because I couldn’t teach my summer courses with the job suspension. They did tell me that they would pay me for both of my summer classes, so that is a relief because, unfortunately, we don’t get paid enough as professors to live in the Bay Area and like so many people here I have to do additional gig work in order to make ends meet.So that was a bit of a relief.
I served on the faculty rights committee on my campus for a very long time and was one of their strongest representatives, so I have an analysis of the trends that happen here. Typically in these cases the temporary job suspension happens first and then they’ll put you on a paid leave before they decide to do anything more harsh.
So, I’m hoping that the campaigns that people have started for me, the support that I’ve got so far from the local community as well as the statewide community, will make San Jose State University rethink extending this suspension or putting me on paid leave in the fall.
Unfortunately, your case is not unique. What do you think of the current campus climate regarding Palestine activism?
I recently came upon this webpage under my university’s website that basically said that freedom of expression is not an absolute right at San Jose State University and it’s shocking to see that they’re very proud of this stance.
This is happening across the nation. It’s happening in private as well as public universities, as we’re seeing in the headlines. We’re seeing an erosion of our democratic principles happening at the universities. We’re seeing administrators being the bearers of this diminishing of our constitutional rights, especially about our first amendment. We’re seeing them use police to carry out their repression.
It’s really alarming to me to see what’s happening on campuses not just the faculty suspensions but also the student suspensions. They’re going after students, they’re delaying their graduations because they want to protest a genocide. To me its absolutely immoral and I think that faculty need to organize with each other and we need to unite with each other because our students futures are at stake, our futures are at stake, and the University’s future is at stake unless we all band together, organize, and fight this systemic repression.
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