Government intrusion into university affairs

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According to The Gothamist, a private law firm has been appointed by the governor to monitor talks, classrooms, professors, and students.

Inside CUNY's antisemitism probe: Campus talks, professors, students under scrutiny

The first few paragraphs:

Members of a private law firm appointed by the state to investigate claims of antisemitism at CUNY have been interviewing faculty members, scrutinizing events calendars and materials, and appearing unannounced at faculty meetings, according to scholars, administrators and faculty union representatives.

Gov. Kathy Hochul stated that antisemitism had grown "most acutely" at CUNY and announced the inquiry on Oct. 31, weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel. Her office said at the time that the review would include recommending "actions for the CUNY Board of Trustees to bolster its antidiscrimination polices and help protect Jewish students and faculty."

Since then, lawyers with Latham & Watkins — who have also been tasked with assessing the campus environment, university policies, and how CUNY balances free speech and student safety — have been investigating students' and professors' activities, according to emails shared with Gothamist.

The inquiry's wide scope has some faculty questioning whether silencing dissent at the university — particularly that of pro-Palestinian voices — was its real objective. At the same time, critics — including elected officials and Jewish organizations — have long maintained that the school was a hotbed for antisemitism and said the inquiry was overdue. The governor's office said a report on the commission's findings and recommendations was expected in the coming weeks.

Reasons for the focus on the Law School:

The Lippman-led investigators are tasked with examining the entire CUNY system, whose 25 campuses and 225,000 degree-seeking students make it the country's "largest urban public university," according to its website.

Among the schools, CUNY Law has a significant public presence.

The school bills itself as "the No. 1 public interest law school" and ranks at or near the top on metrics of diversity as well as the number of liberal students it draws.

Its progressive credentials have come under scrutiny following student graduation speeches in recent years that have generated outrage from conservatives and pro-Israel voices.

In her 2023 commencement speech, CUNY Law student Fatima Mohammed thanked the school for "defending the right of its students to organize and speak out against Israeli settler colonialism."

At the same event, students turned their backs on another speaker: Mayor Eric Adams. The ensuing uproar led the school to cancel student commencement speeches this year, a move that prompted one group of students to file a federal lawsuit against CUNY officials.

That history hung over a faculty meeting at the law school held on April 24.

Two lawyers from Latham & Watkins attended that meeting, according to Deale and other faculty members. Although they did not make their presence known, Deale said students who were in attendance took pictures of the man and woman and identified them afterward from the law firm's website.

He said the meeting was tense. Faculty members were scheduled to vote on a resolution calling for a cease-fire and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. The vote required a quorum, and Deale said the possible presence of investigators likely kept "a contingent" of faculty members away out of fear. Two other faculty members said they also knew of colleagues who avoided the meeting, despite the considerable buildup to the vote, which had been in the works for two months.

The resolution was ultimately approved by a vote of 38-4, out of a total of 67 voting faculty members.

The situation has prompted concern from union representatives of CUNY academics.

James Davis, the president of the Professional Staff Congress, said CUNY had helped foster a "climate of repression" and that "college administrators and politicians should confront antisemitism without curtailing free speech and academic freedom and without using police forces to repress peaceful student protests."