“While this ruling is a significant victory for academic freedom, it exposes the extreme, retaliatory measures universities are willing to take to suppress pro-Palestinian speech.”
An arbitrator has ordered San José State University to reinstate Professor Sang Hea Kil, who was fired in 2025 after her pro-Palestinian activism on campus.
The ruling found that Kil’s termination was excessive and reduced the discipline to a one-month unpaid suspension. Kil, a tenured justice studies professor and former faculty adviser for Students for Justice in Palestine, has maintained that the university’s actions were part of a broader effort to suppress academic freedom and silence pro-Palestinian speech.
Faculty and civil rights organizations, including CAIR-SFBA, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and the Middle East Studies Association, had condemned Kil’s firing and called for her reinstatement.
CAIR-SFBA said the case reflects a broader climate across higher education in which faculty, students, and advocates for Palestinian rights face heightened scrutiny, doxing, and discipline for protected speech.
