CUNY Fires Four Adjunct Professors amidst Palestine Advocacy Crackdown
City University of New York (CUNY) is facing a wave of criticism following the dismissal of four adjunct professors at Brooklyn College.
Four adjunct professors at the City University of New York (CUNY) say the university fired them because of their activism for Palestine, The Intercept reported on Tuesday, July 15, 2025.
The administration’s decision to cut ties came as a surprise to both the faculty and their department heads at Brooklyn College, who had already recommended their reappointment and assigned them classes in fall — some of which had student waitlists. The affected professors, and faculty in support of them, told The Intercept that they remained in good standing with their academic departments and had great reviews from students.
The university has not given an official reason for ending its relationship with the professors, who all taught at Brooklyn College. CUNY did not clarify its decision in a request for comment from The Intercept, which noted that the university terminated one professor and did not reappoint three of them.
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“We’re filling in the blanks because they’ve told us nothing,” one of the four affected professors, who requested anonymity for fear of being doxxed and harassed, told The Intercept. “The only reason we know it’s related to Palestine is because that’s the only thing we have in common.” This professor also stated, “The decision made by our departments was to hire us. The decision made by the Administration was to fire us,” adding, “It’s just sending a message that no one’s job is safe.”
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC), CUNY’s main labor union for faculty, and the CUNY chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine have both stated that the professors’ removal violates due process and free speech rights, The Intercept reported. The union indicated it has written at least four times to the college administration requesting more information but has not received clarity on why these professors were let go.
In a June 30 letter to CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, PSC President James Davis demanded the professors’ reinstatement and noted their non-reappointment and termination as “highly irregular.” Davis specifically pointed out that the classes remained on the schedule even after the instructors were let go.
A separate letter from more than 100 Jewish CUNY faculty and staff, addressed to Matos Rodríguez, condemned the removal of the four professors. It argued that the decision violated departmental academic autonomy to determine staffing for scheduled classes.
The staffing changes at CUNY occurred in the lead-up to a congressional hearing on Tuesday morning probing claims of antisemitism on college campuses, where university leaders from CUNY, University of California, Berkeley, and Georgetown University testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee, The Intercept reported.
CUNY Professor Corinna Mullin led a “CUNY for Palestine” protest through Grand Central Station tonight. It didn’t take long for MTA police and NYPD to confront the group, citing ordinance violations. When protestors refused to comply, police moved in and forced them out. pic.twitter.com/ZsXTYehBIj
— Stu (@thestustustudio) June 4, 2025
At Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik, D-N.Y., launched “baseless attacks” on other CUNY faculty members, The Intercept reported. She pushed for disciplining law professor Ramzi Kassem on the grounds that he represented Mahmoud Khalil, and Saly Abd Alla, the university’s chief diversity officer, over her past work. Stefanik asked Matos Rodríguez, “Does it concern you that New York taxpayers are paying for the legal defense fund of Mahmoud Khalil?”
Matos Rodríguez responded that he was not familiar with those individual employees but stressed that any employee who violates CUNY’s rules will be investigated. He said CUNY had no complaints related to Abd Alla and that she is not directly involved with handling cases related to students and faculty.
Critics suggest these congressional hearings have become “political theater” aimed at silencing criticism of Israel. “These hearings are political theater. That’s all they are,” David Cole, a Georgetown Law professor who testified as an expert on the First Amendment at an earlier hearing in May, told The Intercept. “It almost doesn’t matter what the university presidents say … there is no effort to even determine what the truth is, what actually happened, or whether any legal lines have been crossed.”
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Open letters from Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapters at CUNY, Georgetown, and UC Berkeley signed off on a letter before the hearing calling on their respective presidents to “defend their institutions from baseless attacks and affirm principles of academic freedom and free speech.”
The dismissed professors are continuing their efforts to appeal the decision, despite facing financial and psychological challenges. One professor told The Intercept they fear for their family’s safety but maintained, “Given the mass killing in Gaza, I cannot remain neutral.”
Since October 7, 2023, American universities have experienced an escalating crackdown on students and professors who oppose the war in Gaza or advocate for Palestinian rights, amidst rising academic suppression and political interference that threatens free expression on US campuses.
(PC, Intercept, AJA)