Gagging Academia
The right to teach, debate and protest faces a high-stakes challenge in Pittsburgh’s universities and beyond.
On a chilly early October afternoon, a group of students gathered in Schenley Plaza laid out their cases against the University of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees. The “board of butchers,” as the students called them, was accused of acting in the interest of capitalism and imperialism — exerting “tyrannical power” over the university to enable Israel’s war in Gaza.
The students, many of whom were members of the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, did not mince words at the unofficial tribunal, charging Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel and other board members with being complicit in genocide. Pitt has called such suggestions “outrageous.”
The students’ characterizations don’t stem from hard evidence, but rather, the university’s murkiness about investments made with its $6.1 billion endowment. Some Pitt students, staff and faculty point to other universities that have put money into companies that manufacture weapons or have established links to Israel.
Demands for Israeli divestment on U.S. college campuses have intensified since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, killing 1,200 citizens, and Israel’s response killing over 67,000 Palestinians. The consequences of the calls have been vast. Nationally, students have faced felony charges, been banned from campus and had their degrees withheld — all of which experts say weaken traditions of free speech and academic freedom.
Students have long used divestment campaigns to spark institutional change, most notably in the ‘70s and ‘80s against apartheid in South Africa. This push saw many universities — including Pitt — stop investments into companies doing business in the country, and reinvestment didn’t begin until segregation ended.
Groups like SJP say they want to build on that legacy, but feel university administrators are stifling their efforts.
What is academic freedom?
There’s no universally agreed-upon definition of the term. Many academics point to a 1940 American Association of University Professors’ statement in which the concept is defined through three pillars:
- Teachers’ freedom to research and publish findings
- Teachers’ freedom to discuss relevant issues in the classroom
- Teachers’ freedom to express views as private citizens without censorship or discipline from their employer
Students are notably absent from this evaluation. Academic freedom, as it relates to students, is generally thought to involve the freedom to learn, but that is open to interpretation.
“Academic freedom is an ideal that people have fought hard for, and it’s still elusive,” University of Georgia higher education professor Timothy Cain said.
Few universities have agreed to divest from Israel, but the boards of several have voted on the issue. At Pitt, a frequent criticism is that administrators have turned down conversations and suppressed activism, contributing to a climate that restricts the free exchange of ideas central to higher education.
Measures of ‘good faith’
At the October tribunal, a former Pitt student pointed out that the event’s location, just off campus, was intentional.
“I and 20-plus people are now banned from Pitt’s campus,” they said. “We are not allowed to step foot on any part of it, including where the encampment was held.”
Why are students unnamed?
Public Source contacted students for interviews for this story, and they either did not respond or declined. Some spoke publicly at events but did not provide names, and some have expressed concern that publication of their names could result in adverse consequences. Public Source included their perspectives but opted not to attempt to identify them, focusing on professors who may face less risk.
Pitt saw two waves of pro-Palestinian encampments featuring calls for divestment last year. The first, in April 2024, took place at the Cathedral of Learning before moving to Schenley Plaza, and few arrests were made. The second, in June 2024, brought physical clashes as state, city and campus police converged on protesters who gathered outside the Cathedral of Learning. There were 25 people arrested and charged with felonies after the protest.
Students say, though, that was just the beginning of university crackdowns on pro-Palestinian advocacy.
Earlier this year, Pitt suspended SJP following internal conduct hearings over a December 2024 study-in, which students maintain was peaceful and unobtrusive. The decision triggered a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the club, saying the university violated the students’ First Amendment rights. In September, a judge lifted the suspension, but the case is ongoing.
During the tribunal, a student said Pitt administrators “fail to take students, faculty and staff seriously unless they are compelled to by legal action,” but “even through legal action, the university does not come to the table in good faith.”
Anytime campus problems have to be resolved through the courts, the academic climate of a university suffers, said SJP faculty advisor Mohammed Bamyeh. He feels collegiality and civility, no matter if people disagree, are crucial elements of college environments, and said Pitt administrators have not displayed this.
University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer said Pitt is “committed to fostering an environment where free speech is both assured and affirmed for every member” at the school.
Challenges over pro-Palestinian activism, though, have led one campus speech organization to lower its assessment of open expression at the university.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its annual College Free Speech Rankings in September, and placed Pitt 219th out of 257 schools — down 11 spots since last year. The university’s campus speech climate was issued an “F” grade, with close to half of students surveyed saying they occasionally or often felt they couldn’t express their opinions because of a potential response from other students, a professor or the administration.
Stonesifer said the university recognizes “there are always opportunities to improve” and “it will continue the work” of supporting free speech. He also noted that Pitt in 2023 joined in the founding of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars’ Campus Call for Free Expression and last year included “Free Exchange of Ideas” as a focus area in its Plan for Pitt 2028.
FIRE recommends universities adopt a version of the University of Chicago’s statement on free speech and institutional neutrality, which states higher ed institutions should refrain from taking stances on social and political issues. The organization believes adoption of the statement ensures academic freedom on campus, while taking “positions on social or political issues” weakens debate.
But, is divesting taking a position? Members of Pitt’s campus differ.
Divestment division
Ilia Murtazashvili, an international affairs professor, believes divestment calls and actions such as the mock tribunal and marches to Chancellor Gabel’s house amount to “creating an environment of fear and intimidation.”
“That is not, to me, what academic freedom is about,” he said.
Murtazashvili is Jewish and a self-described Zionist, a term he defines as a belief in the self-determination of Jewish people in Israel, a place he sees as the ancestral homeland. He said calls for divestment are rooted in antisemitism, and thinks universities shouldn’t honor them.
“We need to put to rest this idea that universities are in a good position to make these broad normative statements about everything that’s going on in the world,” he added.
Other faculty members counter that the ability to call for divestment does constitute academic freedom and falls in line with universities’ place in society.
“Students have a right to protest, basically regardless of ideology, regardless of politics,” Bamyeh, who teaches sociology, said. “Protest really is part of campus life, part of the education journey, I think, of young people in this country and elsewhere.”
He feels students in groups like SJP have acted well within their rights as stakeholders in the university. Bamyeh said they haven’t done anything controversial, and SJP’s suspension was unwarranted and based on “bogus” grounds.
Murtazashvili disagrees, saying Pitt restricted the organization because of activities that have been “perceived by a minority group on campus as harassment and intimidation.” And while he says Jewish and Israeli campus members are the vulnerable and oppressed group on campus, other students and faculty say Islamophobia has gone unchecked and undocumented.
Fear and discrimination
Last year, there were two incidents of Jewish students being attacked in Oakland — the first while students were heading to a Shabbat dinner, and the second reportedly because a student wore a necklace featuring the Jewish Star of David. These attacks left many Jewish students in the neighborhood feeling unsafe, which Murtazashvili said persists today.
He thinks narratives of Israel as a settler colonial state, which groups like SJP promote, lead to the justification of attacks on Jewish people.
“They create this kind of chain of responsibility so that anybody who supports Israel or doesn’t hate Israel is basically like a sympathizer and worthy of an attack against them, as if they’re part of a military apparatus,” he said. “That kind of blurring of things, where essentially anyone who’s a member of a religious group becomes a target and an enemy, is a huge problem, and we don’t want to be in a society where that’s how we’re doing stuff, but there is that within SJP.”
History professor Ruth Mostern, who is Jewish, said she hasn’t heard of or experienced widespread hatred toward Jewish people on campus. She feels antisemitism has been used to justify the suppression of pro-Palestinian speech.
Mostern was a witness to the December 2024 study-in that ultimately led to SJP at Pitt’s suspension, a move she called a “shocking act of suppression.” Though the suspension has ended, she said, “that’s not a sign that academic freedom on this topic is safe at Pitt.”
“It’s a sign that it takes an organization like the ACLU suing the administration … in order to ensure that speech is just [at] a minimum level of, ‘Do not keep student organizations from functioning,’” she said.
Those with pro-Palestinian viewpoints at Pitt have reported feeling unsupported by the university. At the tribunal, students said that by failing to act when outside organizations threaten student activists, Gabel has created “a climate of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia” on campus.
Stonesifer said that threats against students are “unequivocally” condemned, and the university’s police department “takes all potential threats … seriously and investigates them to the fullest extent of the law with cooperation from local, state and federal law enforcement partners.”
He also said, “We categorically reject any suggestion that the university, the chancellor or its Board of Trustees condone racism or are complicit in genocide, as such claims are inflammatory and misrepresent the university’s values and actions.”
Some campus members call the university’s response since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War problematic.
“The kind of harassment, the kind of intimidation that we have witnessed in the past two years is really unprecedented. I have never really experienced anything like that,” said Bamyeh.
Mostern said that a student of hers fled the country earlier this year over fear of retaliation for their pro-Palestinian views. Nationally, some international students have been detained and threatened with deportation by President Donald Trump’s administration following involvement in Gaza protests, which have included calls for divestment.
Pitt declined to comment about divestment demands.
Is divestment possible?
Many universities invest their endowments — pools of money that help carry out a school’s mission — through funds managed by third parties. Pitt has a multibillion-dollar endowment, and the details of how that money is invested are confidential.
Pitt and other universities are not required to report comprehensive investment information, and often choose not to. While there is no confirmation of Pitt investing in weapons manufacturers or companies with Israeli firms, corporations such as Boeing and Palantir that have defense arms are often included in top mutual funds.
Stonesifer told Public Source that Pitt’s investment disclosures were limited and the school doesn’t comment on holdings beyond what’s made public.
In July, Pitt’s Chief Investment Officer Jeffer Choudhry said that he wasn’t “aware of any significant human rights violations that are occurring” within the university’s investment portfolio when questioned by faculty members.
“We have thousands and thousands of companies in a $6 billion portfolio, so it’s not our role to be on the ground intervening, but if something comes up and we’re aware of it, we will say something,” Choudhry said.
Bamyeh thinks administrators are stonewalling demands for divestment and transparency in Pitt’s investments. He said they’ve been told it’s too complex because identifying and trying to disentangle funds would be difficult.
Robert Ross, a professor at Point Park University who has studied the Palestinian-focused Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, said this is a common refrain from institutions. He’s seen various church denominations go through the divestment process and said it’s possible for investment managers to do so with no legal and economic fallout.
“These are professionals. They know how to manage investment and they’re more than capable of doing the necessary logistical work to divest from particular companies,” he said.
Divestment has been proven to have little impact on the financial health of companies, but proponents insist its power lies in the message it sends. Ross said the student-led divestment campaigns in the ‘80s against South Africa played a significant role in ending apartheid.
“Divesting alone is not going to end a genocide or end the occupation or end apartheid or forced exile of Palestinians, but it is as part of this broader material and symbolic effort to put political and economic pressure on Israel,” Ross said.
“What are we for as institutions of higher education, if not to change the world for the better? What’s the point of us being here?”
Robert Ross, Point park professor
In recent years, there have been campaigns aimed at getting universities to stop investing in companies that emit fossil fuels and run private prisons. In 2021, after years of pressure, Pitt said it would allow its investments in fossil fuels to decrease until 2035.
Some say fossil fuels and Israel’s war in Gaza are not comparable, making divestment from the latter controversial, given the difference in ideologies throughout a university on the topic. However, Ross argues that divesting would put higher ed institutions in a neutral position.
“The universities who are not divesting, which is most of them, are literally taking a side,” he said. “If they did divest … you’re just saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to take our hands out of this harmful behavior, this harmful activity.’”
Ross said he wouldn’t want to be in university administration’s shoes, having to make these decisions. But he believes such debates are necessary. “What are we for as institutions of higher education, if not to change the world for the better? What’s the point of us being here?”
Mostern echoed the former sentiment.
“I wish that they were doing better with academic freedom. I wish that they were doing better with transparency and better with support for divestment from Israel and for justice in Palestine,” she said. “But, I also don’t envy them. I mean, in general, figuring out how to be a great university under the political situations we’re in, with so many pressures from the federal government — it really is a tough time.”
At a recent free speech panel on Pitt’s campus, Bamyeh said tough times call for tough decisions, like that of committing to academic freedom even when it could result in less money for the university.
He asked administrators: “Which side are you going to be on?”
Maddy Franklin reports on higher ed for Pittsburgh’s Public Source, in partnership with Open Campus, and can be reached at madison@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Bella Markovitz.
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