These remarks were made by Professor Erica Caple James at a press conference on the steps of MIT at 3pm on Friday, May 10th. Professor James spoke alongside MIT graduate students Zeno (MIT Graduates for Palestine) and Samuel Ihns (MIT Jews for Ceasefire) whose remarks can be seen on the MIT Scientists Against Genocide Encampment website .
I am here on behalf of more than seventy concerned faculty who are encouraging MIT’s administration to come back to the table and negotiate to arrive at a positive solution regarding the conflict between academic freedom, freedom of speech, and campus safety. We faculty are here as educators; we are here because we believe that we are obligated to support and ensure fair treatment of our students; we are here because our students are here and have been here, peacefully protesting the war in Gaza and challenging us to think constructively about the issues of our time.
This must begin with a full and honest account of how MIT is not centering the needs of its students, staff, and faculty.
We are concerned that the administration has consistently refused to acknowledge the immense pain and suffering of Palestinian members of our community alongside the pain of many Israeli and Jewish students. They have lost loved ones, homes, and so much else over the past seven months, and the refusal to recognize their grief is an immense moral failure.
We are concerned that our own administration seems to have circumvented due process. They have short-circuited the standard Committee on Discipline process, issuing “interim suspensions” that are, in practice, functioning as full effective suspensions. Therefore, we ask the administration to rescind all interim student suspensions until many urgent questions regarding due process are addressed.
This concern about due process extends to the methods used to target students for suspension, a list that now, we are told, includes 75 students. Of the 23 we identified earlier in the week, a vast majority of those targeted are students of color, among them, Palestinian students. As we speak, we are circulating a letter that has garnered over 135 signatures from MIT faculty and academic staff that demands answers to these concerns regarding due process.
We are deeply worried about the well-being of our students. Students are being forced out of their campus housing and we have had to scramble to locate adequate housing to keep roofs over their heads (including at least one student with a 5-year old child).
We are concerned that the administration has primarily disciplined pro-Palestinian students, despite consistent aggressive behavior and agitation from pro-Israeli students and faculty. Similarly, we are concerned that the Institute seems intent on framing the issue as one that pits Jewish safety against pro-Palestinian speech. This is despite the leadership of Jewish students advocating for Palestinian rights who have been participating in peaceful demonstrations.
Despite all of this, we know that there is a way forward – to come back to the table, to negotiate, to rescind the interim suspensions, and commit to dialogue going forward.