A San Jose State University professor who acted as a liaison between pro-Palestinian campus protesters and campus administration has been suspended and is under investigation for disciplinary action.
Professor Sang Kil, who has worked at the university for 17 years, said she received an email on May 24 accusing her of breaching the collective bargaining agreement.
In a letter from Joanne Wright, the school’s senior vice president of university staff, Dr. Kil accused of “repeated violations of university policy,” including encouraging students to violate policy, engaging in harassing conduct toward colleagues and creating a risk of harm by publicly identifying and identifying inflammatory comments about a colleague places.
“I got an email from the head of Student Affairs and she wrote me this email which I thought had no bearing on reality. She said I walked the students through the student REC center but that never happened, that I ordered the students to camp and they refused to follow my orders which again didn’t happen so it was very easy for me to respond and say that I categorically deny all your allegations,” Dr. Kil said.
Dr. Kil also claims she was denied due process because she was not given a report summarizing the evidence against her, which was supposed to be part of the California Faculty Association’s contract with the California State University system.
“The fact that she is making all of these, in my opinion, exaggerated claims, which I have said and made, can easily be refuted by triangulated witnesses, seems to support my theory that this is a campaign to suppress academic freedom. launched by San Jose State University against me,” added Dr. Get to it.
The suspension comes nearly three months after history professor Jonathan Roth was temporarily suspended following an incident with a student. California Democratic Party board member Tracie Stafford emphasized the importance of free speech in this situation.
“Freedom of speech is a core value at universities. It’s just a core value, and you would expect that a professor would be able to allow that freedom of speech, but it’s a challenge because we’re looking at an employment situation,” Stafford said.
Stafford warned against using the current volatile political climate as an excuse to suppress free speech, especially on college campuses.
“We need people to rise up and those students who are passionate, if we silence them and punish that professor, which is a different story because other professors would say, ‘Oh, we can’t do this very well. .’ I don’t want to get in trouble. I’m not going to support these students,” Stafford added.
For now, Professor Kil remains on administrative leave, seeking guidance from her union and possibly legal advice. She is determined to share her story and defend her rights.
“I’m just trying to get my story out because I feel like what’s happening to me right now is a threat to freedom of speech, to our Constitution and to academic freedom,” Dr. concluded. Kil.
