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Email Exchange at Cornell Sparks Academic Freedom Debate

November 2024
Cornell University

Cornell’s interim president, Michael Kotlikoff, has been accused of undermining academic freedom after privately criticizing a pro‑Palestinian course—taught by Jewish professor Eric Cheyfitz and titled “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance”—as “factually inaccurate” and antisemitic in response to concerns raised by adjunct professor Menachem Rosensaft. That Nov. 6 email, intended as a confidential faculty governance exchange, was later […]

University of Pennsylvania policy on media access during demonstrations sparked controversy

June 2024
University of Pennsylvania

Penn’s new Temporary Standards and Procedures for Campus Events and Demonstrations—issued June 6, 2024—require news media to show credentials on request and allow University Communications (and potentially campus police) to confine filming to specified areas during demonstrations, a provision critics say infringes on press freedom. The ACLU of Pennsylvania calls it a “blatant First Amendment […]

UPenn Professor under investigation for social media posts in support of Luigi Mangione

December 2024
University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is reviewing Professor Julia Alekseyeva’s conduct after she publicly praised Luigi Mangione—the alumnus charged with killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4, 2024—first on TikTok and then on X, calling him “the icon we all need and deserve.” Although Alekseyeva has since deleted those posts, retracted her remarks, and […]

Stanford University student journalist arrested after barricading an office building (case dropped)

June 2024
Stanford University

California prosecutors have declined to pursue felony charges of burglary, vandalism, and conspiracy against Dilan Gohill, the Stanford Daily freshman reporter arrested last June while covering a pre‑dawn occupation of the university president’s office. District Attorney Jeff Rosen noted there is no evidence Gohill did anything beyond reporting, and although the review of the twelve […]

University of Wisconsin student group suspension

From May 2024, to August 2024
University of Wisconsin-Madison

On May 6, 2024, the University of Wisconsin placed two student organizations—Mecha de UW–Madison and Anticolonial Scientists—on interim suspension and opened investigations into allegations that their off‑campus chalk messages amounted to discriminatory harassment, with critics claiming the chalking endorsed violence, backed terrorist groups, and included antisemitic remarks. Ten days later, on May 16, the Foundation […]

Knight Institute v. Department of Education

November 2024
Knight First Amendment Institute

On November 4, 2024, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed Knight Institute v. Department of Education, No. 24‑cv‑08393 (S.D.N.Y.), seeking to compel the immediate release of all guidance—both public and private—that the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has provided to colleges and universities regarding their Title VI obligations amid the wave […]

Speech First v. Whitten

May 2024
Indiana University

A conservative group challenged Indiana University’s bias-response teams “official entities that solicit anonymous reports of bias, track them, investigate them, ask to meet with the perpetrators, and threaten to refer students for formal discipline ” arguing that that they objectively chill students” speech under the First Amendment.

Students for Justice in Palestine, at the University of Houston v. Abbott

May 2024
University of Houston

The Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Dallas brought suit over Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order dealing with campus free speech. The order demands that public universities in Texas to update their policies in response to speech deemed antisemitic. The universities revised their speech […]

Wirtshafter v. Trustees of Indiana University

May 2024
Indiana University of Bloomington

The ACLU of Indiana has filed a lawsuit against Indiana University Bloomington, alleging that the university violated the First Amendment rights of three individuals by imposing a one-year ban on IU campus after the three individuals participated in protests at a historic public forum for free speech on campus. The protests were focused on demanding […]

Brandeis Center v. Regents of University of California

November 2023
University of California, Berkeley

In November 2023, the Brandeis Center sued the University of California, Berkeley, alleging that the University’s law school did not act against the anti-Zionism bylaws that 23 student groups passed since the Oct.7 attacks. The University moved for a motion to dismiss, arguing that exercising disciplinary action over these student organizations would be unconstitutional as […]