San Jose State University has placed a professor on administrative leave after they served as a liaison between pro-Palestinian student demonstrators and administrators.
Dr. Sang Kil, a professor of justice studies, received notice earlier this week from university administrators that they would not be allowed to contact students, access their office, or do work-related activities for at least 60 days, according to a letter the professor shared on social media. The move comes after an encampment appeared on the campus earlier this month in protest of the war in Gaza; the encampment was taken down voluntarily after about a week.
The letter — written to Kil by Joanne Wright, the school’s senior associate vice president of university personnel — said that they were suspended for “repeated violations of university policies,” including directing and encouraging students to violate university policies, engaging in harassing and offensive conduct and comments directed toward colleagues, and targeting at least one colleague for engaging in their work duties by publicly identifying them and posting inflammatory comments and creating a risk of harm to them.
However, Kil said in a press release that their temporary suspension was due to their pro-Palestinian activism on campus and asserted their actions to support pro-Palestinian student protesters were within their duties as the faculty adviser for the SJSU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
“All of the accusations made against me by SJSU are completely false,” Kil said in a press release. “In fact, I believe that my temporary suspension is part of an academic freedom suppression campaign against me.”
Kil also said that they didn’t believe due process was afforded to them because they were not given a report summarizing the evidence against them, which was supposed to be afforded to them as part of the California Faculty Association’s contract with the California State University system.
The suspension is set to last 60 days or until Kil receives earlier notice that her suspension is terminated. The university’s letter of suspension also mentioned that Kil is expected to cooperate in any investigation related to her suspension.
A spokesperson for SJSU declined to comment on the matter, citing the university’s policy of confidentiality on personnel matters.
Kil was previously the chair of the Palestine, Arab and Muslim Caucus of the faculty union and formerly served as a liaison between the student encampment and university administrators. Kil had previously called out administrators after sprinklers turned on around a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, telling SJSU’s student newspaper that they were “dirty water tactics.” Michelle Smith McDonald, a university spokesperson, previously said that the sprinklers were set to turn on at a specific time and the students were warned hours before the sprinklers went off.
On Wednesday, after staging an encampment on campus for more than a week, student protesters came to an agreement with school administrators to take down their tents and canopies.
Kil is the second professor that the University has put on leave after alleged conduct related to pro-Palestinian protests. In February, the university temporarily suspended history professor Jonathan Roth after a video recording showed him grabbing and twisting the arm of a student.
Amy Parker, general secretary of the Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter at Cal State Fullerton, said that although she had not met Dr. Kil in person, the professor is “one of the most brilliant voices standing up for students,” referencing their work at SJSU’s student encampment and CFA caucus.
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