The NYU School of Law is demanding that 31 students contractually pledge to halt protests in order to access campus buildings following a pro-Palestinian sit-in outside Dean Troy McKenzie’s office last week. The move has sparked criticism from hundreds of students and legal organizations who argue that it violates the First Amendment and inhibits students from completing clinical work.
The contract was sent on Wednesday to three students who were part of a Tuesday sit-in outside McKenzie’s office, as well as 28 students who have been barred from most campus buildings since a Bobst sit-in on March 4. It stipulates that the students will be unable to access classrooms, religious sites and other university buildings until they sign a contract affirming that they will “not participate in any protest activity or disruptive activity” on campus during the final exam period.
Students said the law school also restricted access to on-campus housing for the 28 students involved in the March demonstration. Fifteen other students who participated in the Tuesday sit-in did not receive a contract but were told that their access to campus would also be restricted if they engaged in “further disruption” during their time at the law school.
“We’re talking about a law school asking law students to sign away their First Amendment rights,” a student designated persona non grata, who requested to remain anonymous, said. “This is all part of the larger trend of the university trying to bend itself in a pretzel to silence students.”
No one has signed the contract so far, according to multiple students involved in organizing the demonstrations.
In a statement to WSN, NYU Law spokesperson Shonna Keogan said that the agreement restated “an established policy that applies to all law students.”
“Universities have the responsibility to ensure that the vast majority of students, who are engaged in studying for and taking final exams, may do so without disruption,” Keogan said. “Protest activity, while permitted, is subject to time, place, and manner restrictions, and must not interfere with the educational activities of other community members or school operations.”
Students told WSN that while the contract initially indicated that their access to buildings would be entirely paused, administrators followed up in a Sunday email — after the Intercept published an article about the contract — informing them that they will be able to take their final exams.
Since the emails were publicized, nearly 400 students, alumni and community members signed an open letter reiterating demands for NYU Law to clarify its suspension policies, expunge students’ disciplinary records, divest from weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel and fire Latham & Watkins LLP — the Trump-affiliated law firm allegedly involved in ongoing student conduct investigations. More than 150 people also sent emails to the law school, and the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement calling on the university to immediately lift sanctions against students.
“We’re seeing that people who would not previously stick their neck out or take any type of risks are being galvanized and realizing what’s going on,” one of the recently suspended students said. “It’s a moment of reckoning, both for NYU and its students, to decide to what extent we believe in and care about these values they advertise.”
Several students have noted that they have been unable to complete their clinical work, which is a touted component of the law school’s public service curriculum and often required for academic credit. Students said they have had to push administrators for case-by-case exceptions to access the clinical floor and necessary office supplies for immediate filings.
The students said that around half of those with campus access restrictions also had clinical responsibilities, where they often serve as primary legal representatives for clients in cases related to deportation, civil rights, family separation and other public service issues. They said that the barriers to campus entry inhibited their meetings with clients and advisers, and their ability to file documents on time.
“The law school is playing games with our clients’ lives,” another person non grata student said. “It just shows the arbitrariness of it all.”
On Tuesday, the day after an “unsatisfactory” meeting with McKenzie, 18 students stationed themselves outside the dean’s office on the fourth floor of Vanderbilt Hall from 1-5 p.m. Students said that throughout the demonstration, they sat pressed against the wall and did not chant or block faculty who worked on the floor.
“Everyone was sitting there studying, we were not in anyone’s way,” another one of the students who attended the demonstration said. “The loudest voice over the course of the day was from the staff member from the dean’s office. I think she was excited because she found a document she had been looking for.”
Students said there was no clear rationale as to why only three students received immediate restrictions while the other 15 were “being reviewed.” However, they said the harsher sanctions were imposed upon the “visible leaders” of the demonstration who directly communicated with representatives from the dean’s office and Campus Safety officers.
Students also said that during the sit-in, administrators initially told demonstrators they posed a “fire hazard” but would not clarify why. They also said that Campus Safety officers handed them flyers telling them that they exhibited “disruptive conduct,” “failure to comply” and “misuse of university property.”
At their Monday meeting with McKenzie, students requested that the law school establish clearer guidelines regarding “interim suspensions,” which they argued were used to bar the 28 demonstrators at the March sit-in from most campus buildings without due process. They said McKenzie “evaded questions” and was not responsive to students’ requests, and cited a meeting he held with students earlier this semester regarding the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a career fair.
“The repression only makes students more inclined to be, as the school calls it, ‘disruptive,’” another persona non grata student who requested to remain anonymous said. “New, incoming students are going to see what’s happening and pick up the fight — the school is doing this to themselves.”
Update, May 5: This article has been updated with a statement from an NYU Law spokesperson.
Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected].