Gonzaga faculty members pen letter to university president regarding student demonstrations

SPOKANE, Wash. -- On May 9, dozens of faculty members at Gonzaga University have signed a letter to university president, Thayne McCulloh, expressing support and solidarity for students who demonstrate for Palestinians in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)-Hamas war.

The faculty members pointed to data released by the United Nations, which declared many of the 600,000 children sheltering in Rafah are "at the edge of survival."

Faculty said it is the students' right to peaceful protest as an extension of the university's Jesuit mission.

We see our students’ right to peaceful protest as an extension of our Jesuit mission.  We appreciate your administration’s support of that right. Still, we were alarmed by several aspects of your message on May 7. First, we are concerned about the use of Gonzaga’s mission to ground and reinforce a problematic juxtaposition of passion and intellect that we find antithetical to that mission. Second, we are concerned about the way vague and unspecified accusations of antisemitism reflect a problematic expansion of that charge to include legitimate critiques of the actions of the State of Israel (or by extension, the United States). We strongly reject antisemitism (as did the students’ call for a walkout). If Gonzaga is operating from a definition of antisemitism that reflects the recent “ Antisemitism Awareness Act ” both free speech in the form of protest and academic freedom on this campus are at risk. Third, we are concerned about what appears to be a threat to retaliate against students, faculty, and staff who participate in protests for Palestinian lives. The “intellectual project” you name in your letter requires that we be able to critique the actions of the states of Israel and the United States without fear of investigation or retribution by the institution.

Faculty asked that Gonzaga halt investigations, punishment, and threats to students, faculty and staff for voicing concerns about the war. They also shared concerns about what they called "the vague insinuations of antisemitism," and hoped a committee could be formed to draft a working definition for the term.

On May 7, President McCulloh issued a letter regarding May 1st's protest. It read, in part:

The protest that occurred on Gonzaga’s campus last Wednesday was non-violent. To some, it was experienced without negative incident. However, some who bore witness to it (or the media reports about it) experienced it as offensive, intimidating, anxiety-provoking, and fear-inducing. Gonzaga has received calls from parents and complaints from GU community members that some aspects of the demonstration and subsequent demands may have crossed the line into antisemitism, whether this was intended or not; great care must be taken by all members of this community to avoid bias and discrimination in their advocacy efforts. We are obligated to investigate these concerns and are in the process of doing so. As has been previously communicated, there is no acceptable circumstance in which any member of our university community should be made to feel fearful or intimidated based on their religion, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, or any other protected identity.

President McCulloh wrote that if protests disrupt Gonzaga's operations or events, action would be taken to minimize the disruption, with consequences for those who don't follow authorities' directives. He didn't specify what the consequences would be.

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