AUSTIN (KXAN) — Four University of Texas at Austin students say they are fearful of expulsion after protesting, among other things, the November dismissal of two teaching assistants in the School of Social Work.
The students say they were engaging in a “peaceful protest” on Dec. 8 by hand-delivering a letter with a list of demands – including the reinstatement of the TAs – to UT Austin’s Dean of the School of Social Work Allan Cole. According to a press release provided to KXAN by the students’ attorney, Cole would not listen to the students and left the room. The press release said the students left immediately “without incident” after the dean left.
According to a lawyer representing the students, the grounds for punishment include “disruptive conduct, unauthorized property entry, failure to comply, and a mysterious unspecified violation of ‘Local, State, or Federal Law,’” read the release.
Following the Dec. 8 demonstration, the university put out a statement saying, “protesters crossed the line of acceptable behavior and violated University rules multiple times this week. We will not tolerate disruptions to the teaching and research activities of our students, faculty, and staff; our campus; or events. We are investigating and will punish those found to violate our rules, policies, or the law.”
“We will protect speech, but we will not tolerate harassment, disruption, and dishonesty,” the statement continued.
George Lobb, the lawyer representing the students, said the students didn’t find out about the investigation into the protest until more than a month later on Jan. 17.
“The ongoing investigation by the University in a clear case of protected free speech represents the latest concerning development in UT-Austin’s persecution of pro-Palestinian voices on campus,” read the release.
“They didn’t steal anything, they didn’t break anything, and they didn’t harm anyone. They read out a letter,” Lobb told KXAN.
November TA Dismissal
In November, the TAs were relieved from their positions after they sent an email to students through the UT message board system, Canvas, about the war between Israel and Palestine.
The TAs said the message was intended to provide mental health resources to Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students. In a Nov. 22 letter to the TAs, Dean Cole wrote the “material was unrelated to the course and inappropriate given the setting,” read the letter. “This is unacceptable,” it continued.
One of the teaching assistants, Callie Kennedy, said she was approached by a student who asked if the class could discuss the mental health needs of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students. She met with another TA, Parham Daghighi, and wrote the message with the approval of their supervising professor, she said.
“We were responding to a gap and willful neglect on the part of our university to meet the student’s needs and fulfilling my duty as a teaching assistant to respond to the needs of my students and support them,” Kennedy told KXAN. “[This] was also something that I needed to do as a social work student in order to abide by the National Association of Social Workers code of ethics,” she continued.
In a statement to KXAN at the time, a UT spokesperson said that it supported the Dean’s decision to dismiss both TAs from their positions and that they “unprofessionally misused the official University classroom communication platform to send a personal political message to the students in a course,” the statement read.
“The University supports our deans, administration, and faculty’s ability to ensure classroom communications meet our standards of professionalism and relate to the course at hand. Last week, leadership in the School of Social Work appropriately managed conduct by two teaching assistants who, while acting in their role as employees, unprofessionally misused the official University classroom communication platform to send a personal political message to the students in a course. This is inconsistent with the recent statements made by the teaching assistants, who now suggest their message was merely an attempt to share mental health resources and that the content of the message was related to the course.”
University of Texas at Austin spokesperson
After the dismissal, the two teaching assistants started a campaign to demand a public apology from the university, get their positions back and increase protections for Arab, Muslim and Palestinian students on campus.
Previously, a UT spokesperson said that both teaching assistants were both being offered employment for the spring semester but not as teaching assistants.