Letter to the President of NYU and the Interim Vice Chancellor of NYUAD regarding the deportation of two NYUAD community members and other repressive acts by the UAE authorities

Linda G. Mills

President,

New York University

 

Fabio Piano

Interim Vice Chancellor,

NYU Abu Dhabi

 

Dear President Mills and Interim Vice Chancellor Piano:

 

We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about reports we have received that students and faculty at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have been subjected to repressive measures (including deportation) by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities for expressing their opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza while on campus. We are equally distressed that you have not spoken out in defense of members of the NYUAD community subjected to repression in the UAE, in clear violation of the university’s avowed commitment to academic freedom.

 

MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, the Association publishes the International Journal of Middle East Studies and has over 2,800 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of expression, both within the region and in connection with the study of the region North America and elsewhere.

 

We have received reports that since 7 October 2023 a number of members of the NYUAD community who expressed opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and/or support for Palestinian rights while on campus have been interrogated, detained, threatened and/or deported by the UAE security agencies. Most recently, we have received reports that a graduate student who publicly expressed their support for the Palestinians on stage at the NYUAD commencement – held on 22 May 2024, with both of you in attendance – was detained for a week and then deported from the UAE. A member of NYUAD’s teaching staff is reported to have been deported as well.

 

We understand that NYUAD is subject to UAE laws and policies restricting freedom of expression. However, as the NYU chapter of the American Association of University Professors pointed out in a statement dated 30 May 2024, NYU has repeatedly declared its commitment to “upholding its institutional mission and core values, including academic freedom, on all of its global campuses.” We note as well that NYUAD’s website states that “NYU Abu Dhabi operates consistently [sic] with the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges and Universities.” Given this, your failure to respond immediately and forcefully to the repression of academic freedom and freedom of speech at NYUAD, including the deportation of members of the NYUAD community, is inexcusable and manifests a betrayal of your university’s purported commitment to academic freedom. Your silence makes you, and NYU as an institution, complicit in the repression practiced by the UAE authorities, and it makes a mockery of the purported “core values” of what NYU’s leadership likes to call the “Global Network University.”

 

We remind you of the statement on “Academic Freedom in Times of War” issued by the AAUP on 24 October 2023, which is directly relevant to your failure to respond to the UAE authorities’ actions: 

 

It is in tumultuous times that colleges’ and universities’ stated commitments to protect academic freedom are most put to the test. As the Israel-Hamas war rages and campus protests proliferate, institutional authorities must refrain from sanctioning faculty members for expressing politically controversial views and should instead defend their right, under principles of academic freedom, to do so.

 

These principles apply to students and staff as well as to faculty. We therefore call on you to speak out on behalf of, and vigorously defend, all members of the NYUAD community who have been harassed, threatened, interrogated, barred from entry or deported by the UAE authorities for expressing their opinions on campus. We further call on you to publicly and forcefully reaffirm your commitment to respect and uphold the free speech rights and the academic freedom of faculty, students and staff across all of NYU’s campuses, and to fully protect their safety and well-being.

  

We look forward to your response.

 

Sincerely,

 

Aslı Ü. Bâli 

MESA President

Professor, Yale Law School

 

Laurie Brand
Chair, Committee on Academic Freedom
Professor Emerita, University of Southern California