By JOHN K. WILSON

In a breathtaking assault on academic freedom, Indiana University has suspended Abdulkader Sinno, an associate professor of political science and Middle Eastern studies, for the crime of reserving a room for a speech that the administration (in direct violation of the First Amendment) attempted to ban.

Sinno reserved a room for a Nov. 16, 2023 event featuring Miko Peled, an Israeli American activist critical of the Israeli government, that was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), a student organization Sinno advised.
That evening, Sinno was ordered to cancel the room reservation. Then the administration refused to allow the PSC to reserve the room and tried to stop the event (which the students refused to cancel). The AAUP’s Joint Statement on the Rights and Freedoms of Students states, “The institutional control of campus facilities should not be used as a device of censorship.” And that is precisely what Indiana University did.

IU officials were under intense pressure to silence criticism of Israel. On Nov. 15, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) wrote to Indiana University officials specifically condemning PSC and threatening the university’s funding: “If IU administrators condone or tolerate campus antisemitism, the university could lose access to federal funding.”

But IU’s efforts to ban a controversial Jewish speaker, terrible as that was, seem trivial in comparison to the retaliation it conducted against Sinno for helping PSC arrange a speaker deemed controversial by the administration.
Carrie Docherty, vice provost for faculty and academic affairs, wrote to Sinno justifying his suspension from teaching and advising graduate students and student organizations: “This sanction reflects my grave concerns about your lack of credibility in participating in the investigation, the potential consequences of diverting police resources for an event that did not have proper approval, as well as the impact of your conduct on our students.” According to the letter, “Your past and most recent behavior constitutes an emerging pattern of unethical and unprofessional conduct.”

This statement amounts to a confession that Indiana University is violating the First Amendment and academic freedom. The term “diverting police resources” means holding a potential controversial event. But controversial events must not be subjected to special restrictions, and they certainly cannot justify punishing event organizers. 

The only unethical conduct here involves the attempts by the administration to suppress an event and the harsh punishment by the administration against the professor for the “crime” of reserving a room. Even if Sinno had reserved a room incorrectly, the only appropriate punishment would be to limit his ability to reserve rooms in the future, not to ban him from teaching over an extracurricular event that says nothing about his pedagogical abilities. 

Indiana University claims that Sinno broke the rules because he booked the room ten days in advance, rather than ten business days. While failure to book a room far enough in advance can be a reason to refuse the reservation, it cannot be a reason to punish anyone making a reservation. Universities should bend over backwards to encourage free speech and events, not create enormous barriers to prevent events from happening. If someone wants to use an available empty space, why should any university require two weeks notice for a discussion on campus? Universities can (and should) honor requests for rooms on short notice, and must not seek to ban events because they are deemed controversial.

IU claims that Sinno broke the rules by describing the event as an “academic talk about Middle Eastern Politics,” when it was organized by students. But an event can be both academic and student-run, which is precisely what happened in this case when a professor agreed to cosponsor it. Sinno filled in his own department’s name on the application, which he was told was wrong because it implied that the department was sponsoring it. He also did not indicate that he was reserving the room on behalf of someone else (because he was reserving the room himself for the student group he advised). Sinno was also blamed for failing to request security for the event, even though he saw no need for security. If professors are allowed to reserve rooms for events, then Sinno is entirely blameless. If professors are not allowed to reserve rooms for events and an administrator made a mistake in approving it, then Sinno is still entirely blameless. Administrators cannot use their own administrative errors to justify banning events they have approved and then punishing the event organizers.

Even if you accepted the debatable claim that Sinno filled out a room reservation form incorrectly, this is one of the most trivial violations imaginable, and because the reservation was canceled, there is no punishable harm here. The notion that a professor could be suspended from teaching for filling out a room reservation form incorrectly is astonishing. Sinno accurately called it “a hodgepodge of frivolous accusations without merit as a pretext to impose severe sanctions on me.”

In addition to the substantive violations of the First Amendment by IU administrators, there is a serious violation of due process and shared governance. A statement by the IU AAUP chapter executive committee noted, “In purporting to suspend Professor Sinno on her own authority, Vice Provost Docherty acted in violation of clear and longstanding university and campus faculty disciplinary policies.” IU (and the AAUP) requires a faculty committee to adjudicate any claims of faculty misconduct.

Universities do need to stop antisemitism, such as the antisemitism in this case, where the IU administration sought to ban a Jewish speaker from campus and then punish a professor involved in facilitating the event. 

A few days after Sinno’s suspension, Indiana University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art canceled a major exhibit by a Palestinian-born artist critical of Israel. The exhibit was canceled less than two months before it was scheduled to open, allegedly because of security concerns. Indiana University must be transparent about their reasons, and also make a commitment that no classes, events, or exhibits will be banned from campus due to concerns about criticism or security issues.

The administrators involved in this decision should immediately retract the illegitimate suspension of Sinno and apologize for violating their core obligations to protect free speech, academic freedom, and shared governance.

John K. Wilson is the author of eight books, including “Patriotic Correctness: Academic Freedom and Its Enemies” and the forthcoming book, “The Attack on Academia.”